@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 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

accretionist, to random
@accretionist@techhub.social avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    o_simardcasanova,
    @o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

    @accretionist @jeremiahpslewis I got heckled by some far right randos on Substack Notes because I criticized Substack for profiting from Nazi content

    The randos told me "are you a communist?"

    First of all, no, I'm absolutely not

    Second all, the range of people who don't want to have anything to do with Nazis reach far beyond just communists

    I suspect Substack will learn this the hard way

    o_simardcasanova, to firefox
    @o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

    Is it just me, or does not support tab groups?

    o_simardcasanova, to mastodon
    @o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

    By following a bunch of photography oriented hashtags, it turns out that is providing me a significantly better experience than ever did

    Good stuff!

    ChrisMcCahill, to random
    @ChrisMcCahill@urbanists.social avatar

    The pandemic made it super clear how important VMT is in driving transportation emissions. But this report from the California Air Resources Board shows the same relationship during the recession. https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2023-05/2022-SB150-MainReport-FINAL-ADA.pdf

    o_simardcasanova,
    @o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

    @ChrisMcCahill Just to make sure I understand this plot correctly, is VMT the number of miles driven? So is the plot the correlation between the distance driven per capita and GHG emissions per capita?

    o_simardcasanova, to mastodon
    @o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

    My experimentation of a private #Mastodon profile as a #Patreon replacement continues

    Mastodon is a great place to do this, because #ActivityPub is gaining so much traction

    In a couple of months, people on #Threads will be able to follow this private account

    Where you build your stuff will matter a lot less with the #Fediverse

    (Side note: #Bluesky is completely isolated of this trend, due to its reliance on a different protocol. Which is really unfortunate.)

    https://mastodon.social/

    o_simardcasanova,
    @o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

    @liaizon Interesting project. That being said, as Bluesky does not support private posts at the moment, I'm not sure it would work with a private Mastodon account.

    dimillian, to random
    @dimillian@mastodon.social avatar

    You can feel all kind of thing because of current generative AI but for me it's supercharged various flows. I work the same as before, but much faster. And this can only get better from there. This is not something that gonna disappear tomorrow. You should get used to it.

    o_simardcasanova,
    @o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

    @dimillian Fully agree. Thanks to Microsoft Copilot, I'm now able to offer an English version of my French-speaking econ newsletter. It's the same articles, but translated with Copilot and slightly rewritten by me afterwards. Without Copilot, the option wasn't even available.

    o_simardcasanova, to mastodon
    @o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

    I just realized that the overwhelming majority of the negative experiences I've had on happened on my French-speaking account, not on this one — the reply guys in particular, vastly different stories

    I'm not sure why

    But I'll definitely use this data to decide how I'll use Mastodon moving forward

    o_simardcasanova, to random
    @o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

    Are you up for a little quizz?

    The blue diamonds are the actual data, and the red squares are the perceived data

    But what data is it?

    o_simardcasanova, to fediverse
    @o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

    Something that I’m really looking forward to in 2024 is the

    Regardless of one feels about Meta and , it’s objectively a seismic shift to see such a large company adopting an open standard

    But I think we’ll see a lot more innovation

    I’m sure it’ll be a fascinating year!

    dimillian, to random
    @dimillian@mastodon.social avatar

    What's best for the new year than the anti-AI crowd attacking @IceCubesApp ?

    o_simardcasanova, (edited )
    @o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

    @dimillian @stroughtonsmith I see blocks the same way you cut weed in a garden: cut it early before it overgrows everything, so that the garden can stay healthy and enjoyable

    It’s not a punishment, it’s just a tool to keep the experience pleasant

    o_simardcasanova,
    @o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

    @dimillian @stroughtonsmith I get that, I really do. But some people are just toxic, or at least, incapable of proper communication. Their loss honestly.

    dimillian, to random
    @dimillian@mastodon.social avatar

    The big + of a For You feed is to surface posts you could have missed that have great replies/conversations going on. I love to read people's opinions.
    The only thing we have that is close enough is explore -> trending, but that is not enough.

    I want something to surface posts in my timeline with x amount of replies. Sure, I could do it in @IceCubesApp, but this is not easy when purely client side.

    o_simardcasanova,
    @o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

    @dimillian Hard agree. I built a custom Bluesky feed that does that for economists, it’s just super useful.

    o_simardcasanova,
    @o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

    @dimillian In my experience, three networks is really the maximum. Four is not manageable. Luckily, with Threads soon-ish federating, we’ll be down to two. But still.

    o_simardcasanova,
    @o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

    @dimillian Seems like a good start to me. Maybe in a later version, could the user have the option to tailor custom the feed based on their needs?

    If we go even further, we can imagine a system where users would be able share a JSON file containing their weights/settings?

    It would work similarly-ish to Bluesky, where users can subscribe to an algorithmic feed built by somebody else (even though on Bluesky it’s server-side, here it would client-side).

    o_simardcasanova,
    @o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

    @dimillian I’d argue that Threads is really good if you have a very public facing activity like I do (science communication)

    But for smaller communities, or more professional oriented use, I don’t think it’s that useful, at least for now

    o_simardcasanova,
    @o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

    @dimillian Oh I see. I only played a little bit with the Mastodon API, I didn’t know you could only retrieve 800 posts. Very different architecture compared to Bluesky (where feeds are built on top of the firehose, not on top of the user’s timeline).

    o_simardcasanova, to mastodon
    @o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

    Many people (me included) often criticize the lack of some major features in (for instance, quote posts)

    This criticism is important to improve the platform

    That being said, I feel it’s also important to say when Mastodon has some unique features - such as followed hashtags

    Followed hashtags is an incredible feature to get very niche content, and I don’t think there’s anything similar anywhere else (definitely not on Bluesky and Threads, and I don’t think The Bad Place has it too)

    o_simardcasanova,
    @o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

    Another great feature of are edits

    I think Mastodon has by far the best implementation of this feature: the feature exists (contrary to Bluesky, even though I think it’s coming), it’s free (if you know what I mean), there’s no time limit (on Threads, you have five minutes to edit; the Bad Place also has a time limit), and people who liked or boosted the post get a notification if there’s an edit (on Threads, edits remove likes, which seems way too extreme in my opinion)

    MissingThePt, to random
    @MissingThePt@mastodon.social avatar

    R.I.P. 2023 (2023 - 2023)

    o_simardcasanova,
    @o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

    @MissingThePt What a shockingly unexpected end

    o_simardcasanova, to mastodon
    @o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

    I'm currently doing some very early experimentation with a private profile

    The idea I'm experimenting with is to offer extra content to people who have a paid subscription to my (French speaking) economics popularization newsletter

    I think it’s an interesting avenue to explore. I'm sure writers can leverage the to make a better living without relying too much on closed platforms such as (or poorly run platforms such as ).

    o_simardcasanova,
    @o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

    I now have a better grasp on how private profiles work

    I think it can work. It would basically be a kind of , but on the .

    I would need to manually add and remove followers based on their membership status. But as far as I can tell, Mastodon is the only microbloging platform that 1) offers private profiles 2) has an robust enough API to automate this task.

    Back in the day, had a decent API. But as with many other things, Elon Musk completely nuked it.

    o_simardcasanova,
    @o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

    In comparison, has private profiles, but no API. Meta is working on one, but as far as I can tell, it will mostly be to post, not to do anything else.

    also has an API, but there is no private profiles. I'm not even sure that private profiles are technically possible on the current version of AT (I’d say they're not).

    And … Well. I have no interest to build anything else on top of this landfill. And even if I wanted to, the API is just insanely expensive anyway.

    o_simardcasanova, to random
    @o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

    She won the Great chair war 😔

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