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I think more people are realizing, finally, that social media has been completely hollowed out by corporate interests. Actually seeing organic content and conve

by rchaud 4y ago

I think more people are realizing, finally, that social media has been completely hollowed out by corporate interests. Actually seeing organic content and conversations in one's timeline seems accidental these days. What point is there in continuing to post when it's clear Twitter will give preferential treatment to paid accounts? FB/IG are no better, they'd prefer you not post text+images at all, but pivot to video so they can throw ads in between and make their Christmas bonus. The author has the right idea: instead of wasting your attention on these dumpster fires, focus on the non-corporate communities where your voice is valued. I am trying to do this by hanging out in the forums of software products I use, and commenting on topics there. Unfortunately, even that is not a given these days, as many software makers insist on a Discord for tech support and discussion. I've spoken about this as well on a blog post [0] about the death of old message boards and the unique cultures they had: [0] https://fuzzcrush.xyz/blog/dead-forums-extinct-communities-and-a-loss-of-shared-niche-cultures/ https://fuzzcrush.xyz/blog/dead-forums-extinct-communities-a...

warkanlock 4y ago
Good article, but the author doesn't mention how to find those communities (or if they even still exist) I used to be a fan of the BB systems, which were a fantastic joy to be part of and contribute messages or even readings and watch other community members grow. I wish I could go back in time to relive those days because it was the most fun and also the most insightful experience for me on the Internet. Nowadays, everyone is trying to sell you something
rapind 4y ago
> insist on a Discord for tech support and discussion Communities moving to discord or slack is really dumb. You lose so much discoverability in favour of real time conversation about a subject that almost always prefers asynchronous communication. Is it just hipster influence run amok? (shakes fist)
- thefz 4y ago
  Good "old" forums were the best.
- rchaud 4y ago
  Unfortunately, it's because they can 'engage' their audience better with Discord's features, than they can on an old-school message board system like Discourse.
coffeefirst 4y ago
Right. I think people lost sight of the fact that they joined these sites back when they were fun. They stopped being fun a long time ago, and get more out of you using them than you do. The one positive out of all this is how many people have decided not to look for an alternative. Nobody asked for mindless scrolling any more than anyone asked to sit in traffic.
- rchaud 4y ago
  This is partially why I think the crop of 'new' sites like Post.news, Hive Social, Gas App etc are all flash-in-the-pan stuff that will die off like Clubhouse did. For one thing, there are too many apps already, no one wants to create another login. And secondly, as you said, people do not want "Twitter, but better". They want Twitter to go back to what it was pre-2016, and that's not possible, that bell cannot be un-rung.
robomartin 4y ago
> I am trying to do this by hanging out in the forums of software products I use, and commenting on topics there. Unfortunately, even that is not a given these days, as many software makers insist on a Discord for tech support and discussion. Interestingly enough, I often think that USENET was the peak. Despite higher levels of technological sophistication, we seem to have descended into a "great UI, horrible outcomes" world when it comes to online group communications. All these platforms are reinventions of USENET in various forms. Yes, sure, USENET did have legendary flame wars in some groups. However, for the most part, and particularly in technical domains, it was simple and fantastically useful. I learned a ton through various USENET groups back in the day and even went as far as making several friends, both domestically and internationally. At this point the genie is out of the bottle. The best we can hope for is that these things get fixed or repaced with some undefined next-generation approach that restores utility and removes one-sided politics from the equation. Easier said than done.
bko 4y ago
> I think more people are realizing, finally, that social media has been completely hollowed out by corporate interests... What point is there in continuing to post when it's clear Twitter will give preferential treatment to paid accounts? Aren't the paid accounts targeted to individuals? Corporations were always able to promote their posts and brand online. But it was not really possible for individuals, or at least not targeted for them. And the paid account is a signal that this person is not a bot (at least that's the goal). So wouldn't this change to lead to less corporate influence?
- rchaud 4y ago
  > So wouldn't this change to lead to less corporate influence? It's the adverse selection issue. The people willing to pay for Twitter Blue are the people that were already using Twitter as a "lead-gen" source; so their content was mostly spam disguised as engagement-bait ("Here are the top 10 writing tips from Harvard professors [thread emoji]"). As for bots, I don't frequent the topics that attract them, so the visible bot activity I've seen is limited to the replies section of high-traffic topics (crypto, covid, musk, politics). Corporate bots tweet messages, while spambots mostly retweet someone else's post.

by rchaud 4y ago

warkanlock 4y ago

Good article, but the author doesn't mention how to find those communities (or if they even still exist) I used to be a fan of the BB systems, which were a fantastic joy to be part of and contribute messages or even readings and watch other community members grow. I wish I could go back in time to relive those days because it was the most fun and also the most insightful experience for me on the Internet. Nowadays, everyone is trying to sell you something

rapind 4y ago

> insist on a Discord for tech support and discussion Communities moving to discord or slack is really dumb. You lose so much discoverability in favour of real time conversation about a subject that almost always prefers asynchronous communication. Is it just hipster influence run amok? (shakes fist)

thefz 4y ago
Good "old" forums were the best.
rchaud 4y ago
Unfortunately, it's because they can 'engage' their audience better with Discord's features, than they can on an old-school message board system like Discourse.

coffeefirst 4y ago

Right. I think people lost sight of the fact that they joined these sites back when they were fun. They stopped being fun a long time ago, and get more out of you using them than you do. The one positive out of all this is how many people have decided not to look for an alternative. Nobody asked for mindless scrolling any more than anyone asked to sit in traffic.

rchaud 4y ago
This is partially why I think the crop of 'new' sites like Post.news, Hive Social, Gas App etc are all flash-in-the-pan stuff that will die off like Clubhouse did. For one thing, there are too many apps already, no one wants to create another login. And secondly, as you said, people do not want "Twitter, but better". They want Twitter to go back to what it was pre-2016, and that's not possible, that bell cannot be un-rung.

robomartin 4y ago

> I am trying to do this by hanging out in the forums of software products I use, and commenting on topics there. Unfortunately, even that is not a given these days, as many software makers insist on a Discord for tech support and discussion. Interestingly enough, I often think that USENET was the peak. Despite higher levels of technological sophistication, we seem to have descended into a "great UI, horrible outcomes" world when it comes to online group communications. All these platforms are reinventions of USENET in various forms. Yes, sure, USENET did have legendary flame wars in some groups. However, for the most part, and particularly in technical domains, it was simple and fantastically useful. I learned a ton through various USENET groups back in the day and even went as far as making several friends, both domestically and internationally. At this point the genie is out of the bottle. The best we can hope for is that these things get fixed or repaced with some undefined next-generation approach that restores utility and removes one-sided politics from the equation. Easier said than done.

bko 4y ago

> I think more people are realizing, finally, that social media has been completely hollowed out by corporate interests... What point is there in continuing to post when it's clear Twitter will give preferential treatment to paid accounts? Aren't the paid accounts targeted to individuals? Corporations were always able to promote their posts and brand online. But it was not really possible for individuals, or at least not targeted for them. And the paid account is a signal that this person is not a bot (at least that's the goal). So wouldn't this change to lead to less corporate influence?

rchaud 4y ago
> So wouldn't this change to lead to less corporate influence? It's the adverse selection issue. The people willing to pay for Twitter Blue are the people that were already using Twitter as a "lead-gen" source; so their content was mostly spam disguised as engagement-bait ("Here are the top 10 writing tips from Harvard professors [thread emoji]"). As for bots, I don't frequent the topics that attract them, so the visible bot activity I've seen is limited to the replies section of high-traffic topics (crypto, covid, musk, politics). Corporate bots tweet messages, while spambots mostly retweet someone else's post.