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> The “town square” analogy for social media is another one of those crap ones that somehow got traction. No one actually wants a town square. They want a cafe
by pityJuke 3y ago
> The “town square” analogy for social media is another one of those crap ones that somehow got traction. No one actually wants a town square. They want a cafe at the edge of the town square where they can chat to their mates and watch the world go by. They don’t want some bloke with an amplifier in the middle of the square screaming about how Jesus saves. [1]
A take that I'm pretty agreeable to.
[1]: https://mastodon.xyz/@ianbetteridge@writing.exchange/110677525416011009 https://mastodon.xyz/@ianbetteridge@writing.exchange/1106775...
- vacuity 3y agoWouldn't it be great if there was an underlying messaging framework that allowed anyone to host any kind of site or forum, with built-in interoperability, flexible curation, and the ability to impose moderation? Then anyone (with servers, perhaps) could make their own blog (only they send messages, except perhaps comments), Twitter, Hacker News, Element, whatever. Pipe dream?
- giantrobot 3y agoThis is my exact take on the whole "town square" concept. It's just fucking stupid. For one a town doesn't have a hundred thousand people let alone a million or hundred million. So a "town square" with even a hundred thousand people is already a broken concept. A real town also doesn't have a hundred cardboard cutouts controlled by marketers, spammers, and spy agencies brigading around purporting to be real people. If Twitter or anyone else wanted to even start pretending to be a "town square" there would be no algorithmic feeds and you'd only ever see posts from your friend list. No one goes to the "town square" to be bombarded with street preachers and guys with trench coats trying to sell you cheap watches. Twitter uses "town square" to evoke images of Mayberry when it more resembles 1970s Times Square.