Notices by Scott Jenson (scottjenson@social.coop)

RE: https://mastodon.social/@imanijoy/116522945799121750

It's critical for Mastodon's future to understand and help all users. Please forward this to people you know that aren't as technical but still on the Fediverse. We need to hear from them too!

@tchambers I think you’re right. But what I'm concerned about is that someone will create a layer on top of the models, e.g. access to specific data, connecting to specific services, that will create a moat.

Sure, this is funny but what bothers me the most is that we don't even have a good way of talking about this. This is a foundational error state and likely implies other problems in how it works.

There is something very boring and yet important about this and we can't discuss it easily.

/ht @andrewhinton

@pmdj @dalias
First, I'm using AI as an example, I'm not endorsing AI at all.
Second, and only as an example, there are open source people working on ethically trained local small language models. Again, I'm NOT endorsing them, but I can pretty confidently say that they would NOT be welcome here.

The same applies to journalism, there are VERY strong emotions here, basically telling them to fuck off (their words, not mine)

My point is that there is a pattern here: there are topics this community actively hates and "patrols" against. If that's what the community wants, cool, I'm not here to dictate anything. My point is that it might be nice to have a slightly more open way of sharing ideas: Follow, block, filter. You have the tools to make the feed you want (there are clearly more tools that would be helpful)

I'm just saying that focusing on your feed seems more healthy that attacking people whose opinions you don't like. Here, let me me give you an example of what I got 10 min ago

@dalias @pmdj

Are you saying that asking for Mastodon to somehow be more open to new ideas and to foster a community that is more tolerant some type of evil plot?

@dalias @pmdj

I'm making a post on my timeline that you can ignore. There is a BIG difference to getting in someone's mentions and correcting them.

This is my whole point. We are each on the fediverse and we say what we want. You can like, ignore, whatever.

I'm NOT getting in anyone's mentions, I'm not scolding, I'm ASKING that we are more inclusive because it's the more humane and helpful thing to do, but hey, you can disagree, that's cool.

@trevdev @cratermoon @Gargron @evan

You didn't answer MY question. Have you read the replies to my original post? People are actively joyfully attacking AI, making it clear not only are they not welcome, they should not be here.

To be clear. I"M NOT ENDORSING AI. I just used them as an example of this tendency to police the culture.

@dalias @pmdj

This is the curse of the fediverse, a small cadre of usually old white guys that feel the need to "Educate" everyone around them. This is their duty, the world needs them and will eventually thank them for purifying the timeline of heretics.

@dalias @pmdj

So who watches the watchers?

Are you the god the decides who can stay or who should go? Who gave you that power?

@pmdj @dalias

That is the exact opposite of what I said. I'm saying the fediverse gives you the tools to follow/block/filter/ to your hearts content to create the space you want.

What is corrosive is people ACTIVELY going after people they don't agree with. Just look at the replies to my post to get small sample.

My point was, I thought, very simple, and very reasonable: we should be more welcoming of more opinions. If you don't like them, then don't follow them. That should be the fedi-way. To be clear, I'm NOT endorsing AI, it just used it as an example.

Instead I'm living the very point I was trying to make. I've been told to leave, called a racist, and had ad hominem attacks leveled at me.

Now to be fair, my original post was poorly worded. I've owned that
https://social.coop/@scottjenson/116358195717244835

@Gargron That is a personal choice and one which I totally respect. But I do think Mastodon should be big enough, and open enough, to allow an "AI community" to form, even thrive.

Too many people in my replies don't seem to agree with that.

Is #mastodon becoming an echo chamber? This post from @carnage4life has me questioning our community. The Mastodon team is finally getting some traction, the product improvements are increasing, The #UX is improving, yet people posting on multiple platforms are making comments like this. It's confusing.

I *know* people here don't want this to be a classic social media-clone but we'd *like* journalists to be here right? They aren't coming with examples like this!

As this conversation is spiraling a bit I want to make a few things clear:
1. I'd like Mastodon to be MORE inclusive and bring in more voices
2. Some people don't seem to want that
3. This is core problem to solve: How do we let more in, but not "pollute" your feed?
4. The solution is NOT "gatekeeping", revelling in the fact that AI journalists aren't welcome
5. This is the same reason we lost "Black Twitter" when it came over in 2022

Yes, a lot of you don't want AI posts in your feed (or pick any other topic) but the solution isn't to keep "AI People" from joining Mastodon, any more than it is keeping marginalized communities off of Mastodon.

RE: https://mastodon.social/@Mastodon/116302074492502983

UX work on open source projects, especially one like Mastodon that has so much legacy, is very challenging. @imanijoy is going a great job navigating this

This isn't a good sign
https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/899850/openai-sora-ai-chatgpt

#Baltic Friends!

I'm going to be travelling starting in #Helsinki and then working my way through #Estonia, #Latvia, and #Lithuania mid-June through mid-July this summer. While I expect most schools will be on vacation, I'm still looking for any interesting #UX groups/teams that I could visit. Please feel free to pass my name along to anyone.

Hello #mastodon friends!
Can anyone recommend how to find older posts you've made? I'm trying to search "scottjenson KEYWORD" but I'm hardly getting anything. Perplexity actually was able to find things better than Mastodon.

Maybe there is a utility app I could use? I'm even willing to download ALL of my posts once a year to maintain my own archive...

Suggestions?

I just went through my Twitter archive from 2007-2022 and used a simple Python script to see who I interacted with most. Here are the top 10 people from my archive. I couldn't be more pleased (and not really surprised) So exciting they all appear to be on Mastodon. Below is the the list with Twitter handle, count. I've found your mastodon handles below.

@mwichary,367
@AaronGustafson,359
@bryanrieger,335
@stephanierieger,293
@leggett,261
@kfury,244
@stopsatgreen,178
@grigs,177
@tobie,173
@brad_frost,171

@mwichary
@Aaron
@bryanrieger
@stephanierieger
@leggett
@kfury
@stopsatgreen
@grigs
@tobie
@brad_frost

#mastondon Friends!

There is a TON of improvements we could make to Private Mentions (often called DMs on other platforms) e.g.
* getting them out of the public timeline
* Having a stronger notification tied to the Private Mention tab
* (amount other things)

But here is my MAIN question: How critical is it that these message are encrypted? I'm not against encryption! It's just complex and will take time. If we were to make some UX changes as a first pass WITHOUT encryption would you be OK with that (at least for now?)

If you MUST have encryption, that's fine, please do me the favor of replying explaining why you need it.

I attended the 800th episode celebration of the #Simpsons last night in LA. That's Matt Groening and James Brooks on stage. It was actually a very good show, there is a resurgence to the franchise