201–210 of 410 posts
As I found with one marketing experiment, this makes it terrible if your goal is to reach as many consumers as possible in a niche.
But HN members who aren't mass-marketing could change that, by moving to the Fediverse -- giving it their endorsement, and network effects.
"..systems that reward outrage only make the problem worse.” I think this is what a lot of social media has become, particularly as people isolate themselves to only those sources and feeds they agree with.
I much prefer Bluesky to X but have had a hunch this was coming due to everything I've read about the practicality of running a Bluesky protocol service. I still think there's room for something better technically. Mastodon seems more true to the decentralized ethos but I've never quite gotten used to the server dependency experience. Nostr appeals to me technically but every time I'm on it seems swamped completely b…
It always comes back to the userbase. I don't know how many times technologists need to learn the lesson that normal people simply don't care about ideological technical principles like decentralization and often actually prefer the benefits of centralized systems like ease of use and typically stronger moderation. And when it comes to social media, businesses are naturally going to end up prioritizing the desires of…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> would lean to a ban of probably 85% of the US A decentralized system would allow for that to happen tbh. That 85% can exist in their bubble but other actors who see them as dangerous and unsafe should have the means to mute/disconnect.
Wouldn't the remaining 15% be the section in a bubble?
I much prefer Bluesky to X but have had a hunch this was coming due to everything I've read about the practicality of running a Bluesky protocol service. I still think there's room for something better technically. Mastodon seems more true to the decentralized ethos but I've never quite gotten used to the server dependency experience. Nostr appeals to me technically but every time I'm on it seems swamped completely b…
It always comes back to the userbase. I don't know how many times technologists need to learn the lesson that normal people simply don't care about ideological technical principles like decentralization and often actually prefer the benefits of centralized systems like ease of use and typically stronger moderation. And when it comes to social media, businesses are naturally going to end up prioritizing the desires of…
And for social media that isn't their userbase.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This is actually very similar to Bluesky discourse last week, where US protest organizers sent out emails asking people to RSVP and all the activist posters got upset and started lecturing everyone that if you want to go to a protest you must first turn off all your electronics and second make sure nobody else knows you were ever there, or else the police will come get you. The clash there is between people who thi…
> and people who think they are living in a fascist state that has declared, and intends to treat, them as domestic terrorists and are protesting to rally opposition. You're describing the US South in the 60s. The civil rights protestors did not respond by becoming black block anarchists, they responded by doing civil disobedience and getting their faces on TV. If you're an upper middle class internet user you're act…
No, I'm describing one particular split among peotrst groups that exists today (similar splits may have existed in the 1960s civil rights movements, but differences in the technical, political, and social context beyond the point of disagreement being discussed make them of limited utility as analogs, even to the extent that they were otherwise similar.)
> The civil rights protestors did not respond by becoming black block anarchists
The average modern protestor who follows the precautions-against-mass-surveillance-and-retaliation is also not a black bloc anarchist.
> If you're an upper middle class internet user
The average protestor is not upper middle class, even if your implicit contention that political respectability is entirely driven by class, that the upper middle class is uniformly more respected than the agents of state enforcement, and, most critically, that the decisive point here is respectability were correct.
I definitely have my concerns over the decreasing DAUs on the platform and the crabby, toxic community that has come to really define Bluesky these days but I don't think the tech is the problem. For folks who keep pointing at Mastodon, remember that ActivityPub's predecessor OStatus originates from 2012 and Mastodon itself was kicked off in 2016. Mastodon is 9 years old at this point. Bluesky is only a few years old…
Yeah. I’m not a big short form social media person, so a world with or without Bluesky (or Twitter) changes little. Bluesky has good people and communities within it, but a lot of the people on it are just a mirror reflection of the American Right. Devoid of critical thinking, they follow whatever the left cause of the day is. While that’s much preferable to Twitter in 2025 (and the right)… it’s not encouraging as fo…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Posting through it" is a fairly nonsensical concept. It implies you're required to agree with people yelling at you, which you aren't. Bluesky in particular has this problem because it inherited a kind of leftist crustpunk poster from 2016 Twitter. They had a weird affect where they hated "nerds" for some reason and pretended to be those jock bully characters from 80s high school movies. The modern Bluesky form has…
Slurs for AI? Maybe take to heart the idea that the Humanities are useful in that you don't end up having thoughts like this if you've studied them.
I think I have backup: https://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/dhamma/sacca/sacca4/samm...
Note Peter Thiel (the source of literally everything this sort of person is upset about) is a philosophy major.
One thing about the Fediverse (Mastodon) is that most people aren't on it. As I found with one marketing experiment, this makes it terrible if your goal is to reach as many consumers as possible in a niche. But HN members who aren't mass-marketing could change that, by moving to the Fediverse -- giving it their endorsement, and network effects. https://joinmastodon.org/
Amazing. Another great reason to be there as a person trying to interact with other people.
I much prefer Bluesky to X but have had a hunch this was coming due to everything I've read about the practicality of running a Bluesky protocol service. I still think there's room for something better technically. Mastodon seems more true to the decentralized ethos but I've never quite gotten used to the server dependency experience. Nostr appeals to me technically but every time I'm on it seems swamped completely b…
It always comes back to the userbase. I don't know how many times technologists need to learn the lesson that normal people simply don't care about ideological technical principles like decentralization and often actually prefer the benefits of centralized systems like ease of use and typically stronger moderation. And when it comes to social media, businesses are naturally going to end up prioritizing the desires of…