volkris @volkris@qoto.org
Since I guess everything is political these days, I'll identify as extremely liberal but without a home in US politics.
Mainly, there's so much misinformation out there that people in society have trouble even organizing into coherent political groupings. So I'd rather not talk about politics but instead focus on information and education. Nothing else matters until the bedrock of fact is buttressed.
But... people are always going to be wrong on the internet, as the saying goes.
So: Old man yells at clouds is a famous joke from The Simpsons, and it probably fairly describes what we do when venting on social media.
Just speaking into the void, since I figure it's an exercise in futility to conduct discussions on these platforms.
Joined Dec 2022
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
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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
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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.
volkris
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"Running a successful open source project is just Good Will Hunting in reverse, where you start out as a respected genius and end up being a janitor who gets into fights." - Bryne Hobart
volkris
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There is no law stating that the Speaker of the House has to be human. Scientists estimate that 20 quadrillion ants live on Earth. One of them has to have the right stuff.
volkris
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me after upgrading Debian Linux to v12 from v11 https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/update-upgrade-debian-11-to-debian-12-bookworm/
volkris
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just a reminder that the Nobel Prizes are being announced this week so if you get a phone call from country code +46, don't let it go to voice mail or they'll move along to the next best person.
volkris
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The justices often get pigeon-holed as "conservative" or "liberal", but political scientist John Tures says that's too simplistic.
Typically, over half of decisions each term (which may be the less controversial and publicized ones) are decided unanimously or 8-1.
#uspolitics #USPol #SCOTUS (2 of 3)
One step forward: mainstream conservatives today intensely criticizing last night's Republican debate as a mess of people yelling over each other instead of expressing positions and exploring matters of substance.
Two steps backwards: the exact same individuals celebrating that it's the rolling around in the mud moments that let you really figure out who the candidate really is.
Well, it's not just conservatives of the moment: throughout the political environment, across the political spectrum we see people bashing bad outcomes before supporting exactly the elements that brought us to the place and promote it into the future.
We get the government we ask for. We need to stop asking for such socially unhealthy things.
We can't put all the blame on politicians for doing what we empowered them to do, and reelected them for doing.
The dysfunction will continue so long as we keep reelecting politicians promising dysfunction.
Never forget the feedback effect of negative things filling a vacuum when positive things are removed.
Whether that's in politics or business or information platforms.
So many good people left #Twitter and demanded that other good people also leave the platform, so there should be no surprise that the platform shows more bad actors now.
But it's a case of complaining how the game is going after deciding not to play anymore.
Musk’s X spreads more disinformation than rival social networks, EU says Twitter/X left voluntary alliance but is "not off the hook," EU official s...
Sounds like the #Hollywood writer's strike is raising the issue of requiring an arbitrary minimal number of writers to be involved in a production, which just makes me think about the phrase "designed by committee."
It's not supposed to be a positive phrase, so making the committee arbitrarily larger doesn't inspire confidence in the eventual work.
Contrary to news reports, according to the CRS status table, no, the #Senate hasn't passed its appropriations bills while the #House dilly-dallies.
It seems the story that #Musk disabled #Starlink to sabotage #Ukraine has been disputed by the author who was the original source for the whole thing.
This is why rushes to judgment based on sensational headlines are so unhealthy.
https://twitter.com/WalterIsaacson/status/1700342242290901361
volkris
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i'll never get over the intense special interest required for someone to post this on imdb
The paid option is intended to make money :)
But to be serious, blue checkmarks always had a vanity element to them, so they were offered for whatever purpose a users wanted them.
If users are interested in paying for blue checks for whatever reason the individual user may want one, Twitter is happy to take their money.
None of that has impact on other options for identity verification, though, if one wants to pursue it.
Tapper declaring that it sounds like the Secretary of State is engaging in drama doesn't make it true, but it does create plenty of clickbait in the press.
It should always be a red flag when a reporter or a reporter's actions or statements get more coverage than the actual officials or experts they're supposedly reporting on.
Sadly, reporters like this have found profit in doing that stuff, promoting drama where it doesn't exist, and generally misleading news consumers.
If it really sounds to Tapper that #Blinken doesn't want to risk offending #Musk over #Starlink then I'm thinking Tapper might be in the wrong job, because he seems to be projecting his own drama into the reporting.
volkris
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@AGHamilton29: "This is framed as if recusal would be expected in such circumstances, which is insane and ridiculous.
If Judges had to recuse just because they had interactions with lawyers involved in cases before them, you would run out of eligible judges rather quickly.
https://twitter.com/AGHamilton29/status/1700190430451699806
(H/T @mkhammer RT )
Since I guess everything is political these days, I'll identify as extremely liberal but without a home in US politics.
Mainly, there's so much misinformation out there that people in society have trouble even organizing into coherent political groupings. So I'd rather not talk about politics but instead focus on information and education. Nothing else matters until the bedrock of fact is buttressed.
But... people are always going to be wrong on the internet, as the saying goes.
So: Old man yells at clouds is a famous joke from The Simpsons, and it probably fairly describes what we do when venting on social media.
Just speaking into the void, since I figure it's an exercise in futility to conduct discussions on these platforms.
Joined Dec 2022
