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Discord cuts ties with identity verification software, Persona

fortune.com

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Re: Discord cuts ties with identity verification software, Persona

#211

Post by trinsic2 »

jacquesm wrote: post #166
shevy-java wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I suspect the vast majority of people who interacted with Epstein did it just to make connections and they made excuses, eg, Gates. I am not sure about that. Sex may have played a factor in this. I use the word "may", as I don't know for certain, but I don't buy into the "just to make connections". The superrich don't really need to "make connections" on an island where underage girls party.

> on an island where underage girls party on an island where they traffic underage girls and rape them.

Thank you for making that clarification. It seems like the parent was trying to normalize the "underage" and "party" part.

Re: Discord cuts ties with identity verification software, Persona

#212

Post by jacquesm »

ryandrake wrote: post #202
jacquesm wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're not so much offended by it as that they would like to join the billionaire class and believe that those in power may at some point come to review their voting behavior on HN. For instance, YC asked for your HN username on the application form. Of course I don't think they'd stoop so low as to look at the votes on subjects like this but that's the chilling effect for you and technically they have that ability.…

I don't know. What percentage of HN commenters really have serious aspirations for being a YC founder? 0.01%? 0.001%? Im not sure "What will YC think of me" is really that much of a driver of commenting behavior here. People simp for billionaires all over the web, not just on HN. I've never understood it, and I probably never will. But, there are enough of them and their billionaire-defense commentary pops up everywh…

That's a good question. Probably a low percentage but with the amount of people on HN that still adds up to a sizeable number of participants.

Re: Discord cuts ties with identity verification software, Persona

#213

Post by m4rtink »

rocketpastsix wrote: post #44

the damage is already done though. Discord just burned years of goodwill and trust. Im in a few discord communities and while they aren't moving Im not looking to join any more right now because of this whole thing.

Isn't it a good thing ? It makes clearly marks companies like Persona dangerous and toxic enough to hopefully makes an example that prevents others from working with them.

Re: Discord cuts ties with identity verification software, Persona

#214

Post by unethical_ban »

nailer wrote: post #188
jordanb wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was always difficult to get normal people to understand why the tech billionaires are so bad until Thiel gave us that clip of him getting stumped by the "should humanity survive" question. I'm forever grateful to Thiel for that clip, and to Musk for his crippling Twitter addiction. It was pretty impossible to get regular people to understand that folks like Bill Gates or Larry Ellison are skinwalkers when all they…

> It was always difficult to get normal people to understand why the tech billionaires are so bad until Thiel gave us that clip of him getting stumped by the "should humanity survive" question. He was thinking about convergence. You're probably smart enough to be aware of that, so you're deliberately twisting his words. > folks like Bill Gates or Larry Ellison are skinwalkers On HN a decade ago this would have been m…

Ah, clearly he was thinking about transhumanism! That thing all normal people understand and agree with.

Re: Discord cuts ties with identity verification software, Persona

#215

Post by gib444 »

rogerrogerr wrote: post #151
shevy-java wrote: post #142

I am not convinced. Teter Piel (don't want to use the other name) kind of purchased a LOT of influence power via lobbyists. One lobbyist is Sebastian Lurz (also not going to use the real name here; the letter "l" is an in-country humourous take on Lüssel, Lasser and so forth - ex-politicians). The superrich buy influence and worsen the situation for the rest of us. This has to stop. The USA is currently under direct…

This refusal to use people’s names comes across as childish and distracts from your intended point.

It's a useful deterrent against defenders (actual or bots) coming and drowning people out

Re: Discord cuts ties with identity verification software, Persona

#216

Post by axus »

simianwords wrote: post #164
rurp wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A frustrating aspect of the AI debates has been the number of people who believe people like Sam Altman who say that the immense wealth created by AGI would be distributed to the masses to improve their lives. The notion that the mega wealthy Elon/Sams/Bezos elites are going to willingly give up unprecedented wealth because millions of people have become unemployed and impoverished is so wildly out of step with how t…

This comment naively believes in zero sum creation of wealth. Wealth is not taken from our consumers and given to Sam Altman. Sam and his company are creating wealth - increasing the pie. Of course it benefits everyone while also benefiting them. Wealth need not be redistributed to improve lives. Just the mere invention of ChatGPT and letting people purchase it and use it is enough to improve people’s lives. Redistri…

So far prices have generally gone up, which indicates the pie available is scarcer.

I am looking forward to the day where more electricity, electronics, food, and housing are produced thanks to AI; but in the mid-term it feels like an AI bubble pop would do more to bring the price back down.

Re: Discord cuts ties with identity verification software, Persona

#217

Post by m4rtink »

n8cpdx wrote: post #75
rocketpastsix wrote: post #44

the damage is already done though. Discord just burned years of goodwill and trust. Im in a few discord communities and while they aren't moving Im not looking to join any more right now because of this whole thing.

Can someone explain to me how Discord got so big in the first place, particularly for non-gaming uses? I saw this coming a mile away when folks started ditching slack for Discord - Slack being problematic because a) it was profit-seeking and would use its leverage over your personal data to seek rent and b) it was antithetical to the open web. Discord has the exact same two issues so was obviously not a solution. Why…

Basically dumping - they made an objectively superior product that was completely free to users, funded by investor money without any plans for immediate profitability and long term sustainability.

That was all nice for a few years, but it was clear it can't got like this for ever - and here we are.

Re: Discord cuts ties with identity verification software, Persona

#218

Post by soopypoos »

throw4847285 wrote: post #34
rideontime wrote: post #20

I'm glad to see "Peter Thiel-backed" becoming a widely-recognized epithet.

I guess we could all forgive trying to destroy western civilization under the guise of saving it, but drew the line at poor media literacy when it comes to One Piece and Watchmen. (This is a joke in case that wasn't clear)

it's all a fuckin' joke

Re: Discord cuts ties with identity verification software, Persona

#219

Post by rurp »

simianwords wrote: post #164
rurp wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A frustrating aspect of the AI debates has been the number of people who believe people like Sam Altman who say that the immense wealth created by AGI would be distributed to the masses to improve their lives. The notion that the mega wealthy Elon/Sams/Bezos elites are going to willingly give up unprecedented wealth because millions of people have become unemployed and impoverished is so wildly out of step with how t…

This comment naively believes in zero sum creation of wealth. Wealth is not taken from our consumers and given to Sam Altman. Sam and his company are creating wealth - increasing the pie. Of course it benefits everyone while also benefiting them. Wealth need not be redistributed to improve lives. Just the mere invention of ChatGPT and letting people purchase it and use it is enough to improve people’s lives. Redistri…

You're talking about normal technological developments that yes generally follow Econ 101 patterns. But AGI isn't like that. If AGI or something like it comes about it won't be a normal technology. The upside case for investors is that frontier models eliminate millions of jobs and remain controlled by a small group of owners. That's why they are investing sums unprecedented in human history. If all white collar work and an increasing amount of blue collar work is supplanted by AI how do those masses of newly unemployed folks make a living without wealth redistribution?

If AI capability plateaus and ends up as a normal technological development then I agree with you that it will mostly work out for the best. But that's not the scenario I'm worried about and plenty of folks in the industry are warning that's not the most likely path at this point.

Re: Discord cuts ties with identity verification software, Persona

#220

Post by m4rtink »

bsza wrote: post #89
dcchambers wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Discord is a cancer on the open internet anyway. Real time chat? Great. But entire communities, forums, and wikis moving behind the locked walled of Discord has been a disaster for information discovery. Don't replace Discord with a similar alternative. Return to open forums and wikis!

I would have agreed 5 years ago, but not this day and age, when AI is raping open source projects and killing platforms like Stack Overflow. We need a safe space from web crawlers and surveillance, and open forums ain't it. (Neither is Discord, but a sufficiently secure alternative might be.)

Do you really think Discord is not scrapping all the traffic that goes through its service for either their own purposes or to sell data for profit.

And if its not doing it now, it will certainly happen once/if it goes bust.

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