EDIT: I didn’t notice in the original post, the article is from 2023
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/19707239
Researchers have documented an explosion of hate and misinformation on Twitter since the Tesla billionaire took over in October 2022 – and now experts say communicating about climate science on the social network on which many of them rely is getting harder.
Policies aimed at curbing the deadly effects of climate change are accelerating, prompting a rise in what experts identify as organised resistance by opponents of climate reform.
Peter Gleick, a climate and water specialist with nearly 99,000 followers, announced on May 21 he would no longer post on the platform because it was amplifying racism and sexism.
While he is accustomed to “offensive, personal, ad hominem attacks, up to and including direct physical threats”, he told AFP, “in the past few months, since the takeover and changes at Twitter, the amount, vituperativeness, and intensity of abuse has skyrocketed”.
We should as a community ensure Twitter\X lives forever…
If only as a place to keep certain social media users “entertained”
In all seriousness it does concern me how often I see such a wide variety of news agencies quote Twitter considering the amount of hate that goes on there
The irony of climate scientists ignoring a problem and waiting until it’s far to late to do something is honestly pretty funny…
At this point it’s wholly on you if you’re still using twitter.
You’d think smart people like science nerds would have left the Nazi bar ages ago.
That first line is so spot on. Brightened up my day
It’s a containment site; has been for a while.
Except the majority of mainstream news outlets use it as a source for 90% of their coverage.
This is why we need SCP.
Not what you intended, but:
scp /dev/zero root@x.com:/path/to/databases
It’s because the news media industry as a whole has stuck with Twitter as their primary social media site. It’s kinda hilarious how much they seem to like it and how much time they spend there.
That’s dangerous. Look at what Fox is doing, as an entertainment company, to US politics across the country.
Disastrous, even
I am on Mastodon for 5 years now (fuck it is really 5 years since August 2019, that the hell) and just can’t get into it. It just feels lonely over there. What am I doing wrong?
Tbh, I think it is the post statistics thing. It says “1 reply”, then I click at ot and it has 4 replies and it ALWAYS says “0 davorites” even when 10 people comment how great that post was.
The statistics thing is a downside of how Mastodon implements ActivityPub.
Two possibilites:
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I think you can simply hide the counts if it irritates you.
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You can install Fedifetcher to pull in missing interactions to your local server: https://github.com/nanos/FediFetcher
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You need a couple of people to follow, then it’s great! I met most of my Twitter folks on conferences and such. The majority has now moved to Mastodon. It’s mostly programming folks.
But what if I don’t want to follow people, but topics?
That’s why I’m here, and one thing that made Twitter acceptable.
Twitter is people based as well, no?
Idk, I haven’t used it in years. But I thought you could just follow hashtags, no?
I don’t use Mastodon either, so maybe that’s already a thing, idk. It was advertised as “federated Facebook,” and I really don’t like the people-based nature of Facebook (though TBF, haven’t used Facebook in… 10 years?).
There are hashtags on Mastodon as well.
Can I follow them in a reasonable way? I don’t really care who makes the content, I care that it’s reasonably engaging.
Yes, very easy > explore > hashtags > select follow icon in top right
For me it’s the interface. I find it rough around the edges and not as inviting as Twitter used to be. I know it’s seen as superficial but UX/UI is important to me.
Like for example, to create a post or reply it’s usually on the left panel for some reason. I used to have trouble visually separating one post from the next in my head until I got used to it. Also, the way thread comments are nested could be improved. And why does it only show me the top 5 trending news stories? Why can’t I browse more? Idk, overall I feel like I’m fighting the UI mentally.
I think Lemmy did a better job and has subtly improved on the details. I don’t see Mastodon doing that much.
I know it’s seen as superficial but UX/UI is important to me.
Most of the people telling you it’s superficial are programming nerds who themselves are intimidated by UX design so use cope to justify its trivialness.
I know what you mean. I’ve had more than one conversation with devs who didn’t understand design basics.
What platform are you on? There are lots of alternative apps for both iOS and Android, and they can be customized beyond the defaults as well. I primarily use Moshidon on Android, and it’s great.
Twitter’s format feels a bit like yelling into the void and waiting for replies…you may luck out and get some engagement from a hub or a small subgraph of the network. Mastodon makes that stronger by removing the algorithm (I’d like there to be a user-customizable feed sort algo by an array of parameters, not sure what the technical limitations to that are: processing, security?)
Comment trees feel better (to me at least), because there is a hierarchical origin, a native indexing by topic>post>comment>countercomment…it sort of resembles how we relate with the world or navigate maps.
What sort of stuff do you like? Maybe some folks can make some good recommendations to jump-start a more interesting experience.
Recommendations and boosts from other users are how I’ve discovered interesting people there, and at this point, my feed feels just as full as my old twitter feed.
If you like news, a lot of breaking news is happening on Mastodon much more accurately and faster than on Twitter. There are a LOT of publications on there now, here are a few off the top of my head:
- Polygon (@polygon@mastodon.social)
- The Conversation (@TheConversation@newsie.social)
- The Intercept (@theintercept@jouna.host)
- Voice of America (@VOANews@mastodon.social)
- Ars Technica (@arstechnica@mastodon.social)
- Semafor (@Semafor@flipboard.com)
- Kotaku (@Kotaku@flipboard.com)
- The Christian Science Monitor (@csmonitor@flipboard.com)
- Fast Company (@FastCompany@flipboard.com)
- The 19th (@19thnews@flipboard.com)
- Vox (@Vox@flipboard.com)
There are a lot more local news sources too, so depending on where you live, you can probably follow news for your specific area. The account @FediFollows@social.growyourown.services regularly bundles up follow suggestions for different regions, interests, and topics. If you go that account and search for a hashtag (i.e., #texas) you’ll get a lot of active and high-quality local accounts to follow.
I have no clue why all these normal, non-racist non-political people still use twitter. It was bought for the obvious purpose of providing a safe space for conservatives, racists, incels, and other outcasts to society. Mastodon is a perfect replacement for it, and you can pick an instance that suits you. It isn’t owned by a mentally unstable billionaire!
It’s still usable if you’re not on English side of Twitter.
For example, recent Indonesian political movement relied on Twitter for discussion and updates. Mastodon or any fediverse is simply too niche and most people don’t have money to fund local general instance. There were several local fedi instance (Mastodon and Lemmy), but all of them quickly dead for low donation.
Japanese-side is still alive (in positive manner) but people are making backup account on Bluesky and Japanese Misskey instances.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effect
Twitter hasn’t dropped below the critical mass of users necessary for the system to become useless. It’s still a major artery of media and social commerce, just one that’s been littered with landmines. Yes, its far more dangerous and difficult to navigate now, but its still better than posting into the uninhabited wilderness that is Bluesky or the exact same basket of shitty engagement posts that is Threads.
Counterpoint: Twitter will continue to maintain a critical mass of users until enough people move somewhere else to make it irrelevant. Continuing to use it only serves to further credentialize the platform, making it even less likely that users will find a new home someplace else.
Continuing to use it only serves to further credentialize the platform
The vast majority of users don’t care whether the platform is credentialized or not.
Respectfully, you were the one who pointed out the impact of the Network Effect.
The adoption of a product by an additional user can be broken into two effects: an increase in the value to all other users (total effect) and also the enhancement of other non-users’ motivation for using the product (marginal effect).
Thus, users don’t need to understand the credentials of the platform if the network effect is strong enough, but as users leave the network, the value (credentials) of the platform as a whole decreases.
Another way to think about it is that the amount Twitter “matters” is directly related to how much we collectively agree it matters. While not directly transferable, I’d suggest that Keynes’ Animal Spirits concept can help us to understand why this might be the case - prevailing attitudes towards a platform can have a profound impact on their value.
Is it actually better than nothing though?
Either these are tolerant folks or someone we might be better off if they stayed on 4twitter.
Idk either. But it’s really easy to stay where you’re used to, rather than do the work to set something new up
I agree with this assessment for the most part but one side of me plays devil’s advocate on this:
I sort of came to realize in the end that it was possibly purchased to push all leftists off the platform, allowing Musk to compete with Google and Facebook in heavily manipulating and censoring discourse in American society (and let’s be clear, they did. Just because it was an attempt to help “the good guys in the DNC” by Google and Facebook doesn’t make it not an open and shut case of treasonous manipulation of discourse.
As an absolutely prolific Twitter user pre-2016, I was very quick to leave….but at the same time, I eventually came to the sad conclusion that Xitter (pronounced Shitter) actually does need leftist voices as long as it exists. IMO, it (and Google and Facebook) should be dissolved and socialized for the crime of treason/undermining democracy.
We (people of the fediverse with a strong sense of integrity) basically fled to our own decentralized, open source platform where we have 1 millionth of the reach with our voices. Being around such a cesspool where astroturfers working for Progressive think tanks and their conservative buddies would gaslight me about the popularity of things like Single Payer or student loan reform…which was not great for my well-being…But let’s not pretend that leftists that remain on the platform are bad people for doing so. An echo chamber has a way of brainwashing people. So, conservatism would be even stronger had more of our brethren not stayed.
Just a small counterpoint. I strongly dislike conservatives…but perhaps they were playing 4D chess with us a bit.
What the fuck are you talking about man?
Who do you think you’re talking to?
Everyone from the lemmy.blahaj.zone instance that I’ve interacted with or seen have been trolls. Those guys are super weirdos idk what their deal is. It’s baffling seeing what they claim to stand for
Ahh. Thanks for the heads up. I reported that stupid comment without prejudice.
I thought they were supposed to be a pro-trans, inclusive community but I’m thinking it’s mostly just astro-terfing trolls. Kinda like ml or lemmygrad or beehaw aren’t really leftists, just pro-authoritarian incoherent apologist edgelords.
It’s like they’re not even trying to interact with good faith.
Tell me more about Beehaw, I know about the trouble with lemmy.ml and lemmygrad, but so far haven’t heard anything about Beehaw.
Well, beehaw is kinda like ml but less hinged at times. I don’t block instances, only users and communities. Some of beehaws communities are quite good and friendly. The politics ones…well, I don’t see those anymore.
Sometimes it feels like there grownups in there who grasp nuance and empathy and at other times it feels like it’s full of ex-4channers who think they’ve grown up.
I wouldn’t be shocked if it was astro-terfing
You’re gearing up to drop the navy seal copypasta aren’t you?
Made sense to me
Very true, but at the same time I feel that it’s a place where I won’t get censored just because google randomly thought my comment was offensive
People get censored on Twitter all the time.
The otherwise sensible people I know who are still on Twitter all say it’s because of a specific interest or group, and the community of people around it who are all on there as well. They all hate what it’s become but put up with it because nobody is sure where else to go.
There’s also a sense of FOMO when it comes to realtime news updates. Until government, news media, and personalities go somewhere and take all their followers with them, it will be hard to break away.
The bit in the square brackets in the title was mine, because that’s what I went into the article to look for. If you’re on Mastodon and interested in that content:
The text from the article:
Glaciologist Ruth Mottram had more than 10,000 followers on Twitter but left in February and joined an alternative scientists’ forum powered by Mastodon -– a crowdfunded, decentralised grouping of social networks founded in 2016.
“It’s really been a revelation in many ways. It’s a much quieter and more thoughtful platform,” she told AFP.
On Mastodon, “I haven’t had any abuse at all or even people questioning climate change. I think we’d become far too used to it on Twitter… I had blocked loads of accounts over on the birdsite (Twitter),” she said.
Is there a list of all scientists that made the move to Masto?
I gave her a follow. She seems like a nice lady. I hope she enjoys the fediverse a little more than the “nether world”
That’s great news. Looking forward to having more climate scientists on Mastodon.
Hell, I would like to have ANYONE on Mastodon. It feels so dead.
Start following hashtags of things you’re interested in. And interact with people in those threads.
Does it?
My Mastodon feed is more alive than my twitter feed used to be years before its demise. And also in my native language, if I were to follow english speaking people I’d be overwhelmed.
The trick is not to rely to much on the instance local feed and start following people from every instance.
Yes, and…
You can follow (and use) hashtags of topics you like.
Every time I give it another shot and look for things and people to follow, I find nothing.
Among the sad stories about climate scientists having to deal with misinformation and abuse on the regular, suddenly, a unicorn: a statement purportedly by Musk that I wholeheartedly agree with:
Musk wrote in January: “People on the right should see more ‘left-wing’ stuff and people on the left should see more ‘right-wing’ stuff. But you can just block it if you want to stay in an echo chamber.”
Of course with the average Xitter post becoming ever more toxic, most people that have anything of value to add will probably leave sooner or later, whether lefties or righties or whatever.
“Both sides”.
When I still used Twitter, I followed people and that was the only content I wanted to read. I didn’t care about content from people I wasn’t following.
That’s why I’m now on Masto. No algorithm to decide that I should also get the very much not valuable opinions of xXx_nOnwoke_1488 in my timeline.
Ah Twitter. Nearing its evolution as the internet’s premier perpetually-full septic tank.
4chan—>8chan—>Xchan?
Light speed -> ridiculous speed -> ludicrous speed
“They’ve gone to plaid!”
The same Peter Gleick caught on forging documents to prove his point
I don’t even know who this guy is, but your screenshot plus a quick search says this guy added one forged document to a collection of legitimate documents released from the Heartland Institute. That was certainly not the right thing to do, but let’s at least be fully honest about it.
I think this is going to happen more and more. As the delta semi-morons continue to erode civilization we are just going to “take our ball and go home” so to speak. We can science, tech, and culture around them and they will eventually be left out in their echo chamber desert fighting each other over the last minions meme scraps.
Never understood why nobody calls him an “american oligarch”
I mean, he’s actively supporting the opposition (Trump) right now. Were Trump to win then he’d certainly be in a very good position within Trump’s desired oligarchy. Until then he’s just a very rich asshole whose main major concrete political power comes from his ownership of Twitter and (largely artificial) audience. If anything his support of Trump kneecaps him in his ability to run his businesses as the Biden and hypothetical Harris administrations are not as likely to let him keep getting away with all the blatantly illegal shit he keeps doing.
Michael Bloomberg OTOH fits the term pretty well, as he’s a very major donor to the DNC and that certainly makes him very close to the ear of the president and policy decisions.
Oligarchs are only for the rich outside of the Thirteen Eyes. American oligarchs are called lobbyists and job creators.
You can find utterly vile replies from blue checks on that site now, even on the most heavenly, innocent, morally correct tweet. It’s insane.
Considering Meta is doubling down on disinformation, more people should go to Mastodon and Bsky over Threads or Twitter.
Hell no, fuck Bluesky. There is no reason not to adopt ActivityPub when trying to build an open, federated Twitter alternative. Except for power and control over the platform, its core protocol and ecosystem. Screw these guys, use Mastodon or anything on the Fediverse.
except they adopted atproto because it fixed issues with activitypub portability and sharing
This is their stupid excuse. They could still implement ActiviyPub as a secondary federation protocol. (Bluesky <-> Bluesky via ATProto, Bluesky <-> Fediverse via ActivityPub). They decided against it. It’s an intentional choice, and they’re just making up excuses.
i mean that’s pretty much already done via third party and endorsed by the bsky team (i can already follow mastodon users on bsky and bsky users on mastodon);
https://github.com/snarfed/bridgy-fed
(shameless self promotion; my bsky account on my mastodon instance: https://tech.lgbt/@netkitten.net@bsky.brid.gy)
There are 3 issues with this:
- This is a third-party project, not an official part of Bluesky. Bluesky was never meant to work with ActivityPub, that was a clear design choice. This is just a workaround.
- It’s opt-in, meaning most accounts will never get federated, because people just aren’t aware that something like this exists. This especially applies to new users.
- It relies on a centralized service, Bluesky and ActivityPub servers don’t talk directly to each other, which would be required for true federation. Federation is always decentralized, this is the exact opposite.
I don’t understand why anyone should use Bluesky with cheap hacks to attempt to fix Bluesky’s poor design choices and or utter incompetence, if they could just use Mastodon and federate with the Fediverse over ActivityPub by default.
From a user perspective, Bluesky is just Mastodon with a recommendation algorithm. There is no other protocol required for this, everything could easily be done using ActivityPub exclusively. I will never care about Bluesky, since it tries to be the new Twitter, but the enshittification of Twitter began when they introduced their crappy algorithm, instead of just displaying tweets of accounts you follow in chronological order (like Mastodon does it).
Is blue sky really ok? Considering who started it…
Yeah, it seems pretty good.
I’d agree. For now at least it’s pretty good.
i don’t think jack funded it he was just an original board member; but he left the board a month or two ago.
If we can’t abandon Obvious Disaster Twitter we definitely can’t abandon the obvious disaster that is everything we think of as normal that’s driving civilization off a cliff.