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I have never in my entire life expected the truth from the crowd. Why on earth would you do that if truth was truly your concern? These proposals seem to igno

I have never in my entire life expected the truth from the crowd. Why on earth would you do that if truth was truly your concern? These proposals seem to ignore this basic reality. They also presume that peoples primary desire in communication with one another is truth. Our entire system of language belies that idea entirely. The condescension of it all gets to me as well, as if you give everyone the unvarnished truth that they would all make the same decisions based upon that information. It's a parochial desire that could only be held by government agents or embarrassed billionaires. It has no true purpose for society as a whole.

Kye 4y ago
"Wisdom of the crowd" used to be one of the big selling points of the internet. Like most early optimism, it collapsed on contact with reality as the internet grew.
- MichaelCollins 4y ago
  > "Wisdom of the crowd" used to be one of the big selling points of the internet. I don't think this was true until sometime in the 00s when voting systems were popularized. I don't recall anybody talking about crowd wisdom and hiveminds in the context of IRC chatrooms, mailing lists, or geocity pages. There was an understanding that whoever you were talking to might be smart or might be stupid; there was no crowd mechanism to put false trust in.
mcphage 4y ago
> They also presume that peoples primary desire in communication with one another is truth. Maybe. Or maybe it means that these sites don’t like people abusing their networks to spread garbage.
- akira2501 4y ago
  > Or maybe it means that these sites don’t like people abusing their networks to spread garbage. Is that based upon the desire of the users, or the desire of the owners? Why do we talk about the concerns of the owners as if they were the concerns of the users? It's an odd sleight of hand.
  - mcphage 4y ago
    I’m speaking specifically of the owners, given they’re the ones instituting these systems.

Kye 4y ago

"Wisdom of the crowd" used to be one of the big selling points of the internet. Like most early optimism, it collapsed on contact with reality as the internet grew.

MichaelCollins 4y ago
> "Wisdom of the crowd" used to be one of the big selling points of the internet. I don't think this was true until sometime in the 00s when voting systems were popularized. I don't recall anybody talking about crowd wisdom and hiveminds in the context of IRC chatrooms, mailing lists, or geocity pages. There was an understanding that whoever you were talking to might be smart or might be stupid; there was no crowd mechanism to put false trust in.

mcphage 4y ago

> They also presume that peoples primary desire in communication with one another is truth. Maybe. Or maybe it means that these sites don’t like people abusing their networks to spread garbage.

akira2501 4y ago
> Or maybe it means that these sites don’t like people abusing their networks to spread garbage. Is that based upon the desire of the users, or the desire of the owners? Why do we talk about the concerns of the owners as if they were the concerns of the users? It's an odd sleight of hand.
- mcphage 4y ago
  I’m speaking specifically of the owners, given they’re the ones instituting these systems.