Anton ⁂

@Em0nM4stodon if they cared about the well-being of children and developmental problems with being exposed to the the internet they'd be talking about different thing. You'd want to make the internet less addictive and dangerous, by limiting ad-tracking and algorithmic systems the incentivize mass data harvesting. Force public-facing spaces to effectively moderate to keep from being dangerous to children. You'd want to make the material environment more hospitable to doing anything other than sitting inside on a computer all day. Limiting cars so it's safe to be outside, promoting public parks, social programs and child-friendly public events.

@dansup@mastodon.social ultimately I like activitypub architecturally. The kind of politics that I want to promote would I think be best promoted by the more federated model But ultimately it doesn't really matter. The point is to undo the colonization that has been done to our attention and social relations. Whatever does that is good

@catileptic I think far too much of radical thought doesn't engage with immediate steps that existing institutions can make to undermine systems of oppression. I put part of this that radicals have been successfully driven out of institutional power, retreating to underground or academia where only individualist approaches are viable. Adtech platforms are able to exist as they do in large part because there are few viable alternatives for local institutions that would otherwise be sites of resistance. How is the local artisan bakery supposed to advertise? How is the local church supposed to coordinate events? How can we make it more convenient for the smaller powers that be to align with us, instead of with the enemies of humanity?

@tankgrrl@hachyderm.io oh joy, another attack vector for fucking up AI "enhanced" management systems

@GeofCox@climatejustice.social @ScottMGS@justme.masto.host @pluralistic@mamot.fr I don't think it'd be an easy sell mind you but it could work, a lot of otherwise extremely conservative people in state and local govt don't have fond feelings about big tech

@glassresistor @codinghorror @violetmadder like.... yes you can have an understanding of "human nature" as a concept and the political motives of social scientists of the 1900s to make this position reasonable in a vaccum but that is not a reasonable statement to make in this context. having studied history does not make people automatically agree with you nor automatically have the correct opinions

@glassresistor @codinghorror @violetmadder all these ad-supported businesses that would otherwise be subscription-based are heavily reliant on network effects. it's a lot easier to get someone to try something if that thing is free to use. That understanding of the demand for piracy in large part comes from Valve Software and Steam. With the Steam example Valve had the benefit of making Half-Life, one of the most popular games of all time. And the other thing with Steam is that a lot of the people who make games for Steam would not settle for a non-paid option. because the content and the consumer aren't distinguishable for social networking. For the promises of federated systems to really work, exit costs need to be kept as low as possible. Most people do not, and should not be expected to, have loyalty to their particular instance strong enough to make most instances financially sustainable. Ads should have their place in the federated ecosystem. especially when said ads are structured in a way that helps recruit powerful people in the fight against tech-oligarchy and the surveillance state

@violetmadder @codinghorror when I say powerful people I mean elected officials, local political parties, union leaders, small business owners. These people are absolutely not the tech oligarchy, these are also categorically not just "ordinary people". Those types of people are in fact quite often *the* enemy in wide range of political struggles. I've thought about this shit before, I understand many of the problems with advertising as a model. If you have a specific structural concern with how advertising would corrupt the platform incentives I'm all ears. If you have another way I can potentially make a living for myself and others fighting the colonization of our attention and social relations by tech ghouls. Which doesn't increase barriers to entry, and doesn't require being beholden to wealthy donors, and isn't advertising, I'd fucking LOVE to hear it

@glassresistor my point was there wasn't any claim made @codinghorror that warrants so much hostility from you. Yea he was being dismissive and annoying. But whats the core disagreement here? Funding models for media outlets? do we really need to be so dogmatic about it instead of just.... talking about the many, many problems with ad-supported models

@glassresistor not surprised, libertarian reply guys tend to have a recognizable pattern But obviously I, as someone without said context has no reason to be compelled by it. You're undermining your position against the need for ads by making a bunch of vague and inflamitory non-sequiturs

@codinghorror alright that's fair, I should have been more precise with my jab at you I meant with that is that you were taking an overly assertive tone. but that such a tone from you does not justify abandoning rigorous argument

@codinghorror @Em0nM4stodon The problems of algorithmic tracking and individual micro-targeting are distinct and much more pernicious than the problems of ad-supported media in general Long term the project of 99finches is to convince local businesses in Iowa to advertise here instead of on platforms that have been proven in open court to have screwed over their business clients on ad purchases. Then use that revenue to pay people in Iowa to do the long-term work needed to make the Fediverse a serious threat to big tech.

@codinghorror @Em0nM4stodon good to hear. If you got ideas on how to convince to local businesses plz share

@GeofCox@climatejustice.social @ScottMGS@justme.masto.host @pluralistic@mamot.fr in the coming years it's going to be much MUCH easier to convince local governments to move off of proprietary office suites as (fingers crossed) the French and German governments start putting public money behind open-source development

@zotero@fosstodon.org after not having reason to open zotero for more time than I would like to admit, I open it up and see that it's updated to zotero 8, which completely reworked the citation dialog. That thing was by far the biggest pain point in using the program for me. the update seems to have basically everything I could want from it. Huge W

@sarahtaber@mastodon.online so the thesis of the video is about the ways that scientific illiteracy is undermined for reasons unrelated to the material reality of the plants. So trying to solve this issue by scientific literacy isn't per se going to be a viable solution I guess the question is how much different kinds scientific literacy efforts compare in terms of providing effective counter-pressure on the decisions that make these problems work.

@mawr@plush.city @LeDiva@lediva.masto.host @cwebber@social.coop when am I going to get the dulcet voice of Rod Sterling to take me to the gender zone?