When you post things on Instagram, Facebook, and X, this is what they look like to people who don’t use those platforms.
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When you post things on Instagram, Facebook, and X, this is what they look like to people who don’t use those platforms. @vicfroh https://mastodon.social/@vicfroh/116172585169719449
It's even simpler. If you post on those platforms, I'll never see the post, as I decided long ago that twitter and facebook (now X, facebook, and instagram) don't need my traffic, ever. If it's important or ugly enough, I'm sure someone will screenshot it and repost, but you (and more importantly, the oligarchs) won't get my tracking or ad revenues.
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Fediverse code folk are the only public media authors to have any (actually, substantial) clue in the last 30 years. That sounds crazy written down but after a few days of thinking about it, i cant think of any others.
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@_elena Personally, I would honestly rather see public institutions offering a variety of ways to access what they publish.
Including easily located full-text RSS feeds through platforms they control. (Minimal third parties in between them and the people who want to access the information.)
And yes, Fediverse and their own web sites.
@mkj @_elena @aral also known as https://indieweb.org/POSSE
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Great stuff. If they post on there then I have to assume they don't want me to know what they have to say.
And I really don't like to see mirrors of their posts on Mastodon so they can shout and they don't see any replies.Bernie Sanders does it too.
He can FRO -
When you post things on Instagram, Facebook, and X, this is what they look like to people who don’t use those platforms. @vicfroh https://mastodon.social/@vicfroh/116172585169719449
@aral Hell, I even see this for a lot of Bluesky posts
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@elettrona @aral @_elena @vicfroh I fully agree that independent journalism requires financing that is independent from state or corporations.
However, in my country for example, press codex states the duty of informing the public fully and truthful. Imho, the public includes such individuals that are less fortunate and not able to afford a subscription.
50 years back, before digital publishing, printed newspapers could be evaluated without financial obligation... head articles at the least.
@Amorpheus @elettrona @aral @_elena @vicfroh I've returned to subscribing to dead tree newspapers. Subscriptions usually offer access to the paper's website as well but I avoid reading online.
One reason for this, besides that I can't be tracked as I leaf through the pages of a newspaper is that I can keep an archive of the news at home.
I have found it increasingly difficult in recent years to find articles that I remember reading. And, old content seems to get deleted more often these days.
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@Amorpheus @aral @_elena @vicfroh I agree. And, talking about digital newspapers, I'm blind. There are tons of digital newspapers which, if I pay them, I them find out they're IMAGES. Just PDF images not readable by assistive tech. What does it mean? Throw money down the toilet drain.
There are many blind-related associations which provide newspapers, but they decide which agreements to sign, according to political positions or whatever else, the result is that we can access what others want us to.@elettrona @aral @_elena @vicfroh Accessibility is another issue of course, for which digital publishing is a major step forward. My mother is blind, too. Back two decades ago, I read the newspaper to her. Then I installed her a OCR program which made her independent of me.
Anyway, my point was that information should be accessible for all, not just the well situated.
It's like with FOSS. We provide it for free. Those who value us donate generously, paying for the less fortunate, too.
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@Amorpheus @elettrona @aral @_elena @vicfroh I've returned to subscribing to dead tree newspapers. Subscriptions usually offer access to the paper's website as well but I avoid reading online.
One reason for this, besides that I can't be tracked as I leaf through the pages of a newspaper is that I can keep an archive of the news at home.
I have found it increasingly difficult in recent years to find articles that I remember reading. And, old content seems to get deleted more often these days.
@Amorpheus @elettrona @aral @_elena @vicfroh Oh and the suspicion on my part that AI will hallucinate copies of news articles, altering facts and images along the way, it seems essential to me in the future to be able to go back to a copy of an old newspaper in my archive to check the facts of a story again.
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@bontchev I guess my screenshot tool was lying.
@aral Your screenshot is from mobile, mine is from desktop. That's why I supposed that the two may be offering different kinds of access.
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When you post things on Instagram, Facebook, and X, this is what they look like to people who don’t use those platforms. @vicfroh https://mastodon.social/@vicfroh/116172585169719449
@aral I hate force login to see posts
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When you post things on Instagram, Facebook, and X, this is what they look like to people who don’t use those platforms. @vicfroh https://mastodon.social/@vicfroh/116172585169719449
@aral
I don't even try to click. That's a lost post. Not interested -
@Amorpheus @elettrona @aral @_elena @vicfroh Oh and the suspicion on my part that AI will hallucinate copies of news articles, altering facts and images along the way, it seems essential to me in the future to be able to go back to a copy of an old newspaper in my archive to check the facts of a story again.
@the_wub @elettrona @aral @_elena @vicfroh Interesting practice, which I will adopt for some subscriptions I have, especially when it comes to post-editing.
Data security statements also often are provided and referenced online at time of initial subscription, without getting any notice when it is being altered later on, which makes resistance by law difficult.
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@_elena Of course

@aral thank you Aral!

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@_elena
Will you be present at https://www.fedivariety.org/unconference ?
@aral@zipkid alas I won't be there but I look forward to following vicariously via the live toots of people attending. such an important event!
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@aral I'm actually writing a blog post arguing that public institutions should start seeing the Fediverse as the ideal publishing platform for sharing communications with their constituents.
May I quote your post, this is super relevant?
@_elena this may also interest you:
https://fsfe.org/news/2023/news-20230109-01.en.html -
@elettrona @aral @_elena @vicfroh Accessibility is another issue of course, for which digital publishing is a major step forward. My mother is blind, too. Back two decades ago, I read the newspaper to her. Then I installed her a OCR program which made her independent of me.
Anyway, my point was that information should be accessible for all, not just the well situated.
It's like with FOSS. We provide it for free. Those who value us donate generously, paying for the less fortunate, too.
@Amorpheus @aral @_elena @vicfroh you are touching some huge topics. Even the foss stuff - for us blind users, a cheap phone won't work. Android isn't that easy to use, or immediate, like for sighted. Let alone Linux. Now I'm considering the Unihertz Titan2 which is not one of the cheapest. But wanting to install some alternative systems such as f-droid, or the other one what's the name... sailfish... Accessibility isn't granted. Android's talkback is much, much slower than an iOS/iPadOS and Windows machine. I have to painfully admit, recognize it. So, every single thing costs money.
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When you post things on Instagram, Facebook, and X, this is what they look like to people who don’t use those platforms. @vicfroh https://mastodon.social/@vicfroh/116172585169719449
@aral Yeah. The walled gardens (to use a phrase) have gone from picket, to latiss, to blackout.
Not that the Fedi doesnt have a wall here or there. But that is usually, hopefully, for saftey. And not to exclude to draw in.
Also, I'll note people research twitter frontends. I cant find one for insta tho.
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When you post things on Instagram, Facebook, and X, this is what they look like to people who don’t use those platforms. @vicfroh https://mastodon.social/@vicfroh/116172585169719449
@aral i keep asking my sister to stop sending me Facebook posts bc of this
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@philipshiomi @bontchev @aral
Last I heard, if a post gets a certain amount of engadgement, it becomes fully public. Tho that was a long ago, I heard that. -
@Amorpheus @aral @_elena @vicfroh you are touching some huge topics. Even the foss stuff - for us blind users, a cheap phone won't work. Android isn't that easy to use, or immediate, like for sighted. Let alone Linux. Now I'm considering the Unihertz Titan2 which is not one of the cheapest. But wanting to install some alternative systems such as f-droid, or the other one what's the name... sailfish... Accessibility isn't granted. Android's talkback is much, much slower than an iOS/iPadOS and Windows machine. I have to painfully admit, recognize it. So, every single thing costs money.
@elettrona @aral @_elena @vicfroh I feel you. Watching my mom struggle with things I take for granted has often made me really sad, just as watching people suffer and die around the globe for economic reasons.
Money has become the true dictator of humanity. Due to that, I developed the conviction that existential resources should be free for everyone.
Compensation should be done by those few that were able to unfold their potential because of that.
But maybe I'm just a fool to believe that.
