volkris @volkris@qoto.org
I think the most pressing and fundamental problem of the day is that people lack a practically effective means of sorting out questions of fact in the larger world. We can hardly begin to discuss ways of addressing reality if we can't agree what reality even is, after all.
The institutions that have served this role in the past have dropped the ball, so the next best solution is talking to each other, particularly to those who disagree, to sort out conflicting claims.
Unfortunately, far too many actively oppose this, leaving all opposing claims untested. It's very regressive.
So that's my hobby, striving to understanding the arguments of all sides at least because it's interesting to see how mythologies are formed but also because maybe through that process we can all have our beliefs tested.
But if nothing else, social media platforms like this are chances to vent frustrations that on so many issues both sides are obviously wrong ;)
Joined Dec 2022
From listening to mainstream #conservative commentators I get the impression that core #Republican voters are very insular, an enormous echo chamber that doesn't recognize the positions of even Republican leaning independents in the country.
This is interesting because it's one thing for a small group or faction of a movement to be an echo chamber, but this seems to be basically an entire major political party buying into confirmation bias.
The midterm elections and then yesterday's VA election highlighted this, as Republicans were excitedly predicting a sweep, that they told themselves was coming, that didn't come.
The implications for the presidential primary process are significant, as the primary process exists to overcome the wasted ballots of the voting system, but that doesn't work if a party is so disconnected from the larger voting population.
volkris
boosted
(I just want to be clear, because this is getting boosted and I'm a pedantic sort of person, that the "whose" is the joke)
Struggling with malfunctioning autocorrect on my new pixel phone, I'm just saying, I'm not going to trust AI to drive cars until it can at least master the Oxford comma.
Whose with me?
volkris
boosted
@volkris "There are a broad variety of users on SPC, from "normal people" to edgeposters, to creatives. Mostly we want to have a good time. You have free speech on SPC but at the same time, we don't want the server to turn to shit and flamewars and Heil Hitler All The Time. So try to relax and have fun. This isn't a rule, but a plea. We've been around for almost five years and the server's got a comfy vibe and we want you to be a part of it." This is the official stance on our culture.
#RT because I feel like I honestly learned something that other people might not realize.
I thought shitposter.club was an instance actively devoted to shit posting, but apparently not?
I'm genuinely relaying this post because I judged posts from that domain as unserious and so spreading the word that apparently they can be serious.
@volkris Keep lurking more and you'll discover that we're a diverse and generally chilled instance. We've been around since the GNU Social days of ...
volkris
boosted
If we're going to do daylight saving time we should really commit to the bit and switch to Fahrenheit in the winter so it sounds warmer too.
With the furor over the election of #Johnson to Speaker of the House spreading through the feeds here, NOW can we finally hold #Democrats responsible for the votes they actively chose to place that set this up and enabled the #GOP nutjobs?
Maybe people were holding out over a misguided fantasy that Dems and Reps would form a sort of coalition government, but now that they've elected someone so many here don't like, is finally OK to point out that their strategy was a bad one?
volkris
boosted
Day 58 of posting grilled cheese sandwiches until I run out of cheese types: Face Rock Creamery, Monterey Jack https://www.diningandcooking.com/1002834/day-58-of-posting-grilled-cheese-sandwiches-until-i-run-out-of-cheese-types-face-rock-creamery-monterey-jack/
volkris
boosted
Having used #Bluesky for a while, here's what it does right, compared to #Mastodon (and lesser extend the #fediverse )
- You have one identity, regardless of server/federation.
- This identity belongs to you and not some server.
- It's OK to have asymetric interactions: journalist model. Journalists are there, and not here.
- It listens to users wishes: algorithmic timelines (opt-in!), search, discovery, quote-posts are what new users want, and what they get.
volkris
boosted
@psu_13 I gave up on Adguard because "Adguard *For Safari*" contains an entire copy of Chrome inside it, for compatibility with the latest WebP exploits. https://mastodon.social/@jwz/111132818664259012
volkris
boosted
No one is ever satisfied with dystopia. They always imagine that things are better over in dat topia.
volkris
boosted
volkris
boosted
Next year, SpaceX aims to average one launch every 2.5 days
SpaceX's Falcon rockets are flying more often than any launch vehicle in history.
People delighting in #Jordan not getting enough votes to be elected Speaker and the business of the #House resumed really capture the idea of cutting off the nose to spite the face.
Well, or maybe they just like to see the world burn.
Ah well, so long as they don't go on to complain about the legislative business that's not getting done.
Sounds like much more interesting #moderation options on #nostr than #Fediverse
there is more than that, there is delegated distributed moderation via reports, mute lists, web of trust, keywords and some algos, also ip filters ...
volkris
boosted
one of the biggest mistruths i've seen about the fediverse is that it is based on specifications. fedi followed a couple of specifications a long time ago. now it is unregulated, based on whatever behavior mastodon happens to have. the specifications themselves don't provide an entire social media network, which is why there are so many extensions just to make it usable. the spec is the mastodon codebase
and even then, activitystreams borrows it's extension system from json-ld, an overcomplicated serialization format for RDF, which is just worse XML. this means that, in order to make activitystreams usable, you have to implement an overcomplicated schema system that nothing else uses
the fediverse is unstandardized and entirely based on whatever happens to end up being used in practice. it is violated as implementations please and extensions end up based on throwing shit at the wall waiting for something to stick
volkris
boosted
I feel that the #fediverse's lack of an #algorithm is *more* toxic than #Twitter; on #mastodon's #chronological timeline I feel like I'm missing out on important signal in the noise so I have to spend more time combing through it, exploring #hashtags, #following them, #mute words, build #lists, etc. With Twitter there were ads, but also there was all the best stuff since the last time you logged in, sorted by how interesting it would be to YOU! That was awesome; I miss that!
FWIW, I thought #Ahsoka was pretty awful, not really worth watching, but I made it to the end to say I gave it a full shot, as is my way.
It was a mess of bad dialog, flat characters without arcs, poor decisions without consequences, inconsistencies, and maybe worst of all, the great reveal of #Thrawn, built up to be the smartest tactician ever, as a bumbling fool.
So many of the characters reminded me of the old review of "This comes across as dumb people writing what they think smart people are like."
I thought #Andor was really good. Ahsoka was just a superficial, vapid miss of an opportunity.
I think the most pressing and fundamental problem of the day is that people lack a practically effective means of sorting out questions of fact in the larger world. We can hardly begin to discuss ways of addressing reality if we can't agree what reality even is, after all.
The institutions that have served this role in the past have dropped the ball, so the next best solution is talking to each other, particularly to those who disagree, to sort out conflicting claims.
Unfortunately, far too many actively oppose this, leaving all opposing claims untested. It's very regressive.
So that's my hobby, striving to understanding the arguments of all sides at least because it's interesting to see how mythologies are formed but also because maybe through that process we can all have our beliefs tested.
But if nothing else, social media platforms like this are chances to vent frustrations that on so many issues both sides are obviously wrong ;)
Joined Dec 2022
