You know, a lot of people worked hard to build platforms on Twitter, and now it's screwed, thanks to Musk's suddenly opening the door to the 4chan scamps.
The site is trashed. All I see from the old #resisters is unintentional boosting of 4chan-centric racist memes etc when they broadcast their outrage: "Well I *never*! A Nazi frog? What on earth!"
This colossal screwup by Musk will put CoSo & the Fediverse on the map in a big way. Well *done*, Musk, you sad, egotistical, funny looking moron.
@esaeger It's kind of sad but with my 35 (!!) years online, I have seen many online platforms come & go & done many of these transitions.
Nothing lasts forever, it's all ephemeral
@VDOVault - Oh, absolutely, same. Usenet was great, there were no nannybots, and if someone got bullied off the internet, they often deserved it, sorry. Us alt.flame guys used to go into the racist groups and pound them to a pulp. It was self-policed, and it worked.
Reddit is ok, but the mods are absolute cancer there. Hate that place, but it has done a more or less adequate job of replacing usenet for long-form debate/discourse.
@esaeger Well it was less great if you were a woman or female identifying, I was warned to choose a handle that wasn't feminine for Usenet & to not disclose my obviously feminine 1st name so that was protective.
But the big sin of Usenet was going off topic (like discussing politics in rec.arts.startrek was a MAJOR no-no)
@VDOVault - Huh, good points. I still have friends from the old troll/flamer groups, and once every month or so, someone will talk about "The good old days."
We used to trash the homophobes pretty relentlessly, but you're right, it was - as was everything else - rife with misogyny.
As for OT stuff, Reddit mods do a good job, but they overdo it IMO. Like, I can't ask a question about wealth inequality in ancient Greece in some dumb Ancient Civ group? Why tf not? That place is a total PITA IMO.