Notices by Strypey (strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz)

This is a bellwether of where calls for "AI" regulation are at in Aotearoa;

"AI is being hyped by major tech companies worldwide, who often overstate the capabilities of their products. And for every positive article or press release, there is another news story highlighting AI harms."

*But*;

"We all want New Zealand to prosper. And we agree that AI has a major role to play. But it must be used in a safe and responsible manner."

https://regulateai.nz/

(1/?)

#MOLE #AI

A years or 2 into my time on that anarchist email list, some of the links people shared led to a newish service called EGroups, where anyone could start their own email lists;

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

It was later bought by Yahoo! and merged with YahooGroups, and a couple of decades later, deleted. My first experience of a startup funded by Venture Capitalists, and the startup lifecycle described in @Rushkoff's 'Throwing Rocks ...', and @aral's talk about unicorns shitting on lawns.

(3/?)

I was a bit too late to the internet party to get on UseNet. By the time I got regular net access in the late 1990s, email lists ('listservs' in the jargon of the time, or sometimes 'email loops') were the place to be.

I cut my online debating teeth on a well-established anarchist anarchist list, run using the Majordomo software. This was a fantastic resource, including anarchists from a number of countries, and a source of regular news about new ways other activists were using the net.

(1/?)

It was through that anarchist email list that I learned about the plans for an Independent Media Centre for the 1999 protests in Seattle. Along with the accompaning Indymedia site, which became the focus on my media activism for most of the 2000s.

From there I also learned about the Nothingness situationist email lists;

https://www.nothingness.org/about.html

(FYI list links are currently broken, but the page gives a favour)

As well as a bunch of other activist email lists hosted in various places.

(2/?)

@hakui
> having to click through to see the rest, instead of just getting tagged in every reply part is an additional step for me and i'd prefer the latter

I hear you, I'll do my best to remember. But I have ADH... oh look a squirrel! Urrgh, where was I? Oh yeah, feel free to remind me if I forget ; )

I think the best solution, as @p says, is not to use Mastodon for serious discussions. I really need to document the various alt accounts I've had kicking around, and see which ones still exist.

@p
> forcing everything into a gimmicky character count obviously completely sucks as an interaction method

I've been reflecting on this. See my thread today comparing the email list interaction model to the social media one.

@hakui

@p
> Interspersed with UI interaction elements and metrics

Unavoidable, yes. But pretty easy to tune out. I don't even see this stuff unless I'm looking for it.

> and other posts

Not if you click on one of the posts in my chains, surely?! If that doesn't gather them all into an unbroken sequence, then whatever software you're using is broke and needs fixing.

@hakui

@p
> The guy that complained about being unable to follow the thread from Friendica

Ok. Never saw those messages.

> I don't watch Game of Thrones

Liar : P

> Pleroma uses the <pre>-style whitespace styling on the frontend

Ah, this is an interop problem. I assumed @hakui was just being sloppy. My apologies : )

@zer0unplanned

@p
> he couldn't tell

Who couldn't? Are you trying to avoid saying Voldemort out loud?

> who was replying to what

I've struggled a bit with the same issue in some of @hakui's replies, due to a lack of blank lines between quote and response, as it appears in my app (Moshidon). If there were more than 2 people in our conversation, I don't think I would have any idea who'd said what without reading back.

@p
> You've gotta do small bytes and break them up into a few sentences (barely a full paragraph)

This is true. But it also forces me to break my big, hairy analyses into digestible chunks. So when people make the effort to click on the post and read the whole sequence, they probably get a more coherent and *shorter* text.

My post chains are already long for blog posts. Imagine the rambling pamphlet-length essays you'd have to chew on if I had unlimited characters at my disposal! 😱

@hakui

@p
> I hear it's easy to move to glitch-soc

To move my account or to switch our instance over?

@hakui

(1/2)

@p
> I think something through and then reply and you've already addressed it in your next post in the thread

I've noticed this with other people too. I'm coming around the idea that Mastodon is just the wrong tool for anything beyond shitposting and casual chit-chat.

As mentioned in the other comment I just posted, I find Friendica unusable for different reasons. I'm loath to put significant effort into conversations using accounts where I don't know and trust the host.

@hakui

(1/2)

@p
> Whatsisface says it makes thread navigation difficult

Friendica does? I find its UI slow and counterintuitive, and it doesn't seem to have changed significantly since the first prototypes written by MacGirvin.

I used to have an account on the LibraNet instance, and thought maybe they were running an older version, or using an underpowered server. But when I tested the instance set up recently at friendica.iridescent.nz, I had exactly the same experience.

@hakui

@hakui
> you can consider getting yourself a more reasonable character post limit

That was @p's suggestion too. Our server cluster now has a Friendica account I could use for my lengthy diatribes. I find the default Friendica interface deeply unpleasant, but if I can find a good mobile app that supports it well, that might be a solution.

@hakui
> "unlimited growth from free money" works effectively until the free money stops

Intriguing. Can you explain what you mean by "free money" here, and by "growth", and how you think the one drives the other?

@icedquinn @djsumdog @technolyze

(1/2)

@hakui
> most money is actually credit, which can be extended by banks at will through their loans

This is a structural observation about how modern banking works. It's MMT 101, and I think it's correct.

@icedquinn @djsumdog @technolyze

(2/2)

@hakui
> if banks are competing to try to lend out money it's easy to start new ventures

This OTOH is neoclassical dogma. Dreamed up (at least promulgated) by by Friedmanites, as an excuse to transfer control of the money supply from democratic governments to unaccountable corporations. A project that also included the repeal of Glass–Steagall (directly causing the GFC) and bank deregulation in general.

The dogma is not only not supported by evidence, it's directly contradicted by it.

(1/?)

@hakui
> starting a business requires upfront costs

Not always, but it definitely helps, even for industries that don't require a lot of capital, eg consultancy.

> covering those costs with a bank loan ... is clearly easier than saving up to meet those costs

Accepting this for the sake of argument;

It's quicker, for sure. It's also significantly more expensive, and makes your business a subsidiary of the bank until you can pay it off.

*But*

This isn't actually how business works.

(1/2)

Process note:

Since fediverse software doesn't automate this, I use a number system - eg (1/?) or (3/3) - to indicate that a post is part of a larger chain. Common rejoinders to the point I'm making in 1 post might be anticipated and answered in a subsequent one.

I get the utility of replying directly to individual posts on such chain (and sometimes do). But it's definitely worth reading the whole chain first, and ideally leaving oneself a bit of reflection time before replying.

@hakui

@hakui
> you can continue to tag the person you're replying to in (2+/?)

I used to, never gave it a second thought. But I did wonder why people used to get *really* pissed off after a few lengthy but friendly exchanges. And sometimes accused me of being a sealion when I was just using my own right of reply.

It was @p who pointed out that my multi-post replies were (as well as being avoidably a lot of words to digest) flooding people's notifications, and creating a sealiony feeling.