• Re: Social Media

    From Dumas Walker@21:1/175 to SCUZ on Tue Jan 28 12:19:00 2025
    Understandable, but it is tiresome. It's everywhere. Radio, TV, Social Media. It just gets old hearing about it 24/7. I respect everyones opionion when it comes to politics no matter which side they are on and that's what is great about the US, we can have open opinions.

    Changing the subject slightly to social media, I agree. There is too much
    of it there and a lot of what is there is misinformation. The people who
    are constantly freaked out about what (politician name here) is up to are
    the ones that spend way too much time on Meta or X.


    * SLMR 2.1a * "Gasoline clears my sinuses!" - Fred G. Sanford
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
    * Origin: capitolcityonline.net * Telnet/SSH:2022/HTTP (21:1/175)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Dumas Walker on Wed Jan 29 06:31:45 2025
    Dumas Walker wrote to SCUZ <=-

    Changing the subject slightly to social media, I agree. There is too
    much of it there and a lot of what is there is misinformation. The
    people who are constantly freaked out about what (politician name here)
    is up to are the ones that spend way too much time on Meta or X.

    I'm getting frustrated with the whataboutism. Defend your position, see
    if you can convince the other side.



    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From Dumas Walker@21:1/175 to POINDEXTER FORTRAN on Thu Jan 30 10:04:00 2025
    Changing the subject slightly to social media, I agree. There is too much of it there and a lot of what is there is misinformation. The people who are constantly freaked out about what (politician name here) is up to are the ones that spend way too much time on Meta or X.

    I'm getting frustrated with the whataboutism. Defend your position, see
    if you can convince the other side.

    It is difficult to defend your position if it is based on misinformation or emotion. Usually people I disagree with, who don't stoop to cursing or
    citing long debunked information, who are able to explain their position I
    will listen to. I might not be convinced that time, but I will keep
    listening to them because they might have other valid points.


    * SLMR 2.1a * "Einstein? Who's he? Another troublemaker?" - H.Baines
    --- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
    * Origin: capitolcityonline.net * Telnet/SSH:2022/HTTP (21:1/175)
  • From Geri Atricks@21:3/235 to All on Thu Apr 2 11:41:59 2026
    OK, I am SOOO Done!!!

    FB is totally BORKED!!
    Sending me notifications for posts I've seen more than 24 hours prior, Not showing me time critical posts until the events have already passed.

    AI bots and ScamBots have INFESTED just about every form of communications to the point it is now virtually impossible to tell the bots from real people.

    For these reasons primarily, I am leaving Social Media and retreating back to the good ole pre-internet BBS. The last bot free service on the planet other
    than face to face meetups.

    -FltCapt Dallas Vinson, SFI

    ... How do I set my laser printer to stun?

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Legends of Yesteryear (21:3/235)
  • From Mortar M.@21:2/101 to Geri Atricks on Thu Apr 2 14:18:23 2026
    Re: Social Media
    By: Geri Atricks to All on Thu Apr 02 2026 11:41:59

    The last bot free service on the planet other than face to face meetups.

    Even that may change within a few years. Several companies are pushing to produce humanoid robots that interact naturally with people, like in the movie, I Robot.
    --- SBBSecho 3.37-Linux
    * Origin: End Of The Line BBS - endofthelinebbs.com (21:2/101)
  • From slacker@21:3/193 to Geri Atricks on Thu Apr 2 19:04:05 2026
    AI bots and ScamBots have INFESTED
    just about every form of
    communications to the point it is
    now virtually impossible to tell
    the bots from real people.

    Agreed. It's getting really bad. The only social media type thing I'm on these days is Reddit and some subs are just flooded with bot posts. (Looking at you /r/AITA and the like)


    --- NE BBS v2.00 (linux; x64)
    * Origin: NE BBS - nebbs.servehttp.com:9223 (21:3/193)
  • From Jegor@21:3/228 to Geri Atricks on Thu Apr 2 22:25:54 2026
    Hello Geri!

    02 Apr 26 11:41, you wrote to All:

    FB is totally BORKED!!
    Sending me notifications for posts I've seen more than 24 hours prior,
    Not showing me time critical posts until the events have already
    passed.

    AI bots and ScamBots have INFESTED just about every form of
    communications to the point it is now virtually impossible to tell the bots from real people.

    So true. Feels like FB is made by algorithms for algorithms, not for humans.

    Jegor

    --- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
    * Origin: (21:3/228)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Geri Atricks on Fri Apr 3 08:35:45 2026
    Geri Atricks wrote to All <=-

    AI bots and ScamBots have INFESTED just about every form of
    communications to the point it is now virtually impossible to tell the bots from real people.

    I wonder how much of the total internet traffic is AI slop and bots now?



    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to slacker on Fri Apr 3 08:35:45 2026
    slacker wrote to Geri Atricks <=-

    Agreed. It's getting really bad. The only social media type thing I'm
    on these days is Reddit and some subs are just flooded with bot posts. (Looking at you /r/AITA and the like)

    Yeah, twitter and Reddit are both champions of The Story That Never
    Happened.



    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From Dumas Walker@21:1/175 to POINDEXTER FORTRAN on Fri Apr 3 13:17:10 2026
    Agreed. It's getting really bad. The only social media type thing I'm
    on these days is Reddit and some subs are just flooded with bot posts. (Looking at you /r/AITA and the like)

    Yeah, twitter and Reddit are both champions of The Story That Never
    Happened.

    I think that can be said of pretty much any social media platform...
    threads, bluesky, etc... where the posters are more anonymous vs. Facebook where you are usually posting things that people who actually know you can
    see.


    * SLMR 2.1a * Men are a pain in the @$$, women are a pain EVERYWHERE!
    --- SBBSecho 3.28-Linux
    * Origin: Capitol City Online (21:1/175)
  • From boraxman@21:1/101 to poindexter FORTRAN on Mon Apr 6 01:10:08 2026
    On 03 Apr 2026 at 08:35a, poindexter FORTRAN pondered and said...

    Geri Atricks wrote to All <=-

    AI bots and ScamBots have INFESTED just about every form of communications to the point it is now virtually impossible to tell th bots from real people.

    I wonder how much of the total internet traffic is AI slop and bots now?



    I think a lot of it is.

    There is a lot of bots on X, and a lot of scammy accounts, particularly from India. But slop has been around a while. I noticed, even many years ago, you would search for a topic for which there should be many old pages, but Google would return new pages, brief "introductory' pages on old topics, like old Unix utilities and the like.

    Were people just writing "How to use AWK" over and over?

    I've also noticed it for many years in my profession, where I'd look up a topic, and often it would be an Indian site that comes up, where someone has written tons of pages, just briefly discussing a topic like Equipment Validation, a very brief page, no substance. All this crap was just designed to game the search algorithm.

    ... Computers are not intelligent. They only think they are.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From Arelor@21:2/138 to Geri Atricks on Sun Apr 5 07:06:56 2026
    Re: Social Media
    By: Geri Atricks to All on Thu Apr 02 2026 11:41 am


    For these reasons primarily, I am leaving Social Media and retreating back to the good ole pre-internet BBS. The last bot free service on the planet other
    than face to face meetups.

    Congratulations, and welcome to the club.

    Don't despair, many private communities exists which remain somehow sane.


    --
    gopher://gopher.richardfalken.com/1/richardfalken
    --- SBBSecho 3.37-Linux
    * Origin: Palantir * palantirbbs.ddns.net * Pensacola, FL * (21:2/138)
  • From Khronos@21:2/153 to boraxman on Tue Apr 7 08:16:35 2026
    boraxman wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

    On 03 Apr 2026 at 08:35a, poindexter FORTRAN pondered and said...

    Geri Atricks wrote to All <=-

    AI bots and ScamBots have INFESTED just about every form of communications to the point it is now virtually impossible to tell th bots from real people.

    I wonder how much of the total internet traffic is AI slop and bots now?



    I think a lot of it is.

    There is a lot of bots on X, and a lot of scammy accounts, particularly from India. But slop has been around a while. I noticed, even many
    years ago, you would search for a topic for which there should be many
    old pages, but Google would return new pages, brief "introductory'
    pages on old topics, like old Unix utilities and the like.

    In my experience Mastodon hasn't been taken over like this yet, but give
    it time and it might be.
    Mastodon servers from what I know require a lot more horse power to run
    than bbs's though.


    === MultiMail/Linux v0.52
    --- SBBSecho 3.37-Linux
    * Origin: telnet://cwshack.ddns.net:2330 (21:2/153)
  • From boraxman@21:1/101 to Khronos on Wed Apr 8 00:38:05 2026
    On 07 Apr 2026 at 08:16a, Khronos pondered and said...

    boraxman wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

    On 03 Apr 2026 at 08:35a, poindexter FORTRAN pondered and said...

    Geri Atricks wrote to All <=-

    AI bots and ScamBots have INFESTED just about every form of communications to the point it is now virtually impossible to te bots from real people.

    I wonder how much of the total internet traffic is AI slop and bots



    I think a lot of it is.

    There is a lot of bots on X, and a lot of scammy accounts, particular from India. But slop has been around a while. I noticed, even many years ago, you would search for a topic for which there should be man old pages, but Google would return new pages, brief "introductory' pages on old topics, like old Unix utilities and the like.

    In my experience Mastodon hasn't been taken over like this yet, but give it time and it might be.
    Mastodon servers from what I know require a lot more horse power to run than bbs's though.


    I almost forgot about Mastodon...

    Mastodon is federated right? Is there some central control? I'm wary of platforms where there is undue censorship.

    ... Evil triumphs when good people do nothing. - Einstein

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From Geri Atricks@21:3/235 to boraxman on Tue Apr 7 09:02:10 2026
    In my experience Mastodon hasn't been taken over like this yet, but g it time and it might be.
    Mastodon servers from what I know require a lot more horse power to r than bbs's though.


    I almost forgot about Mastodon...

    Please pardon my ignorance, but other than the prehistoric ancester of the elephant, I've never heard of this Mastodon. Please enlighten me.

    -FltCapt Dallas Vinson, SFI

    ... They say there's always one weirdo on the bus, but I couldn't find them!

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Legends of Yesteryear (21:3/235)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Khronos on Tue Apr 7 07:38:34 2026
    Khronos wrote to boraxman <=-

    In my experience Mastodon hasn't been taken over like this yet, but
    give it time and it might be.

    As long as the feed remains chronological and I can block/mute accounts
    I don't want to hear from, I think Mastodon has a fighting chance. I've
    already seen some servers get blacklisted, I think fracturing is more
    of an issue than signal-to-noise ratio.

    Mastodon servers from what I know require a lot more horse power to run than bbs's though.

    ActivityPub is an open protocol, and I've seen "servers" that are meant
    more for a single user - sort of like a FTN point. Those don't take the
    same horsepower as running a full node.

    I can attest. I'm on a Telegram group with some old conspiracy-nut
    BBSers (the group is called "foil hat") and 2 of them narrated setting
    up Mastodon instances. Apparently the data cache is a bugger - caching
    *all* of the images and videos being shared.




    === MultiMail/Linux v0.52
    --- SBBSecho 3.37-Linux
    * Origin: telnet://cwshack.ddns.net:2330 (21:2/153)

    ... Assemble some of the elements in a group and treat the group
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to boraxman on Tue Apr 7 07:38:34 2026
    boraxman wrote to Khronos <=-

    I almost forgot about Mastodon...

    Mastodon is federated right? Is there some central control? I'm wary
    of platforms where there is undue censorship.

    No central control, more of an anarcho-centric coalition. Each node has
    their own policies and themes, and if they choose, they can block
    specific nodes (and their users) based on whatever.

    If you don't agree with the editorial bent of the node you're on, you
    can pick another node - or start your own. And, you can easily
    redirect your follow list and users to your current location. For
    example, I started off on mastodon.social, the main server. After
    playing with tildes, I found tilde.zone and wanted to use that as my
    URL and my main instance. With a few settings, I was able to copy over
    who I followed, and make mastodon.social point people to my new
    location.



    ... Change ambiguities to specifics
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From The Wanderer@21:3/233 to Khronos on Tue Apr 7 09:26:40 2026
    Re: Re: Social Media
    By: Khronos to boraxman on Tue Apr 07 2026 08:16 am

    In my experience Mastodon hasn't been taken over like this yet, but give it time and it might be.

    The fediverse really hasn't, I think mostly due to it being noncommercial in nature and decentralized. There's absolutely AI slop instances, and AI slop friendly corners, but they're generally not accepted on the whole.

    Mastodon servers from what I know require a lot more horse power to run than bbs's though.

    Certainly do - I doubt most BBSes have 5-10K systems to connect to when people post a thing. ;-)
    --- SBBSecho 3.37-Linux
    * Origin: Yak Station - Some yakkin' happenin'... (21:3/233)
  • From The Wanderer@21:3/233 to boraxman on Tue Apr 7 09:30:14 2026
    Re: Re: Social Media
    By: boraxman to Khronos on Wed Apr 08 2026 12:38 am

    Mastodon is federated right? Is there some central control? I'm wary of platforms where there is undue censorship.

    The fediverse has no central control, no. Mastodon is just one instance flavour, like Thunderbird is to E-Mail.

    Lots of stuff ties together, microblogging sites, video and audio streaming sites, reddit-alikes, web forum-alikes, facebook-alikes, etc.
    --- SBBSecho 3.37-Linux
    * Origin: Yak Station - Some yakkin' happenin'... (21:3/233)
  • From The Wanderer@21:3/233 to Geri Atricks on Tue Apr 7 09:32:05 2026
    Re: Re: Social Media
    By: Geri Atricks to boraxman on Tue Apr 07 2026 09:02 am

    Please pardon my ignorance, but other than the prehistoric ancester of the elephant, I've never heard of this Mastodon. Please enlighten me.

    Let me just throw you a link:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fediverse
    --- SBBSecho 3.37-Linux
    * Origin: Yak Station - Some yakkin' happenin'... (21:3/233)
  • From Khronos@21:2/153 to poindexter FORTRAN on Tue Apr 7 15:51:54 2026
    Re: Re: Social Media
    By: poindexter FORTRAN to Khronos on Tue Apr 07 2026 07:38:34

    Khronos wrote to boraxman <=-

    In my experience Mastodon hasn't been taken over like this yet, but give it time and it might be.

    As long as the feed remains chronological and I can block/mute accounts
    I don't want to hear from, I think Mastodon has a fighting chance. I've
    already seen some servers get blacklisted, I think fracturing is more
    of an issue than signal-to-noise ratio.

    You can control what you see and the order of the postings newest to oldest or oldest to newest whatever you prefer.
    --- SBBSecho 3.37-Linux
    * Origin: telnet://cwshack.ddns.net:2330 (21:2/153)
  • From fusion@21:1/616 to boraxman on Tue Apr 7 16:00:00 2026
    On 08 Apr 2026, boraxman said the following...

    I almost forgot about Mastodon...

    Mastodon is federated right? Is there some central control? I'm wary of platforms where there is undue censorship.

    i don't recall if it was around here (bbs scene) or elsewhere but someone had mentioned some of the mastodon clients that would be the most useful (phone) come pre-configured to ban a collection of various servers for reasons you may or may not agree with.

    the problem is you don't really get to choose..

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/25 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: cold fusion - cfbbs.net - grand rapids, mi (21:1/616)
  • From Adept@21:2/108 to fusion on Wed Apr 8 09:43:59 2026
    i don't recall if it was around here (bbs scene) or elsewhere but
    someone had mentioned some of the mastodon clients that would be the
    most useful (phone) come pre-configured to ban a collection of various servers for reasons you may or may not agree with.

    the problem is you don't really get to choose..

    It being Fediverse and (probably) open source, there _has_ to be ways around that, especially since the servers still exist.

    Obviously, it's not reasonable to force other people to do free labor for us, but if the set doesn't work for you, then clearly it's an app that exists, but is not useful for you in particular.

    And I can definitely understand the annoyance of it, as the amount of super-useful apps remains limited.

    Also, I mean to _eventually_ get back to Lemmy, but while I ran my own server for a while, figuring out how to do so without continuously running out of hard drive space (or paying huge hosting bills) was a challenge.

    But I really like the idea of a social network where I control my own little part of it.

    I suppose it's not terribly different from my BBS, as I had about the same amount of other users.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Storm BBS (21:2/108)
  • From boraxman@21:1/101 to Geri Atricks on Thu Apr 9 01:35:03 2026

    I almost forgot about Mastodon...

    Please pardon my ignorance, but other than the prehistoric ancester of
    the elephant, I've never heard of this Mastodon. Please enlighten me.


    It is from memory, like a microblogging/social network system, but federated. You can join a particular instance and send their version of tweets.

    The idea of federation seems good, but in practice, I prefer something like X, because I can easily go direct to the accounts I want to follow.

    ... Honk if you love peace and quiet!

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From boraxman@21:1/101 to poindexter FORTRAN on Thu Apr 9 01:40:02 2026

    I almost forgot about Mastodon...

    Mastodon is federated right? Is there some central control? I'm war of platforms where there is undue censorship.

    No central control, more of an anarcho-centric coalition. Each node has
    their own policies and themes, and if they choose, they can block
    specific nodes (and their users) based on whatever.

    If you don't agree with the editorial bent of the node you're on, you
    can pick another node - or start your own. And, you can easily
    redirect your follow list and users to your current location. For
    example, I started off on mastodon.social, the main server. After
    playing with tildes, I found tilde.zone and wanted to use that as my
    URL and my main instance. With a few settings, I was able to copy over
    who I followed, and make mastodon.social point people to my new
    location.



    I think I prefer just to have a single, proper open network with free speech. Elon has done well with X in this regard. The thing with Mastodon, is that wouldn't that lead to echo chambers? Sure, maybe you can find some place which has an editorial bent that doesn't conflict with you, but thats just another echo chamber.

    I think for public discourse, it is important that people are exposed to contrary ideas.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From boraxman@21:1/101 to fusion on Thu Apr 9 01:43:58 2026
    On 07 Apr 2026 at 04:00p, fusion pondered and said...

    On 08 Apr 2026, boraxman said the following...

    I almost forgot about Mastodon...

    Mastodon is federated right? Is there some central control? I'm war platforms where there is undue censorship.

    i don't recall if it was around here (bbs scene) or elsewhere but
    someone had mentioned some of the mastodon clients that would be the
    most useful (phone) come pre-configured to ban a collection of various servers for reasons you may or may not agree with.

    the problem is you don't really get to choose..


    I can pretty much already tell the politics of a group or movement or scene, where they ban servers. That alone is a big turn off from the technology.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From Adept@21:2/108 to boraxman on Wed Apr 8 15:30:08 2026
    speech. Elon has done well with X in this regard. The thing with

    I had thought ex-Twitter _was_ an echo chamber, at this point.

    I wonder about the free speech claim, too, since evidently one cannot say, "cis", so far as I understand. Which really cuts down on discussion of cis fatty acids. And Musk amplifies his own voice over others.

    But I'll do my best to leave the topic alone, as it'll get into politics a little too quickly, I imagine. As likely does _anything_ Musk.

    can find some place which has an editorial bent that doesn't conflict
    with you, but thats just another echo chamber.

    Possible that everything is an echo chamber, to _some_ extent. Since the people into various places are into those places for a reason.

    E.g., we're all on BBSs, and that's going to limit which sort of people are here.

    And FSXnet has a few rules that differentiate it from other networks, thus also selecting people (or things discussed), to whatever extent.

    But chatting on FSXnet is significantly more pleasant to me than elsewhere, and whether or not people consider it an echo chamber, I'd vastly prefer it over places where "engagement" means rage bait and controversy.

    Here, it feels like we have at least a little more, "consider the people behind the screen", and thus it feels a bit more human than I seem to be able to get over much of the rest of the internet.

    (Probably doesn't hurt that people/bots using LLMs haven't spent a whole lot of time writing messages here, too.)

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Storm BBS (21:2/108)
  • From The Wanderer@21:3/233 to boraxman on Wed Apr 8 08:52:50 2026
    Re: Re: Social Media
    By: boraxman to poindexter FORTRAN on Thu Apr 09 2026 01:40 am

    I think I prefer just to have a single, proper open network with free speech. Elon has done well with X in this regard.

    No... free speech at all costs is not healthy, and X isn't even that. It's free speech if Elon agrees with you (mostly), but X is now really quite well known as being a toxic shithole.

    Look what gets amplified there... I'm sorry, but by just about most any reasonable standards, X is not a good place.
    --- SBBSecho 3.37-Linux
    * Origin: Yak Station - Some yakkin' happenin'... (21:3/233)
  • From The Wanderer@21:3/233 to boraxman on Wed Apr 8 08:55:24 2026
    Re: Re: Social Media
    By: boraxman to fusion on Thu Apr 09 2026 01:43 am

    the problem is you don't really get to choose..
    I can pretty much already tell the politics of a group or movement or scene, where they ban servers. That alone is a big turn off from the technology.

    Like a BBS, you can set up your own and federate with whoever you wish, or whoever will tolerate you.

    I don't understand the notion of forcing extreme speech on people as being a good thing.
    --- SBBSecho 3.37-Linux
    * Origin: Yak Station - Some yakkin' happenin'... (21:3/233)
  • From boraxman@21:1/101 to Adept on Fri Apr 10 00:45:42 2026

    I wonder about the free speech claim, too, since evidently one cannot
    say, "cis", so far as I understand. Which really cuts down on discussion of cis fatty acids. And Musk amplifies his own voice over others.

    But I'll do my best to leave the topic alone, as it'll get into politics
    a little too quickly, I imagine. As likely does _anything_ Musk.


    Quite a lot gets said on X these days, there seems to be no issue there.

    Possible that everything is an echo chamber, to _some_ extent. Since the people into various places are into those places for a reason.

    E.g., we're all on BBSs, and that's going to limit which sort of people are here.

    And FSXnet has a few rules that differentiate it from other networks,
    thus also selecting people (or things discussed), to whatever extent.

    But chatting on FSXnet is significantly more pleasant to me than elsewhere, and whether or not people consider it an echo chamber, I'd vastly prefer it over places where "engagement" means rage bait and controversy.

    Here, it feels like we have at least a little more, "consider the people behind the screen", and thus it feels a bit more human than I seem to be able to get over much of the rest of the internet.

    (Probably doesn't hurt that people/bots using LLMs haven't spent a whole lot of time writing messages here, too.)


    There will always be a selectiveness to the audience, but an echo chamber is where everyone has the same views, and echos them back.

    Here, we're all BBS enthusiasts, so perhaps discussion of whether BBS's are still fun will see as all agree, but in other respects, I have no idea what your politics or religion are, and you could easily be someone who disagrees with me. I can't escape that here.

    On other places though, they exclude those who don't agree, and that I dont like.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From boraxman@21:1/101 to The Wanderer on Fri Apr 10 00:48:35 2026
    On 08 Apr 2026 at 08:52a, The Wanderer pondered and said...

    Re: Re: Social Media
    By: boraxman to poindexter FORTRAN on Thu Apr 09 2026 01:40 am

    I think I prefer just to have a single, proper open network with free speech. Elon has done well with X in this regard.

    No... free speech at all costs is not healthy, and X isn't even that.
    It's free speech if Elon agrees with you (mostly), but X is now really quite well known as being a toxic shithole.

    Look what gets amplified there... I'm sorry, but by just about most any reasonable standards, X is not a good place.

    What do people get banned for? Is there censorship?

    Genuinely asking. I've heard people complain and leave because of what IS said, but I haven't heard of people leaving because they've had a particular point of view blocked. There are some extreme banned accounts (violence, CP, etc, which is fine)

    I'm not sure whether the issue some people have is because they are reading things they don't like, or because they are unable to put forward their particular views.

    ... A Meteor is an example of a rock star.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From boraxman@21:1/101 to The Wanderer on Fri Apr 10 00:58:26 2026
    the problem is you don't really get to choose..
    I can pretty much already tell the politics of a group or movement or scene, where they ban servers. That alone is a big turn off from the technology.

    Like a BBS, you can set up your own and federate with whoever you wish,
    or whoever will tolerate you.

    I don't understand the notion of forcing extreme speech on people as
    being a good thing.


    The purpose of Free Speech is not for the benefit of the speaker, but for the listener. Free Speech is important because a healthy society needs its view challenged. People need their views challenged. What is given as truth, much be challenged.

    By being exposed to other views, you have your own views challenged, and what you perceive to be right is tested. Now, you may find out you are wrong. But even if you are right, and the view you are exposed to is wrong, you now know better why you are right. You now know WHY they are wrong.

    So it is bad for society to "protect" people from this, because even if you are protecting the truth, a truth that they don't see challenged becomes weak. And if you chose to simply not listen to opposing views, you are harming yourself.

    I had a work colleage tell me he went on X a bit, saw views he didn't like and leave. To me, someone like that has no business weighing in on anything. They forfeit their right to have their opinion on topics taken seriously.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From The Wanderer@21:3/233 to boraxman on Thu Apr 9 16:28:12 2026
    Re: Re: Social Media
    By: boraxman to The Wanderer on Fri Apr 10 2026 12:48 am

    What do people get banned for? Is there censorship?

    I would suggest that getting banned isn't the only measure of censorship. If thier algorithm has been tweaked to only amplify certain takes, then what would you call the takes that fall outside of that?

    particular point of view blocked. There are some extreme banned accounts (violence, CP, etc, which is fine)

    I don't recall them shutting down Grok.

    I'm not sure whether the issue some people have is because they are reading things they don't like, or because they are unable to put forward their particular views.

    Both, I believe. When one eventually realizes they're sitting at the nazi bar, that drives many away.

    However, I appreciate your discussion on it!
    --- SBBSecho 3.37-Linux
    * Origin: Yak Station - Some yakkin' happenin'... (21:3/233)
  • From boraxman@21:1/101 to The Wanderer on Sat Apr 11 00:40:41 2026
    What do people get banned for? Is there censorship?

    I would suggest that getting banned isn't the only measure of
    censorship. If thier algorithm has been tweaked to only amplify certain takes, then what would you call the takes that fall outside of that?


    One has to be careful here. Are you seeing certain views because they are amplified, or is it because they are more prevalent than you think.

    I know from my personal experience, from people I meet day to day at work, in the street, online, that certain views which people think are only due to "radicalisation" are far more common than people think.

    This is the problem of echo chambers. You assume the political opinion of society at large mirrors your echo chamber.

    particular point of view blocked. There are some extreme banned acco (violence, CP, etc, which is fine)

    I don't recall them shutting down Grok.


    I'm not sure what you are getting at here...

    Both, I believe. When one eventually realizes they're sitting at the
    nazi bar, that drives many away.

    However, I appreciate your discussion on it!
    --- SBBSecho 3.37-Linux

    I've heard the phrase before, but it just doesn't make sense to me. This seems to be a thing that people of a particular political bent hold, that doesn't make much sense outside of that in-group. If there are people who are on a platform, who have views you don't subscribe to, it doesn't mean anything, unless that platform is specifically designed for said group.

    Again, I find it concerning that so many today think it a positive strategy to disengage and segregate themselves, and not listen to challenging ideas.

    ... Top secret! Burn before reading!

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)