shoq

shoq, 5 months ago to random

If one more mofo who says “I am not voting, or not voting for the lesser of two evils (as if there wasn’t a one),” calls me a “scold” for shaming them for it, I am going to unravel in a very ugly way.

We are not having an election about optimal governance. We are staring a full-blown fascist movement in the face that could end democracy everywhere. And they’re boasting about it. Anyone that doesn’t help stop them is complicit with them. There is no counter argument. So don’t even try.

shoq, 11 months ago (edited 11 months ago) to random

Listen, as a huge fan of the Fedi, I am not bashing it by pointing this out. I am saying that a new day may be dawning, and this could be a much bigger deal than old-school fedi users and evangelists want to admit. I cannot imagine any highly seasoned social media user not seeing the immediate utility, value, and excitement of the personal algo concept.

Bluesky’s Custom Algorithms Could Be the Future of Social Media - @wired

https://www.wired.com/story/bluesky-my-feeds-custom-algorithms/

shoq, 6 months ago to random

Once again, it seems necessary to warn the American Left that when a completely fascist movement is about to seize control of their country, it’s probably not the best time to whine that that Democrats won’t buy them a fucking pony.

shoq, 10 months ago to random

A gen-Z told me today that his generation has largely accepted that they live in a plutocracy, everything is corrupt, and the Musks, Zuckerbergs, and Trumps are just a fact of existence. They accept it as SOP. It's pretty dark, and exactly what GOP wants them to feel: totally hopeless and disinterested in voting. If they let that despair keep them from voting in 2024, they will learn the hard way just how much more there was and is to lose. We need to change their minds. For their sakes.

shoq, 8 months ago to random

“Stay and fight” is so ludicrous. Fight for what? Fight with what? Users have no leverage against Musk. None. It’s just more insipid rationalization by people who just can’t bear to think about having to lose any part of their follower counts. It’s actually a chance to expand them and make them more meaningful.

shoq, 10 months ago to random

@the_Effekt Isolationism will work for some. Not a very large some, though. But that’s okay. As for me, I’ll take big corp’s servers, so long as it’s without their algorithms and previous business models and enshitfifications. Few people had objections to advertising to support our massive social networks. It was the absurd surveillance capitalism and lack of extensibility and openness that most folks I know hated.

https://mastodon.social/@shoq/110579891831103882

shoq, 11 months ago to random

SkyDeck has been launched; Tweetdeck for BlueSky.

The public and press are already enchanted with Bluesky. They know how to build a brand, they have big resources, the tech is advancing rapidly, and users are thrilled. If the Fediverse doesn't have a response to it, besides just building "bridges," it's in danger of going Betamax. And that would be bad.

shoq, 7 months ago to random

Which is no surprise to those of us who have been trying to tell early fediverse settlers that discovery has to be prioritized over safety. Unless we can find news and information to begin with, finding it safely becomes moot. Bluesky clearly gets this, which is why the big news accounts are now starting to gravitate there. If the fediverse doesn’t improve in that regard, it will soon become the Linux of social media. Beloved by thousands, ignored by millions.

Source: …

shoq, 1 month ago to random

Okay what the hell happened to my notifications bar ? And what the does this even mean and why do I care enough to lose my iconbar filter selectors over it. I don’t get this decision at all. I hope it’s a bug.

shoq, 6 months ago to random

I hope you all realize that if Jim Jordan wins, it’s another legal prelude to a coup. The MAGA/facsist right is pouring on the muscle and money, threatening every lawmaker who said they would never vote for him. We should be fucking terrified. But we’re not.

shoq, 6 months ago to random

HOW OFTEN must governments make the same fucking mistake? We made it Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. Carpet bombing style warfare never does much besides destroy shit that just has to be rebuilt eventually. All it does is lose the hearts and minds of the locals. Who then just want to kill you.

shoq, 11 months ago to random

Admins: I have now asked 6 admins what their Mastodon instances cost to run. They vary widely, but the average instance cost seems to run roughly $500 per 10,000 registered users, per month (not MAUs). Is this consistent with your admin experience? If not, is yours significantly more or less $?

#Mastondon #costs

shoq, 8 months ago to random

Is any other Mastodon or other platform instance summarizing notifications, as is now standard on X, Bluesky and Threads? The present system is just tedious and forces me over to bluesky just to see reactions more easily. This is how Bluesky handles notifies. It’s just infinity superior.

shoq, 1 year ago to random

"I regret to inform you but Bluesky is fun..and Mastodon will remain as a niche product."

Well there it is folks, Wired has spoken. Let's go home. Nothing to see here. It's all over but the IPO. Nice try, though. A plethora of venture capitalists and a cabal of fascist plutocrats think you're a swell buncha peeps. Sincerely.

https://www.wired.com/story/bluesky-is-fun/

shoq, 5 months ago to random

Good fucking lord. Tell that to 40 million people with health insurance from the Affordable Care Act who never had it before. This is classic dem carping. No matter what progress gets made, it’s never enough. Biden has delivered more than any Dem since FDR, and all he gets from the puritopian left is grief, drama, and threats of primaries. Our pols often suck because we do.

Source: @geoffjobson
https://mastodon.social/@geoffjobson@kolektiva.social/111475437118747237

shoq, 6 months ago to random

Ever get a really sore neck? Ice packs are instant relief in most cases. But they never conform to your neck, or they’re often big and clunky. This product is PERFECT. I’ve been wearing mine even when the neck pain in minimal. It’s stress relieving, too. And very inexpensive.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B096JNNFCW?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

shoq, 7 months ago to random

Like a few million other people. Until the fediverse figures out the onboarding problem, and evolves past a noisy resistance to having tools that professional communicators need and want, it will struggle against the simplicity of centralized services. Until there is a truly competitive environment, and some real economic incentives for innovation, that struggle won’t end any time soon.

Source: @stacey_campbell
https://mastodon.social/@stacey_campbell/111194967243979692

shoq, 10 months ago to random

Of all the criticisms out there about Mastodon, some deserved, some not, the most valid of them is the lack of search. It’s such a crappy decision and worse experience, with daily impact, I sometimes feel foolish defending the entire platform. That I have to still search the hellsite for news, after nearly a year here is inexcusable. And please don’t waste my time telling me about #hashtags. I’m aware. They were designed to be used within searches, not replace them.

shoq, 2 months ago to random

Splendidly efficient letter to the editor of the Washington Post criticizing their ruinously misdirected Trump coverage. Pass it on. #ThePressIsTheProblem

cc @dangillmor @jayrosen_nyu

shoq, 1 year ago to random

BREAKING: The most popular reason to complain about the "Mastodon experience," is now extinct.

https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2023/05/a-new-onboarding-experience-on-mastodon/

image/png

shoq, 8 months ago to random

I wish people would stop wasting so much time pointing out Republican hypocrisy. It’s just not very challenging. It’s like pointing out ketchup crust, toe fungus, or filthy gas station toilets. They’re all just a fact of modern life now. We have to accept that fact and proceed to figure out what we can do about it.

shoq, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago) to random

#Oops #TwitterDeathSpiral

shoq, 4 months ago to random

Right. Because everyone else did so much for them in this regard. Fucking amazing how poorly the left is able to establish priorities, or promote voices of pragmatic reasoning. And the Right, Putin, and fascists everywhere are just lovin’ it.

Source: @mvario
https://mastodon.social/@mvario/111619624521488690

shoq, 7 months ago to Matrix

I need to broaden my #Matrix discussions.
Here’s a 2.5 yo post about an 800 lb gorilla in the Matrix idea. I’ve heard people brush it off, but their needs were often niche, fanciful, or delusional. I need some engineers to help me separate the facts, legends, myths, and bullshit of a large scale federated matrix chat network. In our experience, just enabling presence can bring a Synapse server to its knees, if even if just 1 user follows a BIG room. What if many folks follow MANY big … 1/2

shoq, 1 month ago to random

I am quite confident that someone is designing an LLM right now that will be able to help patients boil down all the web advice into usable chunks. Right now it’s just maddening trying to do that manually. Opinions vary so widely, often because there’s just a lot of obsolete data out there.