JustinHanagan 6 months ago • 100%
Very good point! He'll be in a reasonably good place when YouTube goes to shit.
JustinHanagan 6 months ago • 100%
First of all, thank you for the fantastic feedback.
We live in a society that commodifies everything, and as human-made content becomes rarer, more people like Veritsaium will be presented with more and increasingly lucrative opportunities to sell bits and pieces of their authenticity for manufactured content (be it by AI or a marketing team), while new people that could be like Veritsaium will be drowned out by the heaps of bullshit clogging up the web.
This is exactly the point I was trying to make in the last section, except I used MrBeast as an example because I felt like it was easier for readers to accept his propensity for cutting corners to make a buck. But yes, I agree, things will get worse. Before it was common knowledge that cigarettes caused cancer, a whole lot of people had to get cancer.
I also think it's important to remember that people don't actually follow Veritasium directly. They follow him indirectly by means of YouTube. If people could actually follow him directly he wouldn't need to worry about competing with AI crap for the attention of YouTube's algorithm. But of course, YouTube would never allow that.
Not paywalled, you can just click "No thanks" on the popup.
JustinHanagan 8 months ago • 100%
Eh, what you've identified as the thesis is actually just a butt-covering footnote to prevent Reddit-style "ackchually" comments. When I wrote it I was still submitting posts to Reddit. I guess that's on me for assuming the central point was more obvious.
JustinHanagan 8 months ago • 100%
For sure, they also don't congregate in Williamsburg much anymore.
JustinHanagan 8 months ago • 100%
Something I think about a lot is how the "hipster" movement in the early 2000s was extremely anti- consumer culture. They were building easy to repair "fixie" bikes instead of driving cars, they were brewing their own beer and buying/mending clothes they bought second hand. They were moving to abandoned factory loft apartments in similarly abandoned urban areas.
Then, the artists living in lofts, making zines and and knitting sweaters got priced out. And now in pop culture the term "hipster" has largely replaced "yuppie" to mean an elitist, snobby, and extremely pro consumer culture sort of person, which is basically the opposite of what the young people in the early 2000s were doing. I'm not a conspiracy theorist but I have to imagine that the big corps saw the movement as a threat, and did an classic rebrand on them, like car companies did with the minivan to sell more SUVs.
This is an essay I wrote in 2022, inspired by Kyle Chaka's 2016 viral essay, "[Welcome to Airspace](https://www.theverge.com/2016/8/3/12325104/airbnb-aesthetic-global-minimalism-startup-gentrification)". After seeing an excerpt from Kyle's new book [on the front of /c/Technology](https://lemmy.world/post/10800056), I thought y'all might be interested in reading this piece of mine, which is less about the design of *physical* spaces, and more about The Algorithm™'s influence on creative practice in general. This is a conversation I can have a million times, so I hope you enjoy.
JustinHanagan 8 months ago • 100%
My first reaction was that this excerpt reminds me of a piece I wrote two years ago called "The Airbnb-ification of the arts", about how artists looking to make a career out of art are forced to cater to an algorithm that favors comfortable predictability over depth or uniqueness. My essay was heavily inspired by Kyle Chayka's famous 2016 essay "Welcome to Airspace".
Jokes on me for not reading the byline because it turns out Kyle wrote the book this excerpt is from! lol good for him. Looking forward to reading it.
I'm curious to know if he has a presence on Mastodon or any other Social Web apps, he's a really great writer I'd like to follow.
JustinHanagan 8 months ago • 100%
Haha I know that made me chuckle too
It's mentioned in [this](https://www.theverge.com/c/23998379/google-search-seo-algorithm-webpage-optimization) really good Verge article about SEO. I don't think it's a good sign for Reddit to just allow such blatant spam and makes me think how much subtler spam is out there too. I've personally noticed more a few times in old threads you'll find a comment made months later that's recommending a product.
JustinHanagan 9 months ago • 100%
It's unfortunatley really, really hard to get noticed whatsoever as an artist without social media these days if you don't have any industry connections.
JustinHanagan 9 months ago • 100%
Wow, I've never heard music with such a stunning lack of soul before! 10/10 I bought every album.
Because artists need to advertise too.
JustinHanagan 9 months ago • 100%
Exactly, well said.
JustinHanagan 9 months ago • 94%
When I switched to Substack it was just a Mailchimp alternative (I don't think Mailchimp moderates what they send out either). They were a service, not a platform. But since then Substack has added a lot of social elements. And now that I've been made aware of their stance, I'm planning my exit ASAP.
JustinHanagan 9 months ago • 100%
Exactly. FTA:
"Trust and safety” departments are kinda like “Human Resources” departments. They exist to help the company avoid expensive lawsuits and expensive PR blunders. These departments, I assume, are comprised of good-hearted people who care deeply about their work and the well being of others. But they are fighting a battle that the companies do not actually want to end.
Free for an unlimited time only!
JustinHanagan 9 months ago • 85%
It's literally in the article lol
JustinHanagan 10 months ago • 100%
I actually did jump into the replies and went back and forth with him a bit and I do think he (finally) understood the FOSS perspective. I think a lot of people get very hung up on this concept of a customer-product relationship and for some people it's a very hard mindset to break out of. I often forget that while "FOSS" is software, the "free software movement" is not really about software, it's political.
JustinHanagan 10 months ago • 80%
It’s like telling someone with a shitty landlord to move to a new free house which they get to own
JustinHanagan 10 months ago • 100%
"Hey so my free car that was built and maintained entirely by volunteers who received no financial compensation and was provided to me no strings attached is making a weird noise and I don't want to learn how to fix it myself nor am I willing to wait for someone else to fix it, nor am I willing to even tell the car-builders it has a problem."
In this context suggesting they complainer pay for a car doesn't sound so crazy?
JustinHanagan 10 months ago • 100%
I and a few other people kinda chatted with him a while and the reality kinda seemed to click with him? He was very stuck on "it is a product and I am the customer" mindset that is very ingrained into so many people. He said filing a bug report felt "dehumanizing" and we tried to illustrate that it can actually feel empowering if you view yourself as a collaborator, not a customer. I think he's coming around.
At least I hope he is because (opinion on FOSS aside) he really is one of the all-time best creators on YouTube right now.
JustinHanagan 10 months ago • 100%
Exactly! I actually talked back and forth with him a bit and eventually said that "complaining about a missing FOSS feature is like complaining to the volunteer ladeler at a soup kitchen about the lack of a gluten-free option. It's just not the path to getting the change you want."
In the end he seemed to get what I was saying, but was still irritated. I've been really learning lately how hard it is for some people not to see themselves as customers in FOSS land.
Google takes heat for a misleading AI demo video that hyped up its GPT-4 competitor.
Google takes heat for a misleading AI demo video that hyped up its GPT-4 competitor.
JustinHanagan 10 months ago • 100%
Very well said all around, (and in many fewer words than it took me) I may actually quote you in the future! Hadn't seen that 2018(!) Esquire article before today either. Kind of sad "Twitter without Nazis" wasn't a more compelling selling point. Just speaks to the power of network effects, I suppose.
JustinHanagan 10 months ago • 100%
I look at that as as proof it wasn't written by GPT.
JustinHanagan 10 months ago • 100%
The success metric is a vibrant, happy community, not MAUs or engagement numbers, so they make decisions accordingly.
YES well said. An instance is measured by it's quality, not it's profitability.
JustinHanagan 10 months ago • 100%
Any civility rule that is enforced with greater priority than (or in the absence of) a “no bigotry” rule serves only to protect bigots from decent people.
There's a saying I think about a lot that goes "The problem with rules is that good people don't need 'em, and bad people will find a way around 'em".
The best thing about human volunteer mods vs automated tools or paid "trust and safety" teams, IMO, is that volunteer humans can better identify when someone is participating in the spirit of a community, because the mods themselves are usually members of the community too.
JustinHanagan 10 months ago • 100%
Yeah, I think it's important to keep in mind that the Fediverse doesn't solve any of the problems that come up when a bunch of people talk about stuff they're passionate about. The problems Federation solves is the incentivizing and spotlighting of the sorts of toxic behavior we see on corporate social media.
JustinHanagan 10 months ago • 100%
If a Fediverse instance grew so big that it couldn't moderate itself and had a lot of spam/Nazis, presumably other instances would just defederate, yeah? Unless an instance is ad-supported, what's the incentive to grow beyond one's ability to stay under control?
JustinHanagan 10 months ago • 100%
I fear if these federated systems do grow popular enough
If an instance did grow "too big to moderate", it would surely be defederated from, yeah? I'm struggling to think of a situation where responsible admins from well-moderated instances would willingly subject their users to spammers from an instance (no matter how big) that can't control itself.
JustinHanagan 10 months ago • 96%
The key word here is "large". From the article:
"[Fediverse] instances don’t generally have any unwanted guests because there’s zero incentive to grow beyond an ability to self-moderate. If an instance were to become known for hosting Nazis —either via malice or an incompetent owner— other more responsible instances would simply de-federate (cut themselves off) from the Nazi instance until they got their shit together. Problem solved, no 'trust and safety' required"
"If you’ve ever hosted a potluck and none of the guests were spouting antisemitic and/or authoritarian talking points, congratulations! You’ve achieved what some of the most valuable companies in the world claim is impossible."
JustinHanagan 11 months ago • 100%
You're not incorrect, but I think the thing that differentiates this era of social media from the "before times" (I was there too) is that it's significantly easier for non-techies to join. The internet nowadays has significantly more diversity of perspectives than back then. Those differences are exploited and exaggerated by social media companies to generate engagement. It seems to m that the fediverse model allows for diversity and sanity (or at least not algorithmically-encouraged _in_sanity).
Thanks for reading and the comment!
"Lemmy might not ever influence global culture to the degree that Facebook and Twitter once did. But it proves that 'people constructively and healthily socializing via the internet' is entirely possible without being forced to tolerate any more nonsense than one would normally expect when humans get together. 'Social media: The Business' on the other hand cannot exist without the garbage."
When a corporation pays to manage a problem instead of fixing it, it’s reasonable to question if they actually think it’s a problem in the first place.
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JustinHanagan 12 months ago • 100%
I personally wouldn't judge any Yankees fan living in Boston who chooses to remain closeted about their allegiances and only discusses sports online.
JustinHanagan 12 months ago • 94%
Absolutely. The essay does actually address that towards the end:
There’s no shame in turning to the internet for supplementing socialization when doing it “better” isn’t feasible. It’s easy to imagine situations where someone might not have access to a community that keeps them sane. A gay teenager stuck in rural Alabama. A woman born into a controlled religious society. A New York sports fan in Boston. Some days in life, the best we can hope for is making it until tomorrow in one piece.
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JustinHanagan 1 year ago • 100%
JustinHanagan 1 year ago • 33%
Now you're catching on
JustinHanagan 1 year ago • 100%
JustinHanagan 1 year ago • 100%
The example you mention is actually in the essay itself. But yes, it would be nice if the technology companies could work on a way to automate the stuff we don't enjoy doing instead of the stuff that brings meaning into our lives.
JustinHanagan 1 year ago • 100%
I fear for the soul of the person who read this and thought "yup this is all normal ways to feel"
JustinHanagan 1 year ago • 100%
Absolutely. And to be fair, "a chance at fame and attention" is the sales pitch from the commercial platforms. They don't want users having "meaningful conversation". There's a great essay/rant from Cat Valente called "Stop Talking to Each Other and Start Buying Things".
JustinHanagan 1 year ago • 100%
✨much elegance✨
JustinHanagan 1 year ago • 100%
I know, it's just too technical 😭
JustinHanagan 1 year ago • 100%
No, it does. Sign up is extremely straightforward now. All things involving federation are essentially optional on the official app.
JustinHanagan 1 year ago • 100%
Yes my thoughts exactly. When email was too confusing ISPs included it pre-configured as a perk initially and Gmail came later.
My feelings in regards to social media are stop the bleeding first, remove society's dependence on X, Meta, and other for-profit platforms. Then we can worry about educating "normal" people on Federation, ActivityPub, etc.
JustinHanagan 1 year ago • 100%
FYI you haven't needed to choose an instance in the official app for a while now. It just defaults to mastodon.social unless you request otherwise.
Not ideal long-term to have it be centralized like this, but it's still leaps and bounds preferrable to Twitter or Threads.
PS- The "real" (non-joke) full guide for the Masto-curious is [here](https://www.staygrounded.online/p/a-simple-guide-to-mastodon-and-the).
PS- The "real" (non-joke) full guide for the Masto-curious is [here](https://www.staygrounded.online/p/a-simple-guide-to-mastodon-and-the).
PS- The "real" (non-joke) full guide for the Masto-curious is [here](https://www.staygrounded.online/p/a-simple-guide-to-mastodon-and-the).
The case against algorithmic feeds