Erik Haugen @ech@qoto.org

@georgetakei An interesting thing about microblogging is that it allows you to make misleading posts like this to score cheap rhetorical points with no real blowback to your credibility.

In better fora, people would stop putting up with this nonsense pretty quick.

@LouisIngenthron @georgetakei You are very wise, sir.

In this case, the narrative, like much of Takei's narratives, is full of shit.

The drivers ran over the shooter. I'm not saying I would have still concluded the shooter is off the hook, but this at least sort of changes things a little, at least, yes?

@AliceMarshall Streisand effect; now everyone knows about the tip line. We'll see how this plays out.

@skry @sentient_water You are likely overstating the credibility hit :) (This place sort of self-selects for that, I realize.)

"show character" is kind of what I was getting at. It would be great if we could en-masse move everyone to a platform that was run reasonably. (This is one reason I'm here instead – protocols not platforms.) But we can't. Any journalist who does is likely just throwing a good chunk of their career/influence/etc away for infinitesimal practical benefit to the world. Is that really the hill you want journalists to choose? Think the journalists you'd consider most likely to do what you're asking for here: do you want them silenced for such little gain? I sure wouldn't.

<skip overwrought Nazi analogy>

@clairep @chadloder It's not, of course; despite all this noise. Not Masnick's finest analysis. Check it out: has it become a "Nazi bar"?

@freemo

I don't know; maybe?

See these when you're logged out:
https://mastodon.online/explore
https://freeatlantis.com/explore
It says "These posts from this and other servers in the decentralized network are gaining traction on this server right now."

That's what I mean.

https://qoto.org/explore
It's sort of a directory of users. Nice, but totally different.

@sentient_water The question is about implied endorsement, right? If you're a reporter for a DS subsidiary I think that implies something that using a platform like Twitter doesn't.

Using Twitter doesn't mean you wholeheartedly approve of e.g. what Twitter did to NPR in the way that reporting for DS means you embrace antisemitism, for example.

@chadloder oops "Surely using the platform is implied endorsement" I meant "is *not* implied endorsement." pardon me.

@chadloder I'm not sure how that opinion leads to anything useful for anyone. I guess for you this could be one way to narrow down the menu of available journalism you consume, though, so there's that. 😂

@baslow You'd hope large instance runners would do this work, but alas I got booted from mstdn.social for fascist vitriol like "Flip side, though, libertarian extremist violence is extremely rare, you gotta admit" and "The state runs the schools, so of course it regulates history books. That's obviously true regardless of party."

You see, I dared suggest that lefty-idpol maybe doesn't have a monopoly on righteousness.

@chadloder If you're a journalist (or any writer trying to increase eyeballs), don't you syndicate wherever you can to get more views? fb, twitter, lefty mastodon, righty mastodon, whoever will host your content for free, why not?

I mean, some outlets have an answer to "why not?", like NPR's "why not?" is that it can't use the platform without the platform calling them government propaganda or however it was phrased; free publishing in that context was deemed not worth the reputation hit etc.

Surely using the platform is implied endorsement of all of the companies actions.

Maybe your point is: if one journalist gets off twitter then that will ever-so-slightly push consumers off twitter – there's less to read there.

But I kinda think that won't work. Who will get off? Exactly the people who agree with you anyway about Twitter's actions despite being on twitter already. Like what's the point of that.

@baslow again, well put!

@freemo I feel like the marketplace of algorithms would be nice. @masnick's "Protocols, Not Platforms" paper https://knightcolumbia.org/content/protocols-not-platforms-a-technological-approach-to-free-speech outlines this idea with some analysis.

Mastodon seems to have an algorithm, by default; just add /explore to the name of the server. (or click on # explore) But qoto has this disabled for reasons I can only guess at. AFAICT this algorithm is basically boost count?

@baslow I get blocked a lot for posting a contrary opinion as a reply, just as you describe. One funny thing I've noticed is that people almost always reply to me immediately before blocking me. I wonder what the thinking is there; is it a subconscious desire to have the last word?

@CherokeeSher worse, even, because it signals that you bought something worthless.

@rodhilton This pathological level of insecurity deserves our pity, not scorn.

@RethinkJeff "Choosing not to mask is choosing to kill people." This has always been true, of course. Probably what, like a million? people annually die from diseases that would maybe be squelched if everyone wore N95s (correctly!) at all times in public indoor places. Were you clamoring for masks 5 years ago? Are you going to wear an N95 for the rest of your life now that you have had this realization?

@RethinkJeff @jensimmons nah, not much, unless we're wearing n95s. (For maximum benefit you need to wear them properly; I don't even know how.) And once you start taking them off to eat at restaurants etc. we aren't really trying at that point, right?

Surgical and cloth masks are nearly useless; we've known this for years: https://www.kgw.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/face-masks/covid-variants-masks-protections/283-65f16fa6-abd2-45f9-9e9a-35f43a6b6317

@rik @dell probably the part where he divulged private information that had been gained via the sim-swap attack.