4 ms·

It’s true, but a lot of them seem mostly like we are data entry workers inputting values into a giant database we don’t own or control. There’s not a lot of fr

It’s true, but a lot of them seem mostly like we are data entry workers inputting values into a giant database we don’t own or control. There’s not a lot of freedom to express in the often narrow structures of: tweets, posts, shorts, and the algorithm. Wikipedia is a different beast and interesting because it’s restrictions are by convention, policy, and a kind of social algorithm formed somewhat adhocraticly, overtime, but no less restrictive of the types and modes of expression they ultimately permit, Then the more purely algorithmic databases.

andsoitis 3y ago
> There’s not a lot of freedom to express in the often narrow structures of: tweets, posts, shorts, and the algorithm. Well, that's self-evident. You also cannot express yourself musically in a drawing app or make a movie on a piano. It does not make sense to expect every website to have the mechanisms to express yourself in any which way you want - that would be a gargantuan, infinite undertaking to enable that and result in an unapproachable user interface (if it is even possible). Different tools for different use cases.
- keepamovin 3y ago
  Haha, maybe there are some tools where you can make a movie on a piano! But that's the point: most people don't realize they are being funneled into this limited expression. They don't have access to the web-equivalent of a piano or a movie making tool, to let them author web content, hypermedia, as a first class citizen. Not just limited tweets, posts, etc. It could be so much richer, and yet it's not. Don't you think that's strange, and strange that everybody adopts it? Those tools, FB, Twitter, etc -- it's just not a creative free expression. But it could be! It probably sounded like I was dissing the very creative tools you listed. I wasn't! Not at all. I'm a big fan of processing, check it out, these are my sketches from 13 years ago, even back to the days of Java: https://openprocessing.org/user/15252 https://openprocessing.org/user/15252 -- and here's some videos of some of them: https://www.youtube.com/@TheCrisfolio https://www.youtube.com/@TheCrisfolio The point is not that there are no tools for creativity, it's that the biggest tools for expression for most people are not that creative. They restrict the authoring of hypermedia as a first class citizen. Self-evident limitations, right? Like you say. But what's not obvious to most people is how limited those companies actually make them, and yet how much that could be opened up. So we get the bland commons. We think we're being so creative -- we are in a way -- but we're also not. Is that just people or is it a lack of tech? You know what I'm saying? Or you don't really get it?

andsoitis 3y ago

> There’s not a lot of freedom to express in the often narrow structures of: tweets, posts, shorts, and the algorithm. Well, that's self-evident. You also cannot express yourself musically in a drawing app or make a movie on a piano. It does not make sense to expect every website to have the mechanisms to express yourself in any which way you want - that would be a gargantuan, infinite undertaking to enable that and result in an unapproachable user interface (if it is even possible). Different tools for different use cases.

keepamovin 3y ago
Haha, maybe there are some tools where you can make a movie on a piano! But that's the point: most people don't realize they are being funneled into this limited expression. They don't have access to the web-equivalent of a piano or a movie making tool, to let them author web content, hypermedia, as a first class citizen. Not just limited tweets, posts, etc. It could be so much richer, and yet it's not. Don't you think that's strange, and strange that everybody adopts it? Those tools, FB, Twitter, etc -- it's just not a creative free expression. But it could be! It probably sounded like I was dissing the very creative tools you listed. I wasn't! Not at all. I'm a big fan of processing, check it out, these are my sketches from 13 years ago, even back to the days of Java: https://openprocessing.org/user/15252 https://openprocessing.org/user/15252 -- and here's some videos of some of them: https://www.youtube.com/@TheCrisfolio https://www.youtube.com/@TheCrisfolio The point is not that there are no tools for creativity, it's that the biggest tools for expression for most people are not that creative. They restrict the authoring of hypermedia as a first class citizen. Self-evident limitations, right? Like you say. But what's not obvious to most people is how limited those companies actually make them, and yet how much that could be opened up. So we get the bland commons. We think we're being so creative -- we are in a way -- but we're also not. Is that just people or is it a lack of tech? You know what I'm saying? Or you don't really get it?