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1. Embed this notice
   Charlie Stross (cstross@wandering.shop)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Nov-2024 23:15:14 JST Charlie Stross

   In 20/20 hindsight, I should have bloody noticed the drop in traffic to my blog (both views and comments posted) since January 2024, and noted Google's de-emphasizing blogs in favour of extruded text product, and realized: if you suppress public speech via small private media (blogs) you're implicitly boosting the reach of centrally controlled platforms.

   Call it censorship with American characteristics.

   The fix, as they say, was in.

   • Embed this notice
     Charlie Stross (cstross@wandering.shop)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Nov-2024 23:50:40 JST Charlie Stross

     in reply to

     • Sharan Volin

     @Sharan "Don't be evil" was always a canary clause and Google dropped it in October 2015 in favour of "Do the Right Thing" …

   • Embed this notice
     Sharan Volin (sharan@mastodon.gamedev.place)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Nov-2024 23:50:41 JST Sharan Volin

     in reply to

     @cstross hmm. Yeah, so much for "don't be evil". I guess when there's an antitrust suit involved they go all in on the evil. :(

   • Embed this notice
     Charlie Stross (cstross@wandering.shop)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Nov-2024 23:52:42 JST Charlie Stross

     in reply to

     • SaareMartha

     @SaareMartha Wordpress has Fediverse integration. (However, Wordpress means (a) deciding where you stand wrt. the current Wordpress/WPEngine slapfest and (b) being able to tolerate PHP. (Spoiler: I can cope with (a) but not (b).)

     https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/29/wordpress-vs-wp-engine-drama-explained/

   • Embed this notice
     SaareMartha (saaremartha@epicure.social)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Nov-2024 23:52:43 JST SaareMartha

     in reply to

     @cstross
     So the question then becomes: How do bloggers counter this piece of shittification? Could Mastodon offer a way to post blogs from within a dedicated server?

   • Embed this notice
     valhalla (valhalla@social.gl-como.it)'s status on Thursday, 07-Nov-2024 00:28:57 JST valhalla

     in reply to

     • SaareMartha

     @SaareMartha @cstross friendica has a feature where it can follow and rss feed and post for you whatever comes from that feed, it's what I use to post the contents of my blog on the Fediverse.

     Of course it requires a friendica account, which is not as easy to get as a mastodon one, but I also believe it's only one option among hopefully many.

   • Embed this notice
     wpieper (wpieper@mstdn.social)'s status on Thursday, 07-Nov-2024 01:14:56 JST wpieper

     in reply to

     @cstross
     my mind keeps going back to gamergate and how the larger public didn’t pay attention. obviously it wasn’t the first online flex of these creatures, but it stands out to me.

     i despair for my country, i am furious at my neighbors, and i am afraid for my nieces

     these liars, grifters, cheats, and fascists will not stop, they must be stopped. and my fellow americans decided they wanted more

   • Embed this notice
     SaareMartha (saaremartha@epicure.social)'s status on Thursday, 07-Nov-2024 02:11:53 JST SaareMartha

     in reply to

     • valhalla

     @valhalla @cstross
     Interesting

     valhalla likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     Charlie Stross (cstross@wandering.shop)'s status on Thursday, 07-Nov-2024 05:01:16 JST Charlie Stross

     in reply to

     • Jens Finkhäuser

     @jens Sure.

   • Embed this notice
     Jens Finkhäuser (jens@social.finkhaeuser.de)'s status on Thursday, 07-Nov-2024 05:01:18 JST Jens Finkhäuser

     in reply to

     @cstross Can I quote that verbatim?