• JeffCraig@citizensgaming.com
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    1 year ago

    It’s crazy how many people will just click accept on security warning them that an app will access literally everything on their phone.

    It’s also crazy how many people don’t even know that Threads is Meta… where the f have these people been for the past 10 years?

        • BlueLineBae@midwest.social
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          1 year ago

          I’ve never cared for influencers, but they also never effected me personally. Until last summer… I was blueberry picking one morning with my mom. We picked 3 very full buckets and called it a day and headed for the checkout hut. We’re hot sweaty and tired and just wanted to checkout and go home, but we were suddenly blocked in the middle of a row of blueberries with no way to get out! Why? Because someone was photographing a lady in a sundress and hat caressing the blueberry bushes. We ended up walking through the photo and I’ve never felt such “get off my lawn” sentiment before.

          • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            Lol for real though, ruining an influencer’s shot - or even better, a live broadcast - when they’re being an obnoxious asshole gives me no small degree of pleasure.

            • Bo7a@lemmy.ca
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              1 year ago

              When my wife and I got a chance to go to musee d’orsey in Paris there was a beautiful manual clock on show. There was this annoying influencer standing about 15 ft in front of it and not letting anybody get closer. She would constantly whine that they were in her shot.

              I walked right up to the mechanisms of the clock to inspect it while she just yapped at me and my wife laughed and laughed and laughed.

              Best experience in Paris by far.

              • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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                1 year ago

                Lmao that honestly sounds delightful! Hope you guys enjoyed the rest of your trip too!

                Tangentially, did you get a chance to catch a performance of the string quartet that plays in Sainte-Chapelle cathedral? If you’re at all into that style of music, it’s one of the coolest experiences I have seen like that, and I cannot recommend it enough. The cathedral itself is gorgeous, the acoustics are absolutely breathtaking, and the quartet is like crazy talented. Can’t recommend that enough.

                • Bo7a@lemmy.ca
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                  1 year ago

                  We sadly did not get to take that in. But the second chapter of the story is how two canadians visiting paris brought covid to basel switzerland, and caused a whole company campus to close. All while ending up trapped in .ch for ten months with only two suitcases…

                  But that chapter is for another post.

            • JokeDeity
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              9 months ago

              Probably still being rich and living off their parents?

    • Dnn@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      where the f have these people been for the past 10 years?

      They’ve been giving away their data for all that time and it hasn’t visible affected them negatively.

      Of course it will eventually and they’ll Pikachu face then but that’s hardly comforting.

      • Steeve@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        Will it? Why? It won’t affect most people personally ever, hence why most people don’t really care.

        • Dnn@lemmy.world
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          I fear you are right. While I do believe that further policital abuse of that data is inevitable (Trump or the Malaysian civil war were at least partial results of campaigns of Cambridge Analytica, for example), people probably won’t see the impact data analysis had and how they’ve been manipulated.

    • RhetoricalOrator@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I think security warnings are kind of like cancer warnings in the state of California. If virtually everything causes cancer then warnings become just a normalized part of life.

      • bamboo
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        1 year ago

        It’s just another form of notification fatigue.

        • Beefalo@midwest.social
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          1 year ago

          What it comes down to is that you never get a choice. Over and over again, it’s always sign this 10,000 word EULA written by our lawyers to give us all the rights, now, and any rights we want to have in the future, or you can throw that $800 device in the trash if you don’t click yes. Likewise, if you want to participate in modern socialization, sign or fuck off.

          There’s no point in reading the EULA, because it’s not like you can negotiate for better terms. If you do read it, you just get to find out how it screws you in detail. It’s always take it or leave it, and somehow they paid the devil to make sure that this is popular with everyone else, so you walk through our gate on our terms, or you get shut out of everything, everywhere.

          It doesn’t even matter if you’re smart enough to wade through the agreement, it’s still take it or leave it, and the dummies don’t even try. They know the deal, they click the button. The smart people click it, too, they just feel worse about it. Take it or leave it. Fatigue isn’t the right word. Coercion. That’s the one.

          Having any leverage in consumer transactions is becoming a rapidly fading memory. Everyone has just given up. Remember when you could buy a TV without signing an onerous legal document that a rational person would never sign, in order to use it? Pepperidge Farm remembers.

        • JokeDeity
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          9 months ago

          I have felt this for years before smart devices were a big thing, my variation is just “text fatigue”. I hate how, for instance in a grocery store (at least here in the US) there is literally almost no square inch of the building that doesn’t have some text for you to read, be it advertising, warnings, information, whatever. My brain gets tired, I can’t just look at these words and not read them and not process the information. The older I get the more overwhelming it all seems and home and nature are the only escape.

  • ultrasquid@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I’ve said this a bunch of times, but Mastodon’s use of a chronological feed is what kills it. What it really needs is for the default tab to be a “trending” tab, cause that’s what users want to see.

    • Lemdee@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Mastodon’s use of a chronological feed is what kills it.

      Funny, that’s exactly the reason I like Mastodon’s feed over traditional social media. No bullshit being pushed, just the people I’m following and the posts they make.

      • DrQuint@lemmy.ml
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        You’re saying this… On Lemmy. You do know we have three different “trending” settings here, right?

        I honestly much prefer the idea of a chronological feed too, but disagree that’s what kills a platform. Tumblr has both the chronological and the trending for you/for all, and it was also ignored.

        • Lemdee@lemmy.world
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          You do know we have three different “trending” settings here, right?

          Which are optional so what’s your point?

        • JokeDeity
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          9 months ago

          I’m definitely in the “all choices” camp when it comes to sorting methods, and I’m DEFINITELY in the “keep your fucking algorithms” camp (beyond the extremely basic like hot/trending being based on activity and upvotes).

    • ezmack@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      The sign up process is just too confusing for most people too. I tried evangelizing it when musk took over and that was everyones response. Need like a temporary instance for new accounts that you can transfer out of once you’ve got your sea legs

        • dfc09@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          That’s how I feel right now. I don’t need the Fediverse to replace reddit and Twitter, I want it to be a refuge from the commercialized crap! The people who can’t be bothered to figure out Lemmy or Mastodon can stay right where they are!

          • boopdepop@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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            1 year ago

            Exactly, lemmy feels like my kind of people. Going against proprietary stuff, against privacy nightmares. It’s the fact that I can relate to people here that makes it such a good replacement for commercial alternatives.

            • dfc09@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              I think these communities are plenty big already! I spent a while on tildes before coming here so in used to, and enjoy, smaller communites.

          • Freesoftwareenjoyer@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            But people using those platforms is not good for our society. Of course if they cared about freedom a little bit of extra difficulty wouldn’t really bother them. But the goal should be to make the switch as easy as possible.

      • Salvo@aussie.zone
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        1 year ago

        The only thing complicated about signing up for Mastodon (and Lemmy) is choice of instance.

        Some people need that choice made for them, even though it does not practically matter. Most instances federate with content on other instances and it is possible to migrate your content to an new instance if you change your mind in the future.

        Fortunately there are regional instances for both for me so it was pretty much a no-brainer for me to use aus.social and aussie.zone

      • justhach@lemmy.world
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        I really dont get this “Lemmy/Mastodon is sooooo haaaaard to sign up for”. I’m a barely technoliterate 30 something who’s closest thing to coding knowledge is the Missingno cheat in Pokemon Blue, and I figured it out. Its not that hard.

        Like, the instances/server thing is the only real extra step you have in signing up, but besides that, its like signing up for any other website.

        • zeggs@lemmy.zip
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          not that hard, yes

          but not simple enough to sign up without using your brain cells.

    • thehatfox@lemmy.world
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      The focus on chronological feeds is what I like about Mastodon, and Fediverse platforms in general. I don’t want to be slapped in the face with what some algorithm with ulterior motives has decided I should see - I want to see the things I follow in the order they were posted.

      • The Quuuuuill@slrpnk.net
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        1 year ago

        I think that’s why the threadiverse clicks for me. Its sorted by zeitgeist. Not influence by halo users, just, “here’s some stuff the community was into recently”

          • The Quuuuuill@slrpnk.net
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            1 year ago

            What are you talking about? I didn’t say anything about Threads or Mastodon. I’m talking about Kbin and Lemmy

    • keenworld@midwest.social
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      Yeah, most people aren’t on social media to see “what their friends are up to,” they’re there for the memes, the culture, the brands (including pop artists), whatever the latest “thing” is. Mastodon doesn’t have any of that, or at least it’s very hard to find.

    • Shaggy
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      1 year ago

      It also doesn’t really show a like count which I kinda get but it’s really annoying

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    No, it’s mastodon but centralized. It takes all the difficulty out of signing up for the fediverse, like finding a server. I said it from day 1 on mastodon. We will never see mass adoption until there’s a simple sign up process. People like centralized because it’s easier.

    • luffyuk@lemmy.world
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      I’ve been trying to hammer this point home.

      I wish devs would wake up and create a default easy mode sign-up for the fediverse with an option to click “advanced sign-up” if you choose to do so.

      The easy mode would just automatically assign an instance based upon some algorithm.

        • Rengoku@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Well, like asking users what their preferences are and select the servers based on the criteria users have chosen?

          • Noodlez@programming.dev
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            Hmm actually yeah this is a good idea, but the problem is that there’s so many servers that I feel that after choosing criteria there’d still be a bunch of servers in the list and the problem remains, right? Just bouncing ideas. I quite like this idea though.

            • Square Singer@feddit.de
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              1 year ago

              Then the algo recommends the one with the lowest load and hides the others behind a … icon or something.

              • Noodlez@programming.dev
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                Mm this could be a problem because server load is too unpredictable. I would actually say just randomize the list, so that it kinda does its own “load balancing” by incentivizing to pick whatever random top one it selected?

                • Square Singer@feddit.de
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                  Yeah, whatever metric. Could also use a mix of number of users, some form of reputation measurement, uptime, etc.

                  I mostly meant that the system should pick a “best server” and recommend that. Smarter people than me can come up with the best metric.

                  But swamping the user with >100 servers to pick from is counterproductive.

      • jerkface@lemmy.ca
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        I wish the devs would wake up and create a default easy mode sign-up for creating a web site. The web will never catch on with all this complicated stuff.

        • EricHill78@lemmy.world
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          Honestly I like the fact that there is some difficulty in the sign up. I think it brings a better quality of people to the Fediverse.

    • stebo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      How is it difficult to find a server? Just pick whatever server you come across first and create an account.

      • Uvine_Umarylis@partizle.com
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        You tell the average dude about how servers exist and the first instinct is that it matters, so they stop, fret about the importance, look for a second, then just drop it because they dont give enough hoots yet to invest more effort versus using a centralized service.

        Want ppl to join, don’t even tell them about servers. No choice paralysis, no fear of being wrong, nada

        • Square Singer@feddit.de
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          I haven’t used Mastodon, but on Lemmy the instance you are on totally matters.

          For example, beehaw.org is pretty happy to defederate. It tries to give you a more moderated and curated environment. Feddit.de is slow, laggy and often outdated, and they just deactivated federation in general (at least they said so, to me federation seems to be still working) to avoid that session stealing vulnerability.

          In general, federation is pretty buggy right now, with federated posts/comments having a decent chance of not being replicated.

          So the choice of instance really does make a difference. But there is no help at all up front to choose the correct instance.

          And just hopping over to another instance is also not a great solution, since people are used to build their social media account. It’s not some anonymous throw-away thing.

          • stebo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            I the case of lemmy, i feel like it’s definitely some anonymous throw-away thing. We’re not here to build a follower base are we?

            • Square Singer@feddit.de
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              Much less than on other platforms, that’s true, but after a while you do start recognizing usernames again.

              • stebo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                1 year ago

                Sure there’s exceptions like SrGrafo on Reddit but most are here to lurk around or engage in random discussions

        • jerkface@lemmy.ca
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          The average dude who can’t figure out how to sign up for an account on a website can go fuck off back to Facebook, where SOMEHOW they managed to create an account.

      • denemdenem@lemmy.world
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        It looks like most people don’t have enough braincells to do such a simple task. Isn’t it just nice to live in a world like this?

        • girthero@lemmy.world
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          At least this is one thing that’s not as bad as decades ago. Just remembering how computer illiterate most of the developed world used to be.

        • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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          Most people weren’t ever taught about this shit and had no reason to spend time learning about it on their own. Most of us are either professional or amateur nerds, figuring this out wasn’t really that hard because of our circumstances rather than our ~superior brains~

          They have just as many braincells as you, throw that attitude away.

    • Routhinator@startrek.website
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      1 year ago

      Centralization is the core problem of social media though. It allows a single entity control over the data and as soon as you have that, you have Zuck.

      • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Centralization isn’t the problem, privatization is. If the single entity that controlled the data was democraticly controlled and not run for profitability it’d be the best of all worlds.

        • Routhinator@startrek.website
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          In 2023, there is very little democratically controlled anything left that has not been tainted by the ‘capitalist gains mindset’ - most democratic social programs that are far more fundamental than a social network have either been corrupted and impaired by corporate greed or have had enough legislative protections or funding sources cut out that they can no longer operate properly, allowing the argument for ‘privatisation’ - a one way ticket back to corporate greed. They operate at the whims of corporations and no longer serve the people.

          While I believe what you say is true, it’s not something we’re capable of in the current state of civilisation.

          • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            Everything you said is true, democracy does not exist under the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. I’m just saying, centralization isn’t the problem. Furthermore you can’t escape capitalism by decentralizing.

            • Routhinator@startrek.website
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              True, but it makes it possible to breakaway from an instance or leaders that are toxic/circumventing your privacy for profit without having to find a new tool or network. You can just hop to another instance.

    • Holzkohlen@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      Finding a server could not be any easier: https://joinmastodon.org/servers
      If they can’t manage that then maybe they should not be on the internet. If my 60yo dad can do it then so can they. Learned helplessness in anything involving IT is my pet peeve.

      • Square Singer@feddit.de
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        Tbh, this is not a good solution.

        It dumps you in front of a wall of 22 pages of servers on my laptop (equivalent to 4.35 meters).

        Most of which have completely nonsensical descriptions.

        If I look at e.g. the first page (top 6 servers) I get these:

        • mastodon.social: The original server operated by the Mastodon gGmbH non-profit
        • mstdn.jp: Mastodon日本鯖です. よろしくお願いいたします。 (Maintained by Sujitech, LLC)
        • mstdn.social: A general-purpose Mastodon server with a 500 character limit. All languages are welcome.
        • mastodon.world: Generic Mastodon server for anyone to use.
        • mas.to: Hello! mas.to is a fast, up-to-date and fun Mastodon server.
        • mastodon.online: A newer server operated by the Mastodon gGmbH non-profit

        Ok, so of these I can only rule out mstdn.jp, because I don’t speak Japanese.

        mastodon.social and mastodon.official are, I guess, the “official” instances, with one of them being newer, for some reason. What does that mean? No idea. Is mastodon.social running out dated software? If not, why fork the instances at all?

        mstdn.social and mastodon.world mention that they are general purpose. Without (and even with) Fediverse experience, I would expect any social media platform to be general purpose unless otherwise stated. So they basically have no description.

        mas.to mentions only that it’s “fast, up-to-date and fun”. That basically has no meaning, except all other instances are slow, outdated and boring. So now I am worried.

        mstdn.social says it has a 500 character limit. Without googleing a new user would have no idea what the regular character limits are. And I have no idea whether that will cause issues when interacting with other instances.

        This page is like getting to a used car dealership without a clue about cars and you ask the car dealer to help you choose a car, and the dealer is like “Yeah, so I’m gonna help you. The right car for you is any car on the property of the dealership.”

      • WarmSoda
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        Yeah but, it sounds like you can read and retain information long enough to make decisions on your own.

        Most people can’t even grasp scrolling past the ads in a Google search. If they even get to Google in the first place.

    • Peruvia@lemmy.ml
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      I’ve seen people lose their shit over having to “sign up for another app” and honestly I don’t want people who have no respect for their data, privacy and have the personality of a wet cardboard right-wing conservative on the fediverse. That’s why Fb exists. We are here as users because we chose to, as other people chose what best suits them.

    • Emu@lemmy.ml
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      Exactly, I downloaded Mastodon and deleted it in one day. It was too complicated (in an annoying way) to use. I’m very IT literate, but I don’t want to learn to use a platform, or do research. I want it to work out of the box, and I want it to be easy and the content to be accessible. Now think about all the non-IT literate people out there, of course Threads will do well because it’s just create an account and you’re good to go… If Mastodon was like that I would use it.

  • Knightfall@lemmy.ca
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    There are 1 billion active users on Instagram and those users were invited to Threads using an existing account. Celebrities, businesses, streamers, etc. all popped up on Threads within the first few hours of public release.

    I’m a big nerd and just learned about the fediverse within recent months. Everyone else I know who uses Twitter and Threads have no clue what Mastodon is.

    • CoderKat
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      Yeah, it’s unfathomable how huge Instagram is. That’s a massive number of people who could be easily informed “hey, wanna try our new product?” As an aside, when I googled it, it said there was 2 billion active Instagram users.

      I find it silly when people act skeptical of Threads’ numbers, since Meta only needed a tiny number of their existing user base to try it out.

      • Lockszmith@lemmy.ninja
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        11 months ago

        There was a time - when facebook/ig didn’t exist, the difference was - back then nothing exists, and so the intriguing new thing (that didn’t make money yet), was buggy as hell, and so the spread was FAST.

        Thankfully, those big projects, whenever they make a mistake, the fediverse gets a boost.

        I’ve been following the fediverse since disapora announced their plans circa 2010. I created an account on one of the instances in 2012 and probably visited it twice since.

        It’s one thing to be early adopters when something is completely new compared to something that comes to replace something that everybody is already using.

        We’ll get there. With every mistake these big corps will do, we’ll get more and more people in, until THIS will become the ‘cool’ thing around.

        Until then, it will be much much better.

        • Lightor@lemmy.world
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          My worry is once this becomes the “cool thing”, then the corpos will come in with dollar signs in their eyes. Yes, I think lemmy will be harder to mess with given its nature, but I never count big corps out when there’s money to be made.

  • Meldroc@lemmy.world
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    The thing I noticed right out of the gate when I went slumming on Threads is that the Android app package is 77MB. Compare that to Mastodon at 2.5MB.

    Two apps that (from the user’s perspective) do pretty much the same thing - make queries to servers and display pieces of text on the screen, maybe with some pictures or videos. Not that hard.

    So what does that extra 74MB of bloat in the Threads app do? Meta’s not telling us…

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    1 year ago

    The problem with Mastodon is discoverability. The fact that if I follow 10 hashtags, it won’t sort them on my homepage, but will be fully chronological.

    Say I follow #photography. The top of my homepage would be the post posted 2s ago, no matter how bad it is. It is so hard to find quality content.

    Now, Threads’ algorithm is pretty bad, but it’s still a lot easier to find quality content there instead of on Mastodon. Mastodon badly needs sorting by Hot, Active etc like there is on Lemmy.

    • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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      1 year ago

      I was listening to a podcast (by three software devs) just yesterday talking about algorithmic sorting on Threads vs chronological sorting on Mastodon. Nerds, it seems (of which I am one), prefer chronological sorting. This is because they have a community of people that they follow (I’m not using Mastodon, Threads, never used Twitter). They self-select for high-quality content. Normies, they theorized, don’t have a specific group of people to follow, thus they need an algorithm to show quality content from celebs and such.

      I’m curious how you self-identify and how many specific people you deliberately follow?

      • StoicLime
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        1 year ago

        I have selected some high-quality content to follow, but I still need to SORT through it. I’m into photography, but I don’t want to see people taking a mirror selfie and it being on the top of my feed just because it was the latest one posted with the hashtag.

        Reddit (and Lemmy) solve this by giving me the choice. I can sort by Hot or Active, and get a balance between recent but upvoted posts, and if I need to, I can always sort by New.

        The user needs to have options. Mastodon currently isn’t it for me, and won’t be until they add it. Until they do, I would take Threads with a following feed over Mastodon.

        I also feel like Bluesky is the one doing this really well too. They have custom algorithms, that users can create and people can enable them in the settings, like community plugins. I really, really love that concept and would love seeing something like that on Mastodon.

        • Phoeniqz@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 year ago

          Custom algorithms like community plugins is actually such an incredible good idea I wonder why we don’t have it already on mastodon

          • StoicLime
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            1 year ago

            That’s my other issue with Mastodon, it’s development doesn’t seem that open, it feels like the head dude isn’t really open to change. When asked about fixing search, he said it was “intentional” and he wanted people to search less. Seems weird, let the users have the choice, right?

            Heck, even Bluesky, which is VC funded feels more open than Mastodon at times.

            • Pazintach@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              I particularly like Mastodon’s chronological and weak search. You won’t be easily found unless you wanted to, and your timeline is well-ordered and never will it be disturbed by some algorithms. To me these are its advantages.

              • StoicLime
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                1 year ago

                I don’t like it because my feed gets flooded with low quality content that’s only there because the poster used that particular hashtag. It needs sorting like Reddit, so that I can keep the good quality content on top, but also have a chronological option if I ever get bored.

                It makes no sense to choose chronological when you can make it optional. Bluesky is much, much better in this regard.

      • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        The brilliance of Google+ was solving this exact problem by having circles sharing, that is sharing of groups of people to follow. That way a nerd could share their group of say news people, then a normie could click one button and follow the same gorup. Bam! The normie got upgraded to nerd-level content.

        Something equivalent can most likely be implemented for Mastodon.

        • minnow@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Oddly, I thought that was one of the worst parts about Google+. I get your point though and I respect your opinion, I just thought it was interesting how we disagree 😄

        • Grimm
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          11 months ago

          I used the Lists feature like this on Twitter. One of my most popular ones is the “Official Xbox Feed” list that had Xbox employees, developers, and official accounts all in one place. I made it for personal use but it now has 100+ followers.

      • TPetrichor@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I used to use Twit before the Nazi jerk off came along. I used it to follow individual game makers as they made progress on their games, creative writers tweeting out little stories, and amazing artists I would find there.

        I was definitely a Twitter Nerd before it became tainted.

        • Routhinator@startrek.website
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          1 year ago

          I love combing through the federated timeline and randomly finding someone new to follow or maybe just interact with that day. It’s my choice, it’s happenstance (based on chronological feeds and when I take time to look) and it feels like running into new people in the real world in a way.

          Algorithms tend to funnel people into partisan views of the world. They find people that think like you and follow the same topics as you and eventually without realising it you become partisan and unwilling to talk or compromise with someone with different views. It’s this part of social media that has made political situations hot and compromise seem impossible… I am digressing in my ramble though.

          I curate people in my follow list based on looking for things I know I like at first and people/celebs I know I follow elsewhere. 10-15 minutes a day I spend looking through the federated timeline (not the local timeline which is the only one available in the official Mastodon app) and I will interact with or find new people to follow at random. And then occasionally I go to people I am following and see who they are following to find new things as well.

          All my posts are chronological in my feeds, which means I can actually find them again.

          And one other thing I’ve noticed on sites with algorithms like Twitter… eventually you’re just seeing the same people over and over again from the algorithm. There are thousands and thousands you’ll never see because it will never think they are important enough to show you. Chronological feeds are unbiased and give everyone and equal platform… for better or worse… but after years of Facebook and Twitter algorithms, I strongly feel that’s for the better.

          • TPetrichor@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I’m really digging the simplicity at Lemmy.world, though I haven’t gotten mastodon yet. Still not up to speed on “instances” & the federated timeline (?).

    • complacent_jerboa@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Unfortunately, Threads is run by a very, very shitty corporation that sees you, me, and the rest of the fediverse as a new market to expand into (i.e. fresh meat). I wouldn’t blame people from defederating with them — their incentives will clearly push them to violate many instances’ rules against advertising.

      • pimeys@lemmy.nauk.io
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        1 year ago

        No no, they do not care about us. They have an audience of 1B people who care about branding and self-promotion. Here you have 12M people who are very critical what you do and hate advertisement.

    • money_loo@1337lemmy.com
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      1 year ago

      Dang you weren’t kidding. I know everyone here fucking hates all things social media but I was actually enjoying the content on Threads.

      However they seem to be collecting literally everything about me even down to my workout routines and sleeping habits…this really gives me pause.

    • bobs_monkey
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      1 year ago

      Seriously question, how do they get access to your health data, short of reading emails or sms?

      • Fester
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        1 year ago

        It means data that has been recorded to your health app - steps per day/hour, sleep hours/analysis, heart rate readings if you have a watch or device that does that, estimated calories burned, etc.

        Useful data for you to know and control, but incredibly creepy for a corporation like Meta to take for no reason other than to build an intrusive ad profile.

        • bobs_monkey
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          1 year ago

          Ah gotcha, now I’m glad I haven’t set my phone up to monitor any of that

      • SpicyPeaSoup@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        I’m guessing they record if you’ve been viewing a lot of, say, heartburn-related content, or once said “I suffer from heartburn”.

      • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech
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        1 year ago

        I’m guessing there’s no direct place for it there without reading email ( but even then your doctor should not be emailing you directly without a layer of encryption).

        Probably it’s more of a “hey if we stumble on it it’s ours now”. Like if you subscribe to a lot of parkinson’s info they probably can safely assume you or someone you know has Parkinson’s. And they’ll use that to shove ads in your face.

        • Beliriel@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Can’t they read sensor data and infer certain conditions from that? For example if you have a limp or something?

      • nonearther@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        These are primarily the data stored by your health apps and sos information.

        If you’ve Android health info stored for emergency cases, some apps with right permission can access it. You know to save your life.

        Likewise, your health record on your health apps like Google/Apple/Samsung health store a lot of information about you like steps, sleep trends, heart rate, diabetes, water intake, and even period regularity.

        In normal cases these records should only be known to you or shared with apps you approve.

        Threads has no business normally to request these data, but if they want go serve you relevant ads, these become quite useful information.

        They can show you sanitary products when you’re on period, or show ads for meds when you’ve high blood pressure. None of these should be monetised, but they can very well will be.

        • 👽🍻👽@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          The guy that is one of the main creators of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, made Bluesky. It’s a Twitter alternative that I believe is still invite only. It’s funny, when Bluesky officially started allowing people to use it, Twitter was abuzz with excitement and people posting memes about begging for access. Those select few that did get in early were going on and on about how awesome it is and how it was like old Twitter.

          Then Threads drops without the invite barrier automatically adding everyone with an Instagram account and I haven’t heard a fuckin peep about Bluesky in weeks.

          • WarmSoda
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            1 year ago

            Threads got rid of the invite barrier so hard they already created an account for everyone and even thier friends thatve never used it.

      • james@lurk.fun
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        1 year ago

        Using their own new protocol that no one else uses and they probably don’t even implement themselves yet.

  • Arkatakor
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    1 year ago

    Back to business as usual. The reality is that the majority of people can’t be bothered with privacy and other scandals from GAFAM.

    The silver lining of the whole Reddit and Twitter fiasco is that more people are interested in and participating in a decentralized network. That’s a good thing for the community.

  • Dardlem
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    1 year ago

    Nah, Twitter users stay where they are. That’s Instagram users seeing what Twitter is like.