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   EVHaste (haste@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 07-Apr-2026 02:33:22 JST EVHaste

   It’s been a weird couple days; I keep running into this talking point that “journalists won’t use Mastodon unless we incentivize engagement farming”.

   Meanwhile I’m having a *great* experience here, because I use it to— I dunno— actually talk to people and form relationships?

   I reject the premise that mastodon isn’t useful for reporters. I think it’s more accurate that modern news orgs use social media in purely extractive ways.

   You might get more reporters that way, but you won’t like them.

   • Embed this notice
     EVHaste (haste@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 07-Apr-2026 02:33:21 JST EVHaste

     in reply to

     I think if we’re honest with ourselves, the “service” most reporters provide on social media is entirely self-serving. A one-way firehose of signal boosting and self promotion.

     “Look at me! I wrote this story. Click on it!”
     And then you ask them a question, or have a correction, and nobody reads it, because Wired doesn’t care about building a community, just reaching a consumer. It’s fire and forget.

     We already have a tool for that, it’s RSS. What value does reposting a link here provide?

   • Embed this notice
     Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 07-Apr-2026 02:33:21 JST Rich Felker

     in reply to

     @Haste Back on :birdsite:, I felt like they did provide a service. They cited their own articles, but adversarially to the publications they worked for - poking through the clickbait and bullshit headlines, telling the stories of what they cared about, how they researched the story, etc. that they weren't allowed to do in the actual publication.

     Now, all they do is act as mouthpieces for the companies they work for. 🤮

   • Embed this notice
     EVHaste (haste@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 07-Apr-2026 02:33:22 JST EVHaste

     in reply to

     And I mean, is that really want you want? Or is it just what you’re used to?

   • Embed this notice
     Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 07-Apr-2026 02:34:00 JST Rich Felker

     in reply to

     • Erwin

     RE: https://hachyderm.io/@dalias/116358958213462520

     @odd @Haste Early and even late Twitter was so much better from what "journalists" do on "social media" now.

   • Embed this notice
     Erwin (odd@mstdn.social)'s status on Tuesday, 07-Apr-2026 02:34:09 JST Erwin

     in reply to

     @Haste I wasn't on Twitter before its downfall, but from what I've heard I got the impression that microblogging was a two-way street with journalists, scientists and 'common' folk.

     It probably was more like you are suggesting though. But it does make me wonder if early Twitter really was less self-serving in a way.