05.20.22

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Outsourcing Sites to Social Control Media is an Outdated Mindset in 2022

Posted in Free/Libre Software at 4:22 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Video download link | md5sum fab7f7b94ecef2d6a25a5e55a472b20d
LWN and Outsourced Speech
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0

Summary: Centralised or federated censorship/filtering platforms (also known as “social [control] media” [sic]) aren’t the way forward; we’re therefore a little surprised that Linux Weekly News (LWN) bothers with that languishing bandwagon all of a sudden

THERE is lots to be said about the state of the Web and centralisation thereof. The subject was discussed in IRC today (albeit we’ve lost part of that discussion), but the short story is, LWN has only just joined Mastodon (which I quit two years ago). They’re about 5 years late and they won’t get thousands of followers there (it’s way past the peak by now, suffering a demise like all the other social control media). Many instances shut down, there’s a free speech deficit (it seems to be getting only worse over time), and there are technical overheads, never mind the waste of time associated with all sorts of “peripheral” activities.

“But this isn’t a free account.”“For readers who want to follow our article stream on Mastodon,” LWN wrote a few hours ago, “LWN now (finally) has a presence in the Fosstodon community; you can find us at @LWN@fosstodon.org.”

But this isn’t a free account. There’s a hidden cost and time will show the true cost of such an account, as I explain in the video above. Myself and associates have come to the conclusion that social control media is, at best, a waste of time and a distraction. It can be a lot worse than that.

It doesn’t matter what nature (or topic/s of focus) a social control media site/instance may have, it’s just not designed for productive communication and constructive engagement. That’s why so many instances shut down eventually.

LWN has got itself yet another site to maintain/babysit now; the net gain would be so minimal that it’s probably not even worth it. █

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