Bonum Certa Men Certa

Social Control Media is Bad for Freedom and Its Net Benefit -- If Any Exists -- is Only Traffic, Not Information

These things are designed to be addictive and difficult to abandon

A smoker's mess



Summary: A smoker's mess is what social control media became in recent years; 2020 will see only further deterioration as random people join in, adding to the noise (mental pollution)

THE likelihood of successfully establishing decent signal-to-noise ratio (s/n) in social control media is very low. Really, really low. I should know. I've been on those things since the identi.ca days, and prior to it Digg.com (if that count as social control media). Prior to that I used to habitually access USENET and I communicated there quite a lot (I had published almost 100,000 messages/posts there). But to actually get one's news from open forums such as these (Reddit included) is a bad idea. I've quit reading "timelines" as a source of information because of low accuracy rates, cruft, self-promotion (the whole "selfie"-type thing) and I've come to realise, based on occasionally agonising experiences, that it doesn't matter so much if it's centralised or not and even whether proprietary or not, free speech still won't be respected and the entropy ratios (e.g. s/n) will still remain low. Self-hosting may sound alluring and seductive an alternative, but pods or instances still need to connect to one another (and that can be denied, depending on the taste of obstructionist, protectionist, over-sensitive peers).



RSS feeds of actual news sites are still vastly better. Almost everything we post in Techrights is found through RSS feeds.

"What I always say to people who ask me about social control media sites is similar to what I'd tell smokers or potential smokers..."Mr. Lunduke said he'd quit social control media altogether this year -- his new year's resolution -- citing even Richard Stallman with the whole "Stallman was right" spiel.

Stallman has long had his own notes in his own site with his own RSS feed. Anyone can subscribe to these, even anonymously (no man in the middle), and Stallman is in complete control. Well, sort of. No 'deplatforming' anyway.

"The tobacco industry has begun faking novelty, calling cigarettes (consumption medium for the drug) "electronic" and the drug "e-liquid" (as if the drugs are a technology and chemicals are somehow "smart")."I can recognise the reality that many people do like social control media and appreciate so-called 'timelines' on a so-called 'phone' (spying devices that can also make phonecalls; Mr. Lunduke has decided to quit those too this year). So I carry on posting in social control media; I don't pick news from there (not anymore), but I use some platforms to disseminate posts we've published.

We've already explained why Techrights itself totally lacks presence in social control media and why social control media ought to be treated as merely a vast pool of hearsay. What I always say to people who ask me about social control media sites is similar to what I'd tell smokers or potential smokers; "not a user? Good! Don't ever bother! Never start."

"...last month Twitter bombarded the news with claims that it was exploring decentralisation and "Open Source" (that's just vapourware; they'd never shift their platform to such a topology)."The tobacco industry has begun faking novelty, calling cigarettes (consumption medium for the drug) "electronic" and the drug "e-liquid" (as if the drugs are a technology and chemicals are somehow "smart"). It helps skirt regulations/bans. Similarly, the 'incumbent' social control media giants have begun openwashing; the Linux Foundation (LF) is helping -- as recently as this week -- Facebook et al (LF sponsors) paint mass surveillance as "confidential computing" (euphemism with inverted meaning!) and last month Twitter bombarded the news with claims that it was exploring decentralisation and "Open Source" (that's just vapourware; they'd never shift their platform to such a topology). These are the real electronic or digital tobacco giants.

Recent Techrights' Posts

IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, December 06, 2023
IRC logs for Wednesday, December 06, 2023
A Googlebombing Campaign Targeting "Gemini" Takes on E-mail, Too
Google can do Googlebombing too (the term is even named after it)
[Video] Microsoft Without a So-called 'Common Carrier' (Windows Monoculture)
Windows Has Fallen
[Video] To Combat Efforts to Cancel or Kill the Career (and Reputation) of the People Who Made GNU/Linux We Must Rally the Community
nobody speaks better for projects and for licences than their own founders
Rumour: Major Finance Layoffs at Microsoft Next Week
If the rumour is true, we'll be hearing barely anything from the mainstream media next week
Links 07/12/2023: More EPO Patents Squashed, More Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine "Glitches" Found
Links for the day
Still Not 'Canceled'
Ted Ts'o, Jan Kara, Linus Torvalds last month
Google is Googlebombing the Term "Gemini"
Could Google not pick a name that's already "taken"?
Links 06/12/2023: Bitcoin Rebound, China Downgraded by American Firm, Yahoo! Layoffs Again
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news
Shooting the Messenger Using Bribes and Secrecy Bonds
We seem to live in a world where accountability for the rich and well-connected barely exists anymore
The Myth of an Aging (or Dying) GNU/Linux Leadership
Self-fulfilling prophecies as a tactic?
Links 06/12/2023: Many More December Layoffs
Links for the day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, December 05, 2023
IRC logs for Tuesday, December 05, 2023
PipeWire 1.0: Linux audio comes of age
Once upon a time, serious audio users like musicians and audio engineers had real trouble with Linux
This is How 'Linux' Foundation Presents Linux to the World
Right now it even picks Windows over Linux in some cases
Links 05/12/2023: Microsoft's Chatbot as Health Hazard
Links for the day
There's Nothing "Funny" About Attacking Free Speech and Software Freedom
persistent focus on the principal issues is very important
Professor Eben Moglen Explained How Software Patent Threats Had Changed Around 2014 (Alice Case) and What Would Happen Till 2025
clip aged reasonably well
GNU/Linux Adoption in Africa, a Passageway Towards Freedom From Neo-Colonialism
Digi(tal)-Colonialism and/or Techolonialism are a thing. Can Africa flee the trap?
CNN Contributes to Demolition of the Open Web
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Eben Moglen on Encryption and Anonymity
The alternate net we need, and how we can build it ourselves
Yet More Microsofters Inside the Board of Mozilla (Which Has Just Outsourced Firefox Development to Microsoft's Proprietary Prison)
Do you want a browser controlled (and spied on) by such a company?
IRC Proceedings: Monday, December 04, 2023
IRC logs for Monday, December 04, 2023
GNU/Linux Now Exceeds 3.6% Market Share on Desktops/Laptops, According to statCounter
things have changed for Windows in China
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news
Links 05/12/2023: Debt Brake in Germany and Layoffs at Condé Nast (Reddit, Wired, Ars Technica and More)
Links for the day