Curmudgeon @Curmudgeon@qoto.org

“Now that we're in a moment of disruption and there's the potential that social media might be very different on the other side of it, we're going to need to retrain ourselves to become more active news consumers again. Or, at least, I am.

Which is how I ended up firing up an RSS feed reader for the first timed in a long time last week. And honestly, when I launched it, it felt like a revelation.”
— @dansinker
https://dansinker.com/posts/rssfeeds/

This is the way. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

😂 So I asked #ChatGPT to write a sea #shanty about #JohnMastodon:

Oh ho ho and a bottle of rum!
We'll sing a song of John Mastodon,
A hero of the social scene,
Fighting against the evil Elon Musk,
Twitter's wicked queen.

He roamed the seas of the internet,
A stalwart, brave and true,
Defending all the simple folk,
From those who'd see them through.

With a heart of gold and a spirit strong,
He battled on through thick and thin,
And when the day was done and won,
His followers numbered in the billions.

So raise a glass and sing a song,
For John Mastodon, the hero of the hour,
He's vanquished Musk and all his tricks,
And given hope to the web's downtrodden flower.

So here's to you, John Mastodon,
May your legend never fade,
For you've brought light to the dark corners,
Of the internet's endless glade.

@ProPublica
@Pwnallthethings
@QasimRashid
@rbreich
@RedTRaccoon
@RhutaBhayga
@RSchooley
@rubenbolling
@ruthbenghiat
@rvawonk
@shoq
@SpockResists
@Stonekettle
@tomtomorrow
@tusk81
@WalterShaub
@weisselberger

💙💙💙💙💙

@gregolear
@GregSargent
@gretathunberg
@hollyoreilly
@ifilljustice
@jennycohn
@JenRubin
@jentaub
@JeriLRyan
@joyannreid
@juddlegum
@JuliusGoat
@kathhayhoe
@kathygriffin
@krisSacrebleu
@kurteichenwald
@lawfare
@lindyli
@lolgop
@MadKane
@marcelias
@markhertling
@McSpocky
@MeidasTouch
@mmasnick
@mollyjongfast
@morethanmySLE
@morgfair
@MuellerSheWrote
@NatlSecCnslrs
@neilhimself
@oatmeal
@OhNoSheTwitnt
@opensecrets
@pbump
@Popehat

#TwitterMigration #MastodonMigration
If you're new here, Welcome!

To help get you started, follow these accounts for great info:
@mastodonmigration
@feditips

Some fun #FollowFriday suggestions
@AdamParkhomenko
@annelouiseavery
@AstroKatie
@auschwitzmuseum
@benjaminwittes
@bettybowers
@bitterkarella
@BrennanCenter
@charlotteclymer
@ClaudeTaylor
@CrooksandLiars
@Dahlialith
@DevinCow
@dreamweasel
@drericding
@DrJackBrown
@elevenfilms
@emptywheel
@georgetakei
@godpod
@GottaLaff

Hello #mastodon world!
Here’s a little #introduction on me—
I’m Alexa Gagosz and I’m a business reporter for the #BostonGlobe where I cover the housing crisis in Rhode Island, health care, innovation, and the business of food!
I’m sick of learning about #journalists doing their jobs and getting banned from #twitter.
With that being said, I’m new here and trying to learn. Thanks for the warm welcome ! 📰

#twittermigration #journalism #reporter #news #press #newengland #twitterpurge

A partial list of our reporters you can follow on Masto:

•Caroline Chen @carolinechen

•Annie Waldman @AnnieWaldman

•Perla Trevizo @Perla_Trevizo

•Jeremy Schwartz @JeremySchwartz

•Emily Hopkins @emilyhopkins

•Ken Armstrong @bykenarmstrong

•Mariam Elba @mariamelba

•Jessica Lussenhop @lussenpop

•Ellis Simani @emsimani

•Justin Elliott @elliottjustin

•Max Blau @maxblau

•Andy Kroll @andykroll

•Kartikay Mehrotra @kartikay

•Jeremy Kohler @jeremykohler

•Neil Bedi @neilbedi

@UrcelaM No. I view Post as a microtransaction platform masquerading as a blogging platform. It's another venture capital play

Today is the day.

Goodbye, Twitter.

https://www.forensicnews.co/bye-twitter/

How it started, how it's going, etc. etc.

I've gotten a lot of responses to that Substack piece about leaving Twitter. Many are positive but some are negative. A few are saying "oh so you think free speech is nasty?"

What kind of stupid question is that? Of course I do. The Nazis marching at Skokie were nasty. All sorts of speech is nasty. Supporting free speech doesn't mean reserving judgment about it, you imbecile. It means not using the state to suppress it.

dear god it’s really rancid over there. the stuff I’m used to seeing on later banned accounts or on stormfront

What's going on here is that unrelated libertarian principles are being recoded as issues of free speech. All of sudden preventing algorithmic harm becomes leftist censorship, and the culture war is used as a bulwark against government regulation of discriminatory technologies.

"Algorithmic decisions about parole, loan approvals, interest rates, program admissions, insurance premiums, security clearance, etc. that depend on race and ethnicity? That's not discrimination, it's *speech*."

The Turing Test poisoned the minds of generations of AI enthusiasts, because its criteria is producing text that persuades observers it was written by a human.

The result? Generative AI text products designed to "appear real" rather than produce accurate or ethical outputs.

It *should* be obvious why it's problematic to create a piece of software that excels at persuasion without concern for accuracy, honesty or ethics. But apparently it's not.

BOOST for our #Journalist colleagues.

It takes less than five-minutes to secure and verify your #Mastodon account.

Here is the quick step-by-step #Tutorial. (I also share #Follower #Tips.)

https://robbmontgomery.com/mastodon-a-quick-start-guide-for-journalists/

We all have to make decisions about who we are and who we want to be, and if we aren't mindful of how we treat others and why we do so, the decisions get made thoughtlessly and the environment becomes toxic. Mastodon is an opportunity for Twitter expats to reexamine and reframe our relationship with online life in hopes of leaving behind the parts of the old community that were harmful - but it's also a responsibility to do so. I truly don't want this place to become that place.

Getting one of the computers from Chernobyl working again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1EWsWxObjA