By "social media" we mean any large computer network that allows people to interact in shared communities. The big ones of course are Facebook, Twitter (X), and Instagram, but we can't forget newer platforms like Discord and Slack.
Dedicated video sites are off-topic here and YouTube has its own separate thread
.
What we should discuss in this OTC topic are news items, business operations, and activities by the networks themselves, not specific things posted by users. Those should go into threads appropriate to the subjects of those posts. For example, if an actor tweets about a film, we'd discuss that in the Media forum topic for the film, not here. If Facebook changes its policies, that could be discussed here.
The politics, motives, competency and wider business activities of the owners and leaders of social media companies (e.g. Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg) are also off-topic — except in situations where they are directly making specific policy for the platform.
Talking about a particular Instagram policy change (or a high-profile ban on a specific user) directly announced by Mark Zuckerberg would be acceptable in this thread, speculating about Zuckerberg's wider motivations wouldn't be.
The thread's also not about "dumb thing [public figure] said on [social media platform]". If there isn't a specific thread related to the subject of the statement (e.g. US Politics), then it's probably gossip and not worth talking about.
created back in 2020 that we never opened. Unfortunately, it's a little stale, so bumping it isn't going to work very well, but I would like to restart it. The reason I'm doing so is that the Computer Thread seems to have become the de facto place for this sort of talk, and it's a big tonal clash with talking about computer tech.
The hot topic of the day is Elon Musk's bid to acquire Twitter. We first discussed it in the Computer Thread, starting roughly here, and I am not going to rehash the entire discussion. Instead, I am going to resume from the last post:
CNBC: Twitter is reportedly taking another look at Musk takeover bid
Twitter's board is reportedly meeting with Elon Musk and may seek to negotiate on his buyout offer. Musk claims to have secured $46 billion in funding to buy the company at a valuation of $43 billion and is preparing to make a tender offer to its shareholders.
While the board has passed a poison pill, it could be facing resistance to that from groups of shareholders and will want to talk things out rather than face a hostile takeover. It's also possible that Twitter's stock could crash if the offer fails to go through.
Another possible topic was originally posted here.
Ars Technica: EU to unveil landmark law to force Big Tech to police illegal content
Following on from the recently passed Digital Markets Act, which requires large tech companies to unbundle first-party software from hardware platforms, the proposed Digital Services Act will require medium and large social media platforms and search engines to police hate speech and disinformation while adding additional protections for children against targeted marketing.
It also bans "dark patterns", which manipulate or trick people into clicking on ads or other content. The article doesn't explicitly say what that means, but I assume it includes things like disguising ads to look like parts of a site's user interface, hiding "close" buttons, and such.
For large companies, the requirements would go into effect immediately. For medium companies, they would have a grace period to implement the changes.
Thierry Breton, the EU’s internal market commissioner, has warned that Big Tech has become “too big to care.”
This phrase, "too big to care", intrigues me. It's an indictment of the idea that these companies have decided that growth and engagement metrics overwhelm any sense of social responsibility.
In my opinion, a law like this would be impossible in the United States, since it would be challenged (likely successfully) on First Amendment grounds.
Edited by Mrph1 on Dec 12th 2023 at 11:24:56 AM
State of Mind
Musk is now accusing Twitter of being biased towards Lula in the Brazilian presidential election. Evidence: Angry tweets his right wing supporters are sending him.
"What a century this week has been." - Seung Min Kim
Can we start believing the fash-enabling wannabe autocrat now, you think?
It's been fun.
I hear he’s also said Apple is back to advertising on Twitter as well.
Unless of course it never stopped and he was just being an idiot.
Edited by OmegaRadiance on Dec 4th 2022 at 8:35:09 AM
Every accusation by the GOP is ALWAYS a confession.
Oh, bother.
It never stopped. Heck, the day he complained about it Apple had apparently spent $84,000 on Twitter ads.
Disgusted, but not surprised
chapo.chat seems to be running fine, bonus for also having zero tolerance for tranphobia and being open source
Bumbleby is best ship. busy spending time on r/RWBY and r/anime. Unapologetic Socialist
Alright, can you state that again in a way that isn't akin to stealth link-dropping? What is it, how is it structured, and why do you think it will be a replacement for Twitter as opposed to an obscure ersatz forum for politically likeminded people?
Edited by AlleyOop on Dec 4th 2022 at 4:06:57 AM
it was created by the r/Chapo Trap House subreddit after it got banned, so it is structured more like reddit than twitter. as for why it would be a good replacement for twitter, it will keep the bigots away permanently, preventing it from becoming a toxic cesspit of misinformation
Bumbleby is best ship. busy spending time on r/RWBY and r/anime. Unapologetic Socialist
Considering why r/Chapotraphouse got banned (it was itself a toxic cesspit of misinformation that engaged in calls for violence against insufficiently loyal or ideologically-aligned parts of the left, plus authoritarian and war crimes apologia so extreme, the podcast it was named for disavowed it), that just makes it the batshit leftist equivalent of Parler. I think I'll stay away.
Edited by AlleyOop on Dec 4th 2022 at 5:01:15 AM
considering how that reddit was a tankie cesspool, I wont take any chances ether.
"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"
Who Am I?
"Are there any non-failures in social media?"
Depending on what you mean by "failure", it may be impossible. Social media sustains itself by selling user meta-data to advertisers, who make money by creating specially crafted targeted messages at influencers who's click history fits the consumer profile they are looking for. From there, the influencers are encouraged to link the message to everyone they know. In other words, social media exists only by dividing users up into self-contained bubbles of people all of whom share the same preferences. This works for politics just as well as it works for consumer goods and services.
The thing is what happens when a community of like minded people exchange views without being exposed to alternative points of view? Group polarization and extremism.
Can any social media platform be designed that doesn't require "failure" as a condition of it's success is the million dollar question.
"We learn from history that we do not learn from history."
Redmess
TV Tropes is doing pretty well, does that count?
Optimism is a duty.
T Vtropes isn't really social media. Yeah it has a forum but it's main and most popular function is documenting media tropes.
Redmess
So where do forums fit into this, then? They are clearly more than just blogs or collections of conversations, and I would say there is definitely a social element to it (just look at Yack Fest for this one).
Optimism is a duty.
I wouldn’t quite call messageboards social media. Social media is oriented around networks of specific people (you follow/friend/etc accounts that you like) while messageboards are oriented around conversations (here is a thread for a specific purpose; it will be around for months or years so people can discuss the specified topic).
Reddit kind of splits the difference, as it has threads but they’re more transitory and replies split them up into a lot of different comments/conversations.
(Messageboards are mostly also smaller and more moderated, and you don’t have to spend long on one that’s big and unmoderated - i.e. Reddit - to see why that moderation is a good thing.)
Edited by Galadriel on Dec 5th 2022 at 11:38:51 AM
Calendar enthusiast
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Galadriel is correct. Social media is structured around individuals, while message boards are structured around conversations.
I would say there have so far been three eras of Internet communication. The pre-web era was highly decentralised, and consisted mostly of peer-to-peer communications; itcomprised email, Usenet, and BBS boards.
Message boards belong to the early web era. Communication takes place on dedicated servers, but each forum is built around specific interests, and mega-forums like Reddit and Boards.is are rare.
The current social media era is oriented towards extreme centralization, with millions of people on a small number of websites that cater to everything rather than specific topics.
With the recent rise of the Fediverse, we mat be heading into a fourth era; time will tell.
Edited by VampireBuddha on Dec 5th 2022 at 11:12:12 AM
Ukrainian Red Cross
Professional Forum Ninja
Edited by tclittle on Dec 6th 2022 at 3:57:49 AM
"We're all paper, we're all scissors, we're all fightin' with our mirrors, scared we'll never find somebody to love."
Musk fired union janitors after they went on strike due to how he was treating them.
Redmess
Stop threatening us with a good time, Meta!
Also Elon is now having rooms at the office being turned into sleeping quarters for workers. So people are expected to stay and live there 24/7.
Yayyyyyyy…..
Every accusation by the GOP is ALWAYS a confession.
Firing striking workers sounds like it should be illegal.
Welcome to Estalia, gentlemen.
It is from what I understand. Elons acting like he’s still in Texas where he could get away with that:
Edited by OmegaRadiance on Dec 6th 2022 at 2:21:45 AM
Every accusation by the GOP is ALWAYS a confession.
So basically, Musk has illegally fired the people who were cleaning up the building that he is now (also illegally) converting into residential space.
It's been fun.
Redmess
I don't think sleeping quarters are illegal as long as people are not living there permanently. There's nothing inherently illegal about putting a bed in a spare office and letting people sleep there. Hell, it's not necessarily even a bad thing to let people take naps on long shifts.
I don't think that would count as residential space. There's probably some legal definition somewhere.
It becomes iffier when you use it to let people stay overnight. I'm not sure what laws that violates, exactly. I could see situations where this may be legitimately useful to long distance workers as well, since the US is so fond of those. A company offering sleeping accommodations over expecting employees to book expensive hotels certainly sounds positive to me.
But of course, since this is Musk, he will take an idea that could be quite reasonable and exploit it to the point where it isn't.
Edited by Redmess on Dec 6th 2022 at 12:18:47 PM
Optimism is a duty.
He's also bipolar, which probably explains the lack of a filter. The man clearly needs psychiatric help.
Optimism is a duty.