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   Anuj Ahooja (quillmatiq@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 16-Jan-2026 23:44:25 JST Anuj Ahooja

   • Evan Prodromou

   @evan There is no utility in protocols, platforms, or products without the people

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Friday, 16-Jan-2026 23:44:25 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     @quillmatiq does that make people the most important part of the system?

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Friday, 16-Jan-2026 23:55:22 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     @quillmatiq I tend to agree, but I'm disputing for the enjoyment of the question.

     Without the products, platforms, and protocols, the people would be distant and isolated. Most communications devices are products. I think you could make a case that spoken language is a protocol.

     Without communications, people are isolated. We're barely people in a meaningful sense.

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     Anuj Ahooja (quillmatiq@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 16-Jan-2026 23:55:23 JST Anuj Ahooja

     in reply to

     • Evan Prodromou

     @evan yes 🙂↕️! why would we be here if it weren't for the people we build communities with? When social platforms change for the worse, isn't our first reaction "but I don't want to leave my people"?

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jan-2026 00:05:37 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     @quillmatiq emergent phenomena arise from networks of communicating, connected humans. Like cultures, religions, political movements, nation states. One term I've seen is intersubjectivity, the things that only exist between people:

     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersubjectivity

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jan-2026 00:09:54 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     @quillmatiq yeah, it's a bit of rug pull to zoom out on other pre-Internet networks, like telephones, writing, and local newspapers.

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     Anuj Ahooja (quillmatiq@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jan-2026 00:09:55 JST Anuj Ahooja

     in reply to

     • Evan Prodromou

     @evan my assumption was that the context is online social networks rather than something broader! But, I think the point still stands that without people, the other P's hold no value, but people hold value regardless of all the other P's.

     What is the value of a language if no one ever exists to speak it?

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jan-2026 00:17:50 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     @quillmatiq I think it takes some extreme individualism, which definitely isn't universal, to say that a person is more important than their city, religion, or country.

     (I think this is an extreme over-extension of my point, though. Even if emergent entities arise from Internet communications networks in the same way they did from pre-Internet communications networks, we're not at a point (yet?) where people are willing to put the good of their Subreddit above their own needs.)

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     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jan-2026 03:40:09 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     @quillmatiq touché!

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     Anuj Ahooja (quillmatiq@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jan-2026 03:40:10 JST Anuj Ahooja

     in reply to

     • Evan Prodromou

     @evan I specifically didn't say "person", I said "people" 🙂