@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

o_simardcasanova

@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social

Economist, Statistician, Writer

I write en 🇫🇷 and in 🇺🇸 on:
· Economics & Environment
· Critical Thinking
· United States
· Content Creation
· Transportation & Cities
· Statistics & Data
And more!

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

o_simardcasanova, to threads
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

I have been experimenting with since it launched in Europe at the end of last year

On top of a very, very, very bad algorithmic feed, Adam Mosseri, the head of the platform, is posting at least twice a month some unhinged ideas to "improve" the platform

His most recent one is a poll where he is asking how long posts should stay online before Meta automatically force-archive them (https://www.threads.net/@mosseri/post/C34VDq1OLTR)

It really seems that Meta has no idea what they are doing

o_simardcasanova,
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

Don’t get wrong, auto-archiving and auto-deleting are good features

What is unhinged in the poll is how he is considering forcing the auto-archive feature to literally everyone on

Between that, and forcing the algorithmic feed to everyone, Meta seems to have a hard time considering it would be good for Threads itself to give users more control on how they use and how they experience the platform

o_simardcasanova,
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

There has been a robust discourse on and the about the threat might pose once they start federating

A significant portion of this discourse assumes that Meta is some sort of evil corporation, with a secret strategy meant to kill a alternative network with a user base so tiny that it is a rounding error compared to Meta's user base

A more likely scenario is that Meta’s danger comes from the fact that it is just another dysfunctional, poorly run organization

o_simardcasanova, to random
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

Does anyone use, or has used, Scite.ai?

I just discovered the existence of this tool, and I’m wondering if it lives up to its promises.

Your feedback is welcome!

https://scite.ai

o_simardcasanova, to twitter
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

eviscerated every single tool I used to monitor

was the remaining one, and now it’s gone

I don’t have the time to rebuild my Xitter monitoring system again, and Xitter is dying anyway

But preventing power users from accessing your platform is a hell of an economic model

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/02/twitter-front-end-nitter-dies-as-musk-wins-war-against-third-party-services/

gedeonm, to random
@gedeonm@mastodon.social avatar

I don’t know what scares me more - the fact that I get these types of emails or that cold pitches like this from unknown people with no reputations must actually work. 😑

o_simardcasanova,
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

@gedeonm Sadly, this type of scam only needs a very small success rate to be profitable

ivory, to random
@ivory@tapbots.social avatar

We are closer to shipping Ivory v1.9! The big feature for this release is the ability to quote posts. If you'd like to test it out, jump back on the TestFlight version of Ivory. We've opened up some more TestFlight beta slots here as well:

https://testflight.apple.com/join/AOOy02ZU

Important Note!
The TestFlight version of Ivory doesn't use your active App Store subscription. You have to subscribe again in TestFlight. You do not get charged real money in TestFlight. It's for testing purposes only.

o_simardcasanova,
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

@ivory Any plan for a thread composer?

fediversereport, to bluesky
@fediversereport@mastodon.social avatar

New: opens network, making it a massive hit in Japan

Bluesky's network grew by 50% in the last two days, adding 1.5million accounts since dropping the invite codes. The surge of popularity and interest seems to come mainly from Japan, with large popular Japanese accounts coming over.

Bluesky also talks more about their plans to make money, and how they will start with federation this month. With that, bridges to the become possible.

Read at: https://fediversereport.com/bluesky-opens-the-network/

o_simardcasanova,
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

@fediversereport 👀

cheeaun, to mastodon
@cheeaun@mastodon.social avatar

Been trying this out secretly for the past few weeks — a "catch-up" timeline page. Did whole bunch of iterations, where I myself is the guinea pig, but this time reaching a point where I just got to share it out in the public.

  • NOT final design, still very experimental, only on my local machine
  • Instead of algo timeline, this is focused on data-grid-like UI for configuring exactly what I want to see.
  • This honestly could be another full-fledged app/client by itself 🫠

Demo of Catch-up page where it shows the Home/Following timeline with configurable filters and sort options.

o_simardcasanova,
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

@cheeaun Very cool!

Sarahp, to random
@Sarahp@mastodon.social avatar

How Twitter’s descent into chaos is paving the way for a new web: https://techcrunch.com/2024/02/07/how-twitters-descent-into-chaos-is-paving-the-way-for-a-new-web/

o_simardcasanova,
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

@Sarahp I would love if @tapbots developed a Bluesky client

https://bsky.app/profile/o.simardcasanova.net/post/3kkttc5biyj25

o_simardcasanova,
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

@Sarahp (Also, great piece!)

mmasnick, to random
@mmasnick@mastodon.social avatar

I know that lots of folks here don't like Bluesky (and I understand most of the reasons why), But now that it's open, I tried to explain the reasons why I am excited about it and hope it succeeds. https://www.techdirt.com/2024/02/06/bluesky-opens-up/

o_simardcasanova,
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

@paninid @mmasnick @seachanger @Hey_Beth Speaking from experience, yes, they can be mean and cruel

One of the worst experiences I ever had on social media was when I said that I have a legitimate use case for quote posts on Mastodon

On top of the harassment, the dog piling, and the ableism, I received a strike from my instance because, and I quote, "if you don't like Mastodon, you don't have to use it”. I wasn't saying I don't like Mastodon, I was saying quote posts would be useful for me.

o_simardcasanova,
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

@mmasnick I was expecting the replies of this post to be really bad. But surprisingly, they are… not?

o_simardcasanova, to random
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

Pretty sure I broke a rib by… coughing 🥴

tvler, to random
@tvler@mastodon.social avatar

I want to get an email (or text or whatever) if the html content of a webpage changes. Is there any easy way to do this? Willing to pay a small amount a month for the service

o_simardcasanova,
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

@tvler Visualping does this I think

o_simardcasanova, to random
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

Mastodon / hive mind

Does anybody have a simple solution to add Hawaii and Alaska in a box in a map?

I tried with this one, but it was VERY complicated

o_simardcasanova, to threads
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

It’s baffling how consistently bad ’ algorithm is

On top of a shockingly low quality coming from a company with as much resources as , the real issue is the model of its algorithm itself: it’s an opaque, one-size-fits-all algorithm. It’s a completely outdated model.

As shows, and to a lesser extent (with followed hashtags), it’s possible to give users proper control over their timeline

1/2

o_simardcasanova,
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

Both and have a much smaller user base compared to and yet, it’s a lot easier to find content that fits with my interests on both platforms than on Threads

Reason is simple: Bluesky and Mastodon gives me control, whereas on Threads I need to do some black magic and whatnot to try to tell the algorithm I want to see more of this, or less of that

For the user, it’s tiring and unfun. Which is also bad for Meta itself!

Once again, it’s a very outdated model

2/2

o_simardcasanova, to mastodon
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

I'm back experimenting with bots 👀

Nothing to share yet, but I'm making good progress

And of course, the bot runs with

dimillian, to random
@dimillian@mastodon.social avatar

Do you think it's good? Because I think it's not good for consumers or app makers. EU will probably be late with new stuff yet again.

https://www.macrumors.com/2024/01/15/app-store-to-be-split-in-two/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

o_simardcasanova,
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

@dimillian From an economics point of view, I haven’t researched the scientific literature on this specific regulation, but the large body of research on competition we have suggest it will not harm consumers. Quite the contrary actually.

The smartphone market is an oligopoly, and Apple is known to use App Store regulations to harm competitors with predatory strategies (such as Netflix or Spotify). It is well established empirically that when a firm does that, it harms consumers.

o_simardcasanova, to mastodon
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

Something I appreciate on both and is the 500 characters limit

When I try to post on , its 300 characters limit feel unnecessary limiting

ricmac, to random
@ricmac@mastodon.social avatar

It lasted longer than Burbn… (obscure Web 2.0 joke). But seriously, I did try Artifact but didn’t find it compelling. The founders got the timing just right with Instagram — right at the start of the smartphone app revolution. But I feel like their luck and timing was out this time…it’s now the start of the fediverse revolution, which will bring blogs and decentralized social media to the fore, not centralized apps like Artifact. https://medium.com/artifact-news/shutting-down-artifact-1e70de46d419

o_simardcasanova,
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

@ricmac @tchambers I had a very similar thought when I learned the news: would have survived if they built it on the open social web from day 1?

We'll never know, but I think it’s an interesting question.

caseynewton, to random
@caseynewton@mastodon.social avatar

Platformer is leaving Substack https://www.platformer.news/p/why-platformer-is-leaving-substack

o_simardcasanova,
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

@caseynewton You dropped this Casey

Nicki Minaj Queen GIF

molly0xfff, to random
@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io avatar

re:

i spoke personally with hamish mckenzie last week, and came out of the conversation with very little faith in the company's approach to moderation. i'm glad they caved on this point (or promised to cave?), but i am not optimistic something similar won't happen yet again

o_simardcasanova,
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

@molly0xfff I was approached a year ago, or two, by one of their employees to move my economics popularization newsletter on here. It was pretty well know already that they hosted transphobic content, so I was already reluctant.

During a Zoom call, I raised the moderation issue. As a science writer, I was shocked by how much antivax, pseudoscience and conspiracy theories content was hosted here. The answer I received immediately killed any kind of hope I had left. They just don't care.

o_simardcasanova, to mastodon
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

The more I experiment with and more broadly, the more I am convinced that it’s possible to build a replacement on the

Patreon is a closed platform, but it’s a key tool for many content creators to make a living out of their work: writers, video makers, podcasters, and so on

A Fediverse alternative would basically bridges a payment system with tiered access based on payment status

Even with , I think it could already be done!

1/2

o_simardcasanova,
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

@tyil It turns out that we live in an imperfect world where we all have to make compromises

Also, I’m not interested in discussing if this platform or that platform is better. If you prefer to use Pleroma, just use Pleroma.

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