Is #mastodon becoming an echo chamber?
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Is #mastodon becoming an echo chamber? This post from @carnage4life has me questioning our community. The Mastodon team is finally getting some traction, the product improvements are increasing, The #UX is improving, yet people posting on multiple platforms are making comments like this. It's confusing.
I *know* people here don't want this to be a classic social media-clone but we'd *like* journalists to be here right? They aren't coming with examples like this!
@scottjenson @carnage4life The assumption that we care if journalists are here or not is quite a large one. I couldn't care less if journalists are on here as a group - if someone is interesting, not an arsehole, and a journalist then sure, I'm happy to follow them and happy they're here.
The ones who don't match that description, I'll mute anyway and reconsider the follow that saw them in my feed
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@toddsundsted @dgodon Too many people thought I was *defending* the entire AI industry and worse, comparing it directly to Black Twitter. Hey it's social media, posts are short, it's easy to connect the dots the wrong way.
My poor writing skills aside, my point was what I think you both are saying: it's a slippery slope. It's no secret that black twitter was not made welcome here (it's a very complex topic but there is some truth to it).
My point wasn't that techbros needed support or coddling but the idea that we "allow" people to be here based on some type of ideological purity test is guaranteed to bite us in the ass. Too many people here get holier than thou and feel morally obligated to harass people. It's short sighted.
@scottjenson the most disappointing thing about the entire first layer of responses to the post was that so many people saw two letters ("AI") and ignored everything else about the poster the post and its content. they assumed a lot about the poster and their motivations, as well.
> the idea that we "allow" people to be here based on some type of ideological purity test is guaranteed to bite us in the ass
i very much agree with this. and, in fact, it is biting us. the concern i have is that a smaller, less inclusive, more ideologically constrained community is what many people actively want—thus their behavior.
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Is #mastodon becoming an echo chamber? This post from @carnage4life has me questioning our community. The Mastodon team is finally getting some traction, the product improvements are increasing, The #UX is improving, yet people posting on multiple platforms are making comments like this. It's confusing.
I *know* people here don't want this to be a classic social media-clone but we'd *like* journalists to be here right? They aren't coming with examples like this!
@scottjenson Mastodon (& the fediverse as a whole) is not an apolitical project; if we were happy with sycophants of big tech we'd still be using their platforms.
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@jkmcnk @scottjenson @Gargron the Fediverse has a thriving community of straight up neonazis, but everyone fucking shuns them. AI can have that, sure.
Just came here to say something most people in the USA seems unaware of: “Mastodon” isn't only people speaking in English.
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Is #mastodon becoming an echo chamber? This post from @carnage4life has me questioning our community. The Mastodon team is finally getting some traction, the product improvements are increasing, The #UX is improving, yet people posting on multiple platforms are making comments like this. It's confusing.
I *know* people here don't want this to be a classic social media-clone but we'd *like* journalists to be here right? They aren't coming with examples like this!
@scottjenson @carnage4life are we a monoculture, yes of course we are ? I follow Dare because he usually posts "against the grain" of many of the normal big Fediverse touch points. I will point out though that I interact with them exceedingly rarely so he may not realize this pattern; there are no "views" in Mastodon. I would bet he and others have a tail of followers like this.
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As this conversation is spiraling a bit I want to make a few things clear:
1. I'd like Mastodon to be MORE inclusive and bring in more voices
2. Some people don't seem to want that
3. This is core problem to solve: How do we let more in, but not "pollute" your feed?
4. The solution is NOT "gatekeeping", revelling in the fact that AI journalists aren't welcome
5. This is the same reason we lost "Black Twitter" when it came over in 2022Yes, a lot of you don't want AI posts in your feed (or pick any other topic) but the solution isn't to keep "AI People" from joining Mastodon, any more than it is keeping marginalized communities off of Mastodon.
@scottjenson make your own AI journalism instance and let people decide
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The core culture value here is equal access and freedom of expression. Everything after that is self-governing. Including segmentation of interests. No one is owed an audience. No one. (2/2)
@scottjenson@mattwilcox @scottjenson in case it matters, I used to work at NVIDIA, now am CEO of a tech startup, and of course I “do AI”. I haven’t felt unsafe here but I also am not looking for the boosts. My goal is to engage whenever I actually do have the time to post here. In fact it is the only platform I actually do personally post to. I want to have real conversations (and not just about what I do). All this to say, I feel I can express my opinions safely, and am happy to be here. And a disagreement with my choice of career or work does not make it unsafe for me.
Now if someone threatened me or my family just because I am who I am—would be very different. So would like to understand what we’re actually talking about here; people being in danger because of their affiliation with AI or just words being exchanged?
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@scottjenson @carnage4life are we a monoculture, yes of course we are ? I follow Dare because he usually posts "against the grain" of many of the normal big Fediverse touch points. I will point out though that I interact with them exceedingly rarely so he may not realize this pattern; there are no "views" in Mastodon. I would bet he and others have a tail of followers like this.
@scottjenson I think the real question here is how is the Mastodon team defining success? Are you chasing usage metrics? Because we know from the last decade plus how that experience goes.
Or are you looking at some other sort of metric and using THAT as the goal. I vaguely remember something about launching some new number of instances as a goal. Perhaps that's a better metric. We know people select the Fediverse to get away from Big Social. What does the team think is important to focus on?
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Is #mastodon becoming an echo chamber? This post from @carnage4life has me questioning our community. The Mastodon team is finally getting some traction, the product improvements are increasing, The #UX is improving, yet people posting on multiple platforms are making comments like this. It's confusing.
I *know* people here don't want this to be a classic social media-clone but we'd *like* journalists to be here right? They aren't coming with examples like this!
@scottjenson @carnage4life Mastodon is lukewarm to politics? That hasn't been my experience at all.
In fact, that rejection of AI is very political in its roots.
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@cratermoon @evan should everyone who joins mastodon be forced to pass that gauntlet? Who are the gate keepers? There shouldn't be a purity test. Catch the scammers of course, but passing judgement on the quality of someone's thoughts is very dubious
@scottjenson @cratermoon @evan I am the gatekeeper of MY timeline. So if I don't want some content, I don't follow it or I can even block it. And you have all the tools to create your own instance about AI things... that I won't follow.
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As this conversation is spiraling a bit I want to make a few things clear:
1. I'd like Mastodon to be MORE inclusive and bring in more voices
2. Some people don't seem to want that
3. This is core problem to solve: How do we let more in, but not "pollute" your feed?
4. The solution is NOT "gatekeeping", revelling in the fact that AI journalists aren't welcome
5. This is the same reason we lost "Black Twitter" when it came over in 2022Yes, a lot of you don't want AI posts in your feed (or pick any other topic) but the solution isn't to keep "AI People" from joining Mastodon, any more than it is keeping marginalized communities off of Mastodon.
@scottjenson LLMs are dehumanizing technologies. Most people here value community, connection, and authenticity. What exactly do you expect?
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Is #mastodon becoming an echo chamber? This post from @carnage4life has me questioning our community. The Mastodon team is finally getting some traction, the product improvements are increasing, The #UX is improving, yet people posting on multiple platforms are making comments like this. It's confusing.
I *know* people here don't want this to be a classic social media-clone but we'd *like* journalists to be here right? They aren't coming with examples like this!
@scottjenson @carnage4life I think the issue is that the fediverse has issues with the engagement-farming business models of the other platforms.
I think any niche can fly here, it just needs to be genuine. I see plenty of politics, but also plenty of music and the arts.
Tech also thrives on here, but from a retro/maker/open source perspective, not a big tech one.
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@scottjenson @Gargron They could even create their own server, and let people decide if they want to follow them, or not, or mute or block them.
I suspect the "problem" here is that people has power to decide what they want to see at their timeline...
@andrewblasco @scottjenson @Gargron Oh no! If Mastodon doesn’t grow at all costs, how will it generate value for the shareholders and investors?
At this rate, Mastodon will never IPO…
/s
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As this conversation is spiraling a bit I want to make a few things clear:
1. I'd like Mastodon to be MORE inclusive and bring in more voices
2. Some people don't seem to want that
3. This is core problem to solve: How do we let more in, but not "pollute" your feed?
4. The solution is NOT "gatekeeping", revelling in the fact that AI journalists aren't welcome
5. This is the same reason we lost "Black Twitter" when it came over in 2022Yes, a lot of you don't want AI posts in your feed (or pick any other topic) but the solution isn't to keep "AI People" from joining Mastodon, any more than it is keeping marginalized communities off of Mastodon.
@scottjenson ai isn't a voice, the confusion lies there I believe.
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As this conversation is spiraling a bit I want to make a few things clear:
1. I'd like Mastodon to be MORE inclusive and bring in more voices
2. Some people don't seem to want that
3. This is core problem to solve: How do we let more in, but not "pollute" your feed?
4. The solution is NOT "gatekeeping", revelling in the fact that AI journalists aren't welcome
5. This is the same reason we lost "Black Twitter" when it came over in 2022Yes, a lot of you don't want AI posts in your feed (or pick any other topic) but the solution isn't to keep "AI People" from joining Mastodon, any more than it is keeping marginalized communities off of Mastodon.
@scottjenson I don’t know how to word this in a less inflammatory way but comparing the organic rejection of techbros who feel entitled to treat social media as some sort of stock market they can manipulate and growth hack and whatever so they can make money off of people (plus: who will have forgotten their grift in a year or two. how’s their NFT collection going?) to actual racist harassment is, frankly, despicable
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As this conversation is spiraling a bit I want to make a few things clear:
1. I'd like Mastodon to be MORE inclusive and bring in more voices
2. Some people don't seem to want that
3. This is core problem to solve: How do we let more in, but not "pollute" your feed?
4. The solution is NOT "gatekeeping", revelling in the fact that AI journalists aren't welcome
5. This is the same reason we lost "Black Twitter" when it came over in 2022Yes, a lot of you don't want AI posts in your feed (or pick any other topic) but the solution isn't to keep "AI People" from joining Mastodon, any more than it is keeping marginalized communities off of Mastodon.
@scottjenson Comparing "AI people" to Black people is vile.
Everybody is free to post whatever they want. Posting boring stuff is a choice. Nobody has to follow them, everybody is free to block them.
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As this conversation is spiraling a bit I want to make a few things clear:
1. I'd like Mastodon to be MORE inclusive and bring in more voices
2. Some people don't seem to want that
3. This is core problem to solve: How do we let more in, but not "pollute" your feed?
4. The solution is NOT "gatekeeping", revelling in the fact that AI journalists aren't welcome
5. This is the same reason we lost "Black Twitter" when it came over in 2022Yes, a lot of you don't want AI posts in your feed (or pick any other topic) but the solution isn't to keep "AI People" from joining Mastodon, any more than it is keeping marginalized communities off of Mastodon.
Who's keeping them from joining? That's not a thing.
As a user though I have the right to not engage with 'AI people' and no amount of needless philosophising is going to change that.
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@jkmcnk @scottjenson @Gargron the Fediverse has a thriving community of straight up neonazis, but everyone fucking shuns them. AI can have that, sure.
@davidgerard @jkmcnk @scottjenson @Gargron Truth Social is a fork of Mastodon, so...
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Is #mastodon becoming an echo chamber? This post from @carnage4life has me questioning our community. The Mastodon team is finally getting some traction, the product improvements are increasing, The #UX is improving, yet people posting on multiple platforms are making comments like this. It's confusing.
I *know* people here don't want this to be a classic social media-clone but we'd *like* journalists to be here right? They aren't coming with examples like this!
@scottjenson @carnage4life@mas.to "least engagement with tech topics"? i find that very hard to believe. i see posts on here from people complaining that all they see are posts from linux nerds. my timeline is full of programmers, makers, scientists, maths nuts — and not because i follow these people, for the most part.
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@scottjenson @Gargron we need neither neo-nazi instances nor Ai culture.
@remove_huilo @scottjenson @Gargron just think how much we miss not federating with gab
