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   Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Thursday, 16-Nov-2023 11:54:41 JST Evan Prodromou

   So, I once saw a comedian do a routine about those polls they used to do on dance contest shows. Like, call this 900 number to vote if Ronaldo should move up to the next round.

   He said, it's weird that the results would be 48% yes, 49% no, 3% undecided. Because that means that hundreds of thousands of people called a toll phone number and paid $1.95 just to vote "I don't know" in a TV poll.

   People want to participate and feel like part of something, even if they don't have a good answer.

   • Embed this notice
     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Thursday, 16-Nov-2023 11:57:20 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     I think we see this in social media replies. If you ask a question, many, many of the answers will be complete non sequiturs, or will suggest that your premise is incorrect, or will otherwise be useless.

     It's really frustrating for people.

     We need to get better at overcoming the need to reply to things where we don't have any valuable input.

   • Embed this notice
     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Thursday, 16-Nov-2023 12:42:30 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     • Ted Gould

     @ted I think there's a lot of potential mental health benefits there.

   • Embed this notice
     Ted Gould (ted@social.gould.cx)'s status on Thursday, 16-Nov-2023 12:42:32 JST Ted Gould

     in reply to

     @evan I think this was the goal of Facebook with the Like button. Though I'm not sure it really satisfies that need.

     I wonder if this is a case for some sort of AI to do a first pass, where the poster would see those comments as likes or dislikes, but would let other more substantive comments through.

   • Embed this notice
     Niki Tonsky (nikitonsky@mastodon.online)'s status on Thursday, 16-Nov-2023 22:17:49 JST Niki Tonsky

     in reply to

     @evan these 3% were faked so that neither side would win and people with both opinions will call more? That’s also why it’s close to 50% from both sides, not 30-70 or something

   • Embed this notice
     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Thursday, 16-Nov-2023 22:17:49 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     • Niki Tonsky

     @nikitonsky thank you for proving my point!

   • Embed this notice
     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Thursday, 16-Nov-2023 22:18:21 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     • genehack

     @genehack I think we should have better tools.

   • Embed this notice
     genehack (genehack@dementedandsadbut.social)'s status on Thursday, 16-Nov-2023 22:18:22 JST genehack

     in reply to

     @evan …you realize this is “reply guys shouldn’t”, right?

     Sidebar question: do you understand how it pains me to ask this of you

   • Embed this notice
     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Friday, 17-Nov-2023 09:42:14 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     • invispace

     @invispace perfect

   • Embed this notice
     invispace (invispace@jorts.horse)'s status on Friday, 17-Nov-2023 09:42:15 JST invispace

     in reply to

     @evan I have no faith that any of those results were real. Even today, I doubt the accuracy of text votes.