Mastodon was never going to be an ideal fit for the type of “👇”
/“BREAKING:” journalists who thrived on Twitter. But many of them also committed a major self-own by setting up shop on small specialty instances instead of, like, mastodon.social.
@ParadeGrotesque for journalists, they partially isolated themselves from the most active instance, which had to make their jobs more difficult. it was probably never going to work out for them on Mastodon in general anyway but I’m puzzled why they thought smaller instances were the answer when their entire job revolves around being in the midst of lots of interactions 🤷
@ParadeGrotesque oh I understand it just fine. They’d have still had an easier time for their particular job function if they’d just joined the biggest server. Not saying that’s a good or bad thing ideologically.
According to Stars and Stripes, Biden is sending 1,500 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border amid an expected migrant surge, according to officials.
Officials say military personnel will do data entry, warehouse support and other administrative tasks. U.S. Customs and Border Protection will focus on fieldwork.
It is our commander-in-chief's responsibilty to protect our nation and without secure borders we are NOT safe. If you doubt that look to Moldovia, Georgia and Ukraine please.
Just got followed by some dude whose entire timeline is whining at someone talking about black issues on Mastodon because they aren't nice enough to white people.
I launched a paid tier on my Substack today and my hands shook SO MUCH sending out that announcement last night.
I don't know why asking for money for a publication feels so much scarier than asking to get paid for consulting work
But I had to fight my impostor syndrome so much to even plan the paid tier, design the first series of post, and then even more to actually press send.
@mariyadelano congrats! It’s kind of a good problem to have—an audience big enough that some of them might pay. But it’s definitely a big and nerve wracking step. I hope it works out!
I haven’t seen a protocol this nominally decentralized since King James I/VI scattered the Authorized Version translator committees across Westminster, Oxford, and Cambridge but forced them to hew as closely as possible to the text of the Bishops’ Bible while excluding any marginal notes, due to an issue with a previously affixed—and possibly anti-monarchist—explanation at Exodus 1:19.
ISTM one of the core functions of a state university system should be to produce and maintain high quality, free-to-use text books and educational materials for college courses (particularly introductory and lower level courses) as well as for elementary, middle, and high school classes. It is crazy how much money public university students and public schools throw away on garbage, overpriced textbooks every year.
@MadMadMadMadRN there’s a forced obsolescence to modern textbooks that’ll only get worse with digitization. It’s hard not to seem like the “old man yells at cloud” meme when talking about textbooks but “cheap physical books produced by the institution when possible” does seem superior to the “Spotify for books” direction things are heading in
I still don’t feel super great but I figure I can make some of you feel better…
In #Texas, Abbott ‘22 did basically the same margin-wise as Trump ‘16 despite a D prez midterm environment.
Biden ‘20 lost TX by about the same margin as Clinton ‘16 lost #Georgia, a state that flipped the next cycle.
What happens if TX flips?
This charitable map in which Trump wins every state he won in ‘16 but loses TX shows how monumental it’d be. (In reality, flipping it would herald a landslide).
"Data for Progress was, for a time, extremely influential, and while perhaps not the worst of the genre, was very aggressive about positioning itself as the progressive space organization in order to clip the agenda of actual progressives." https://www.eschatonblog.com/2023/04/where-did-all-bad-takes-come-from.html
@ryanlcooper same with Shorism/popularism. It was always there to thwart the party’s Black and LGBT base, something Xenocrypt (whom I knew in real life, once; mentioned in NYT piece below that links him, Shor, McElwee, and Will MacAskill lol) would probably bristle at, but it’s true. DFP polling/betting and Shor’s doomerism are right wing propaganda in disguise.
I've always thought it was weird how Microsoft was rehabilitated as a magnanimous company by people who basically just really disliked Apple and Google. It’s as bad as either of them and probably worse considering Bill Gates’ ideology. https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/27/convicted-monopolist/
It amazes me even now to see people talk about RSS as if it's a dead technology. One of my last big Twitter engagements was arguing with someone who acted as if it were no longer possible to put most of your news in one place via a feed reader.
My hot take is that I feel like #BlueSky's success/failure has no implications for Mastodon whatsoever. The people who'll really be into BlueSky were never going to like Mastodon anyway; the Mastodon HOA diehards feel the same about BlueSky. These are also both tiny and complicated platforms compared to Twitter.
I don't have the strength to attempt to really dive deep into BlueSky or Substack Notes, especially considering the cyberlibertarian outlook of the platform ownwers and operators. I've never been "good" at building any sort of followership on social media, also it's not 2016 and I don't have the youthful naivete to pretend I am.
“God-fearing, freedom-loving, family values, law-n-order, small government, state's rights, local control, low tax (except on rich people), blah blah blah. Pick any of it and it was always bullshit and most of the people spouting it always knew it was bullshit.”
If LeBron James had missed 13 free throws in an elimination game that his team lost by 2 points at home to the number 8-seed (who won the series 4-1) he’d have been roasted mercilessly.
But since it’s Giannis, everyone acts like he’s the noble tragic hero.