I would like to see more investment in informative media. Social media has been one of the best sources to get information about local events, news, and alerts.

Speaking from an American’s perspective, I would like to see federated networks organized similarly to the United States. There should be one main federal instance, then a sub instance for states, eventually down to micro instances for neighborhoods or zip codes.

My complaint about “corporate social media” has been its need to make money from advertising driven by engagement. This means I miss tons of posted information by family, friends, businesses, bands, restaurants, record shops, farmers markets, city council members, police departments, reporters, etc.

I still want to connect with these users but getting them on board with the fediverse is an uphill battle if they’re only in it for the memes. Creating a platform that makes some tangible sense to people, I think, would drive more adoption. If you want to connect with your city, join cityname.state.US.verse. This wouldn’t exclude the creation of other networks like I dunno… nestle.corp.verse or tiktok.social.verse.

That’s a perfect response to enforce my observation that people no longer have the sense of what words mean.

But isn’t so much journalism nowadays characterised by unsubstantiated speculation

No, by definition, a billion percent NO. I don’t understand how words have lost their meaning today.

your criticism amounts essentially to your dislike of the thesis of this piece.

Show me one word that criticizes “the thesis” of the piece. I have not. In fact, I think it’s well written and thought provoking (in the same vein as a 9/11 or UFO theory is). I have argued, not that an argument should need to be made because /reality/ and /definitions of words/, that it is a random person with no journalistic credentials making, and admitting to, unsubstantiated claims based on guesses and supposes. This, by definition, is not journalism - nor NEWS.

Dude. There is nothing wrong with the fucking article other than it is not fucking news.

How broken are people? Is it the fox newses that have broken you? TikTok? Reddit? Twitter? Do people have some false belief that armchair speculation, random ideas and theories with no source to back it up, is fucking NEWS?

Furthermore, the rules of this forum require a link be from an actual news source. This is not.

I wasn’t upset at all until people started claiming that the unsubstantiated speculations by some irrelevant person is the same as world news.

It’s a great thought provoking piece of work. It’s just not news.

It’s fine. If the rules of this forum are no longer relevant, I just won’t subscribe to it anymore. The internet sucks.

What’s the difference between an opinion section and what you deem “speculative conspiracy theories”?

That’s wholly irrelevant. If you want to be an investigative reporter and get real facts to report, have at it and post it as news. You have not done this. You are making guesses. Guesses, by someone with no qualifications or influence, are not news.

Anything spoken / written by a political leader is news. If you were someone who influenced millions of people, your opinion would be news.

If I sat down and wrote out a blog about how I believe the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated, would that be News? I mean, I guess you would argue that it is but I am telling you, by definition, it most certainly is not.

I don’t know what makes you believe your armchair speculation is NEWS. The disconnect is so vast that my brain is breaking. I don’t understand how people on this earth have chosen to ignore the definition of words to suit their own narrative and feelings.

OP has written an article speculating how explosives could have been inserted into pagers. It’s not news, it’s speculation. Speculation is not news, it’s opinion.

Did you check his identity, papers or such?

I did. https://criticalresist.substack.com/about

Someone reporting news. OP is NOT reporting news. They are speculating. This is an opinion piece. They’re a fine writer and thinker but not a journalist and not reporting factual news.

News outlets very specifically include sections such as Opinion. They do not include speculative conspiracy theories on the front page (or anywhere) labeled as News.

How broken are you people to not understand what is news and what is speculative opinion? This is not a debate. This is a matter of facts.

You’re not a journalist and speculation is not news. You’re a basement dweller with no first hand account of anything.

There are appropriate places for your work. This is not the place.

Speculation from some random on the internet is not world news.

I have a strong opinion about people promoting their own speculation blog in a forum where that does not belong.

This most certainly is not “World News”. This is a self-promoting opinion piece bordering on conspiracy theory.

To me, this attack has the master’s prints all over it — the USA had to be involved.

Edit: I really don’t understand how this article is still up. This is written as a theory of how explosive material could have been inserted into pagers. I find the piece compelling and of interest but it is not news - it’s speculation. Is it now okay to post recipes from around the world in worldnews?

Thank you.

I’d like to know seven years after when.

Thanks.

I should edit my comment and add “post rage bait”.

You’re absolutely right. I’d describe myself similarly to you. I even created a local community here for my city. But it feels like I’m speaking quietly on top of a mountain while the nearest person is a time zone away. Perhaps a handful of people would stop by and subscribe to the content but this isn’t about subscribing - it’s about engaging. Communities are about exchanging ideas. Posting something that compels people to engage is one way to increase activity. As more people notice the community, they’ll be more likely to engage when there’s enough noise around that doesn’t single them out too much.

The major social platforms know this. This is why they promote trash over quality information. This is why I get frustrated on Instagram because it continues to show me posts from two or three days ago notifying me that I missed an exciting event.

You can post all the great informative content you want on your little corner of the fediverse but without engagement, is it really there?

By permitting advertising.

“Normies” are not “microbloggers”. Most people just want to follow what their friends and family and news organizations and “influencers” are posting.

My biggest gripe with the fediverse (indirectly) is that all the information I would get on Twitter about my city is not available to me - concert announcements, restaurant specials, road closures, major news, hobby meetups, etc. They’re posting on Facebook and Instagram (which is IMO the worst of all social platforms) and slowly adopting Threads. My issue with these platforms is mostly regarding the algorithm deciding what it thinks you want. This is driven by advertising.

Twitter didn’t really pick up steam until celebrities and news outlets were posting and engaging on the platform. Then they pushed hard for ads to increase revenue and expand features and stability (for better or worse). Then they just got greedy. Then they were sold for the dumbest amount of money in the history of sales.

Getting normies here means getting influencers here. Influencers want to make money for being assholes. If you don’t want influencers and ads here, don’t ask for the normies to come. Accept the beauty of this micro micro blogging platform. If you want to share outside the open fediverse, embrace cross posting to the closed platforms. That’s kind of the whole point of it. You can post in your tiny little corner while still engaging with the more popular platforms.

TL;DR: be careful what you wish for.

Sorry, but that makes no sense at all. Why go through all that trouble when they’ve already accomplished the end goal you’ve outlined?

Other than general assumptions and track-record and being a business that sells user data, is there any actual evidence or clear and present ways that Meta could do harm to the Fediverse / its users?

All I’ve read is that it seems suspicious and we shouldn’t trust them. I totally agree with that but I’d like someone to give some examples of what they could do as a member of the network. I’ve read how they could post advertising – how would that work?

I ask because, like the previous comment, the idea of following people from other, more popular, federated platforms from the comfort and security of “open source” (?) platforms is appealing. At the same time, if this is leaving me and my platform vulnerable to something specific, I’d like to either proceed with caution or not proceed at all.

The biggest loss for me when leaving Twitter was losing access to so much happening in my community and local news and government organizations. They’re all still posting on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and not moving to the open social web. More and more are moving to Threads though so it would be nice to maintain / regain exposure.

I genuinely can not find a single thing to like about it. It feels like development was stopped shortly after they finished the wire framing. Plex and QuMagie are significantly better (and they suck).