this post was submitted on 19 Apr 2025
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

If they really, really want to fix 99.8% of the problems with hate speech (and many other issues), each user needs to agree to have their real name, home address, email address, and phone number available to the public, in their profile. While what I've just said is completely absurd, for almost everyone, it's the anonymity that empowers people to say the absolute worst things.

Why don't most people in the checkout line (queue) at the grocery store act the same way they do in a traffic jam on a roadway? Because they're much more likely to be held personally accountable for their conduct. I wonder how much traffic would change, if our name, address and telephone numbers were required to be posted on all sides of our vehicles?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 53 minutes ago

I didn't read what you said but I like it, everyone gets a license plate on bluesky.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 3 hours ago

I can't believe the guy who originally administered the creation of Twitter would do all the exact same things that originally made him billions of dollars selling the company to Elon Musk.

There's no way he's just speed-running what he did last time in hopes of another $44B buyout.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 hours ago

Figured they would go down this route. Don't use it anyway

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

you don't kill a cow for a scratch on her leg (I hope the saying is understandable for everybody since it doesn't come from English).
I'm on mastodon and bluesky: the first is even less populated than here and a big part of the interesting content comes from bot reposting popular accounts from x or reddit, while the second is far from being THE solution but it's nowadays a -not wildly populated- compromise. I don't condone (while I understand) the Turkish bans and I'm not interested in a verification system: if I'd like one, I'd use https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EIDAS.
I hope bluesky will correct its approach for what they can (the "good old" twitterin the golden era was banned in Turkey)

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

I believe the equivalent saying would be "don't let perfect be the enemy of good".

I couldn't give a single shit about these twitter alternatives, because the whole concept is stupid.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

the whole concept is stupid.

+1

Being that algorithmic just makes any Twitter-like design too easy to abuse.

Again, Lemmy (and Reddit) is far from perfect, but fundamentally, grouping posts and feeds by niche is way better. It incentivizes little communities that are concerned about their own health, while users have zero control over that shouting into the Twitter maw.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

yea lemmy/reddit definitely seems like more of a sweet spot. with twitter/mastodon or anything that has a "say something" text box right in your face on every page, you are going to end up with a lot of noise, because most people just dont have interesting things to say most of the time

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

I don't understand - do you think mastodon (or the fediverse in general) is sparsely populated? That's not my impression at all!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

That's exactly what I meant: very few people, only on main niches, and some political and lifestyle ideas are common to 90% of the userbase (ie: anti-Trump, pro-Palestine, pro-Foss, etc).
I'm not complaining, just reporting what I see

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

It seems that you don't curate your followers much and/or don't follow many people. The timeline is what you make it to be by following a variety of people as there isn't an algoritm to curate it for you. There's plenty of interesting content circling around and it's wholly up to you wether it makes it to your timeline or not.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 54 minutes ago

I get it, but I don't want to curate my followers, I'm not a news media, I just follow users I totally like, I usually look for content I don't see in my timeline, do a lot of surfing, but in the end it's not that big as today

[–] [email protected] 23 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

The checkmark is the wrong approach. You should never trust accounts, because accounts get hacked. We should instead use cryptographic signatures on individual posts, and clients can warn when that signature doesn't match the account's public key, or if that key changed recently. The private key would never live on the server, and ideally live outside the app.

This doesn't verify identity, it just proves the key didn't change. To establish identity, the person needs to use the same key in multiple places, such as posting it on a personal website or something. If a service wants to add their own stamp of approval, they can sign these public keys and embed them into the apl for clients to use (e.g. show a blue checkmark if Bluesky can verify the public key outside its system).

If the private key is compromised, repeat the process, potentially signing the new key with both the old and new key to prove control of both (or start from scratch if needed). Repeat whenever they get hacked.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 hours ago

Average user:

"Wait how do I get cryptocurrency with my key?"

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 hours ago

It's also not new. GPG has been around for decades, and is pretty much this.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

ARE WE LEARNING HOW "SOCIAL MEDIA" WORKS YET HUMANITY?

Seriously. How many more fucking times do we need to go around this goddamn merry go round until we just start calling each other on the phone and meeting face to face again. You know, where the only enshittification is the one you bring with you. It's fucking boring me now, how many of these stupid ass things I didn't join because I've already, apparently, gotten the memo and how, inevitably, something like this happens, and everyone acts surprised and disappointed , as though inevitability was a concept they felt they'd been given a sabbatical from or something.

This. Shit. Ain't. Free. There is an inherent cost, an "effort" required to communicate with others. You pay it with money, time or privacy. The overwhelming choice lately has been "privacy", but it's obviously something that not everyone is comfortable with, because we didn't have the term "enshittification" before we started this flavor of our collective idiocy.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 hours ago

Can I subscribe to your social media accounts? I would like to follow your opinions.

Nah, for real though, I'm so glad my best friend is still fairly analog and we use the phone for what it is (we just call each other when we want to meet up).

Lemmy is the last of social media that I use and I regularly take breaks from it because the echo chamber is very apparent and not something I wish to be consumed by.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

ARE WE LEARNING HOW “SOCIAL MEDIA” WORKS YET HUMANITY?

Apparently not, because people keep feeling surprised and offended when the Networking Effect happens.

Seriously. How many more fucking times do we need to go around this goddamn merry go round until we just start calling each other on the phone and meeting face to face again

Idk, when are we going to get low-cost public transit and VoIP that's not like talking over two tin cans connected with string?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

What is this networking effect you mentioned? I tried searching online but I think I'm missing the context needed to find the right info.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 hours ago

Yeah I deleted my Bluesky. All public companies eventually turn to shit because of the shareholders unending greed.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

this is unnecessary with custom domains

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 hours ago

Their position is that custom domains are "too hard."

[–] [email protected] -2 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

Any system built on anonymous accounts is going to have the exact same problems. Lemmy is not “less bad” than Reddit because it’s decentralized. Blue checks isn’t the problem with twitter, and neither is Elong

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

Not sure where you're going with that, but it's a perverse incentive, just like the engagement algorithm.

Elon is a problem because he can literally force himself into everyone's feeds, but also because he always posts polarizing/enraging things these days.

Healthy social media design/UI is all about incentivizing good, healthy communities and posts. Lemmy is not perfect, but simply not designing for engagement/profit because Lemmy is "self hosted" instead of commercial is massive.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Lots of "how dare they solve a real problem with the only method yet invented" in these replies. Gtfo losers, clutch your pearls harder. If you don't like Bluesky don't use it. Don't be a whiny little bitch about it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 hours ago

Only method yet invented?

[–] [email protected] 46 points 15 hours ago

Then come over to Mastodon...

[–] [email protected] 34 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

No one disliked the check mark before "Genghis Kunt" started selling it

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 hours ago

It was selectively given to institutions and "major" celebrities before that.

Selling them dilutes any meaning of "verified" because any joe can just pay for extra engagement. It's a perverse incentive, as the people most interest in grabbing attention buy it and get amplified.

It really has little to do with Musk.

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