Lili Saintcrow
So that Stanford study scaremongering about Mastodon is…interesting. I wonder who paid to commission it and why it doesn’t mention that bad actors are overwhelmingly defederated by the vast majority of instances.
I also wonder why it doesn’t mention the comparable problems with that sort of content on, say, Reddit, which is run by an actual company instead of being a collection of volunteer-run, loosely affiliated instances.
Aral Balkan
@lilithsaintcrow The hint is: Stanford aka the Silicon Vallet’s Human Resources Department.
Aral Balkan
@cjk The study might be fine. The question is, of all the possible studies, why that one and in whose interests? Also, they know exactly how such a study would be represented by those in the media with similar interests.
Don’t forget that Big Tobacco starting funding *any* health-related research just so articles on new discoveries would take the place of articles on the harms of cigarettes. Corporations are well versed in such PR tactics and worse.
Christian Kruse
@lilithsaintcrow @aral I think the study is fine. It mentions defederation, it mentions that admins are responsible for single instances. It basically looks through option of better moderation.
To me it looks more like the media coverage, like so often, did not read or understand the study.
Lili Saintcrow
@tekkie Someone else made the point about the Stanford-to-Silicon-Valley pipeline, though not in those words. I hadn't even thought about that, but it does add to my unease and the sense that some questions should indeed be asked.
Ain Tohvri
@lilithsaintcrow we all know Stanford is the establishment that has considerable intersection with the biggest venture capital companies that are invested in the #BigSocial today. #OpenSource and #OpenStandards competition is not good for business.
Lili Saintcrow
@aral @cjk And when one adds in that the study author and the study author's boss are both former-Facebook employees (which I didn't know when I made the original post), I think pointed inquiries should be made. Not that it matters, the hit pieces are already out and getting a great deal of ballyhoo.
Nazo
@lilithsaintcrow It's such an overwhelmingly bad faith article *immediately* cited by a host of bad faith articles at the same time. Definitely more than a bit iffy on all accounts.
I don't know if it definitely was designed and coordinated by someone trying to keep people on centralized platforms, but what I do know is every one of the article writers who made exactly zero effort to actually write a proper article about this should be ashamed of themselves. I would say fired, but yeah.
M_U
@AnneTheWriter1 @lilithsaintcrow
Don't overthink it, Stanford hosts VD Hanson in an office on campus. They're elitist enemies of America that gave us the Thiel/Sacks world. This is just them attacking public space, it is what they do.
AnneTheWriter
@lilithsaintcrow
I bet that one of the big problems with both these #Journalists & their readers is: People who've never actually been in the Fediverse for very long, don't tend to understand #Federated vs #Centralized platforms and how they work.
A dog can't understand a rainbow, because he's never seen it properly. He only sees shades of gray, and doesn't know what the concept of color means.
These people hear #Fediverse and see it as one unified monochrome "broth" managed by algorithms, when in fact it's more of a "Mulligan's Stew" or "Stone Soup," managed by human beings. There is such a wide variety of ingredients, that every spoonful of that stew will not have the same ingredients as any other spoonful.
They're looking for a huge corporate monolith, but finding only a road paved with gravel. So they pick up a few pebbles, and claim the entire roadway is the same composition.
They're the "Blind Men with an Elephant," only this time it's a #Mastodon.
https://annethewriter33.wordpress.com/2023/07/06/the-future-is-federated/
Lili Saintcrow
Decentralised options where users can’t be trapped for engagement and ad revenue are going to be mercilessly and increasingly badmouthed by a lot of mouthpieces for walled gardens from here on out. It’s only going to get worse as Twitter crumbles.
Lili Saintcrow
Seems awful thought-provoking that the “study” comes out when there’s a massive shift away from Twitter and a lot of walled gardens looking to scoop up users for ad revenue.
Just…verrrrry interesting indeed.
Kat
@lilithsaintcrow I was telling a one of my student workers about mastodon and they said "that sounds like a fantasy place" (all they know is being monetized!)
Lili Saintcrow
@katmckatniss And that's only happened relatively lately in the history of the internet. (I feel so old saying this, my gods…)
Hermey G
@lilithsaintcrow
Not just them. I had to block a user here who insisted I needed to rethink my belief that I was enjoying an algorithm free environment on my instance
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