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Dead Internet Theory

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Re: Dead Internet Theory

#701

Post by mycall »

Okawari wrote: post #527
tomaskafka wrote: post #487

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s not because it’s decentralized or open, it’s because it doesn’t matter. If it was larger or more important, it would get run over by bots in weeks. Any platform that wants to resist bots need to - tie personas to real or expensive identities - force people to add AI flag to AI content - let readers filter content not marked as AI - and be absolutely ruthless in permabanning anyone who posts AI content unmarked…

It's never going to happen, but I felt we solved all of this with forums and IRC back in the day. I wish we gravitated towards that kind of internet again. Group sizes were smaller and as such easier to moderate. There could be plenty of similar interest forums which meant even if you pissed of some mods, there were always other forums. Invite only groups that recruited from larger forums (or even trusted members onl…

It happens in some places like Russia (MAX App) or in China (WeChat/Alipay) but do we want to go down that authoritarian road?

Re: Dead Internet Theory

#702

Post by 0xis »

fuzzer371 wrote: post #181
fsckboy wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that sounds like one of the worst heuristics I've ever heard, worse than "em-dash=ai" (em-dash equals ai to the illiterate class, who don't know what they are talking about on any subject and who also don't use em-dashes, but literate people do use em-dashes and also know what they are talking about. this is called the Dunning-Em-Dash Effect, where "dunning" refers to the payback of intellectual deficit whereas the i…

No one uses em dashes

When I type in English and needs an em dash, I simply switch to the Chinese IME.

Re: Dead Internet Theory

#703

Post by nextlevelwizard »

makingstuffs wrote: post #120

Think the notion that ‘no one’ uses em dashes is a bit misguided. I’ve personally used them in text for as long as I can remember. Also on the phrase “you’re absolute right”, it’s definitely a phrase my friends and I use a lot, albeit in a sorta of sarcastic manner when one of us says something which is obvious but, nonetheless, we use it. We also tend to use “Well, you’re not wrong” again in a sarcastic manner for s…

Sorry but I don’t believe you about em dashes. I don’t recall ever seeing them in online content or comments before LLM’s got popular. Normal dashes for sure, but no one actually dug out special character for it

Re: Dead Internet Theory

#704

Post by bryanrasmussen »

projektfu wrote: post #584
bryanrasmussen wrote: post #520

I think it's a little bit much to claim that no real human has ever used the phrase "You are absolutely right", it seems more likely that a lot of people have, so much, that the AI got trained to use it when its programming suggested it was the right time to be obsequious.

I have only said it as part of an apology. "We have been waiting 20 minutes!" "You're absolutely right, and I apologize. We will try to schedule better in the future." I have never said it to someone with whom I was having a regular discussion. OTOH, I used to overuse em dashes because the Mac made proper typesetting possible. It used to be the sign that someone had read the very useful The Mac is not a Typewriter by…

So, sort of like when I tell an agent "that is not what I wanted!"

and it says "You're absolutely right, and I apologize. I have fixed the issue now"

They were trained on you, mate.

Re: Dead Internet Theory

#705

Post by theshrike79 »

gwd wrote: post #445
LexiMax wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in multiple Discord servers with people I know IRL. In fact, I'd say it's probably the easiest way to bootstrap a community around a friend-group.

Is this a generational thing? All my groups of this type are on WhatsApp (unfortunately).

I want my community to have:

- bots (like we had on IRC) - first class clients on all platforms (mobile, tablet, desktop, browser) - voice chat - video chat

Telegram and Discord are the only ones that satisfy all these.

And of these Telegram is just one channel, on Discord we can separate subjects by channels in seconds. If I see a message on #general, I go check what it is. On #memes I know it's not urgent.

Matrix if you want to play IT support on your free time.

Re: Dead Internet Theory

#706

Post by Seattle3503 »

rhines wrote: post #591
skwee357 wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember participating on *free* phpBB forums, or IRC channels. I was amazed that I could chat with people smarter than me, on a wide range of topics, all for the cost of having an internet subscription. It's only recently, when I was considering to revive the old-school forum interaction, that I have realized that while I got the platforms for free, there were people behind them who paid for the hosting and the st…

Something that's been on my mind for a while now is shared moderation - instead of having a few moderators who deal with everything, distribute the moderation load across all users. Every user might only have to review a couple posts a day or whatever, so it should be a negligible burden, and send each post that requires moderation to multiple users so that if there's disagreement it can be pushed to more senior/trus…

Is that different from voting on comments?

Re: Dead Internet Theory

#707

Post by theshrike79 »

bandrami wrote: post #292
viccis wrote: post #73

>which is not a social network, but I’m tired of arguing with people online about it I know this was a throwaway parenthetical, but I agree 100%. I don't know when the meaning of "social media" went from "internet based medium for socializing with people you know IRL" to a catchall for any online forum like reddit, but one result of this semantic shift is that it takes attention away from the fact that the former typ…

I'll come clean and say I've still never tried Discord and I feel like I must not be understanding the concept. It really looks like it's IRC but hosted by some commercial company and requiring their client to use and with extremely tenuous privacy guarantees. I figure I must be missing something because I can't understand why that's so popular when IRC is still there.

Discord has a better client and doesn't require an always-on connection to stay connected.

Yes IRCv3 exists and can do the backlog filling thing. Nobody uses that.

If "privacy" was an issue for you, you do know that IRC server admins could and still can see every single message on their servers unless everyone is using an encryption plugin on the channel?

The thing that Discord replicates with IRC is limited audience. Unless the server is public, I know I can be more open because I trust the people in there not to be assholes and share private stuff with others.

Re: Dead Internet Theory

#708

Post by armcat »

notatoad wrote: post #685
armcat wrote: post #563

What's changed significantly is the "intent" behind the content. The intent today is mostly the actual "content generation", i.e. "I write a blog post or a public github repo for the sake of having a digital footprint". This is vastly different when I used the internet in mid/late 90s. The intent back then was more like an "online journal" or something you hope someone else will find useful one day. Back then we had…

content generation isn't the intent, it's just the side effect. the real intent is to make money. everybody is either trying to promote some product, or promote themselves as a "content creator" so they can start getting influencer marketing deals and payouts from youtube or instagram ad splits. the internet was at it's best when most of the content on it was just because somebody had some information, and wanted to…

Agree 100%! The "real intent", the true cause, is making money. Whether that's directly via social media, or via proxy (which is becoming a major player), where people generate content in order to build repertoire, which they try to monetize via other means (contracting/freelance, publishing, speaking, getting on the VC radar, etc). So yes - one can correctly say that the intent has changed from something altruistic (giving information to the masses with no monetary foresight), to explicit money-making intent.

Re: Dead Internet Theory

#709

Post by theshrike79 »

doublerabbit wrote: post #502
Ekaros wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is IRC, but with modern features and no channel splits. It also adds voice chats and video sharing. Trade off is that privacy and commercial platform. On other hand it is very much simpler to use. IRC is a mess of usability really. Discord has much better user experience for new users.

> Discord has much better user experience for new users. Until you join a server that gives you a whole essay of what you can and cannot do with extra verification. This then requiring you to post in some random channel waiting for the moderator to see your message. You're then forced to assign roles to yourself to please a bot that will continue to spam you with notifications announcing to the community you've level…

This only happens if the server is BIG _or_ if the admin is a grifter who's 100% sure their server will hit it big and has 120 channels and 40 bots and 9 users total.

Re: Dead Internet Theory

#710

Post by theshrike79 »

flomo wrote: post #218
viccis wrote: post #73

>which is not a social network, but I’m tired of arguing with people online about it I know this was a throwaway parenthetical, but I agree 100%. I don't know when the meaning of "social media" went from "internet based medium for socializing with people you know IRL" to a catchall for any online forum like reddit, but one result of this semantic shift is that it takes attention away from the fact that the former typ…

You know Meta, the "social media company" came out and said their users spend less than 10% of the time interacting with people they actually know? "Social Media" had become a euphemism for 'scrolling entertainment, ragebait and cats' and has nothing to do 'being social'. There is NO difference between modern reddit and facebook in that sense. (Less than 5% of users are on old.reddit, the majority is subject to the a…

I don't go to Meta properties to interact with anyone anymore.

Our extended family has a WhatsApp group, but that's about it. I'm not convincing a bunch of 60+ year olds to switch to a new platform they're not used to.

Instagram has been read-only for me for half a decade, I still poke my head on FB now and then to spy on people I used to know.

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