How to end social media censorship

Kristina Flour/Unsplash   This Twitter thread by Yishan Wong is one of the most interesting I’ve come across. Not because it’s about Elon Musk (who he begins with), but because it’s about the history of the web, censorship, and the reality of running a social platform. Here are some highlights (emphases in the original): There […]

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Facebook fooled us into thinking we were being creative

My friend Keith has been away from Facebook for six weeks, for work reasons, and hasn’t missed it. And he asked, ‘Was it all really a waste of time?’    I know you think you know what I’m going to say, but the answer might surprise you a little.    Fundamentally, it’s yes (this is […]

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All you need is one NewTumbl user to undo management goodwill

This is a comment (with my reply, in reverse chronology) from a NewTumbl user, Thewonderfulo, who often posts about the site’s rating system. I’ve no idea if it’s official, but it certainly passes itself off as authoritative.    I usually find myself agreeing with them but here’s a prime example where I don’t—because, first, I […]

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Today’s thoughts on Twitter

Momentmal/Pixabay Random thoughts in the last few minutes, blogging as a means of bookmarking: Prediction: sick of all the tracking, advertising and endless bugs, people begin using the telephone feature on their cellphones nearly exclusively. — Jack Yan 甄爵恩 (@jackyan) May 25, 2019    You never know, we may see a rise in the demand […]

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Twitter stutters and other Big Tech misadventures

I think the signs of a departure from Twitter are all there. Certainly on a cellphone there’s little point to it any more. As of last week, this began happening. If you don’t seesee me on Twitter as often, it’s becausebecause it’sit’s no longer compatible withwith the Swype keyboardkeyboard on my phonephone. I can’tcan’t be […]

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Social media mean less and less

Above: I must report and block dozens of Instagram accounts a day, not unlike getting over the 200-a-day mark on Facebook in 2014.   For the last few days, I made my Twitter private. It was the only time in 11 years of being on the service where I felt I needed that level of […]

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The decline continues: Facebook pages no longer accept YouTube links

Many of you know that I no longer use Facebook for my personal stuff. However, there are still work things to do, although I’ve noticed Facebook pages get more and more useless by the day. Here are the stats for my Facebook page:    Strangely, I can see the stats on a page that’s not […]

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Musk apologies to Unsworth, only because teacher told him to

Via Adeline Chua: I see Elon Musk has apologized to Vernon Unsworth. But it smacks of the apology a child would give after being compelled by his teacher to do so.    Translation: ‘I wouldn’t have said anything if the Vern didn’t push me. It’s all Vern’s fault.’ Or, ‘Vern made me do it.’   […]

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The founder’s image is tied to the business—or, why Elon Musk shouldn’t call someone a pædophile

I have often said that each new technology often goes downhill when unsavoury parts of our society get to it. Email was fine before spammers, Wikipedia was fine without sociopaths, Blogger was fine without Google ownership, and Google was fine without an NYSE listing.    But what does one make of Twitter? Once upon a […]

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Neil Gaiman on JY Integrity on his UK paperbacks

When Neil Gaiman pays you a compliment about one of your typeface families (JY Integrity, which I designed in 1993), you gratefully accept. They are glorious. Thank you so much for making the font. — Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) July 7, 2018 You may also like A three-decade time capsule hanging on my door You never […]

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