As I have gotten more and more exhausted with modern social media, I have contemplated building my own simple website (think neocities), but have been hesitant to put much of myself out as I do not want to feed the AI slop machines.
Nepenthes is encouraging since I could see it being able to protect text in a way “glazing” (ie Nightshade) cannot.
Hopefully AI companies cannot sidestep this as easily as ROBOTS.txt…
I finally finished all my Christmas cards and got them sent out today.
I always forget how much work it is to use the vinyl cutter and how annoying my printer is, but I think they turned out well in spite of several technical issues.
I’ve seen some interesting takes on this elsewhere as well. If Twitter is making the legal argument that all the accounts belong to them explicitly, would that make them responsible for all the content they host as well?
They basically get away with all the hate speech and copyright infringement because they are considered a “safe harbor,” not the owners of the content themselves; but if they’re the owner of the content, the safe harbor status might not apply…
While the fact that Twitter is run by a flagrant right-wing fascist who would do anything to help other major right-wing fascists is nothing new, I did think this was an interesting look at the state of social media.
The idea that you can never own your own account (and likely, by extension, anything you post on said account) really drives home the point that the Internet as it is now is basically wholly owned by a handful of corporations.
I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to reach the point of everyone making their own silly little sites again. It seems like social media is now required to drive views, so the artists who need views for sales will always need to be on social media.
Luckily, decentralized social media is on the rise. Lemmy, while still comparatively small, has a fairly active user base; and while Mastodon has not (and likely will not) ever be mainstream, even Bluesky is technically decentralized as well (I think).
Having said all that, I would very much like to see people making their own sites just for things they enjoy. It’s surprisingly not that hard to do as long as you don’t need it very polished.
I think (/hope) trolls are going to have a pretty hard time gaining traction on Bluesky. As you’ve mentioned, the block lists are quite effective; but also the lack of algorithm helps too. No matter how many likes/reskeets an offensive skeet gets, I will never see it unless someone I follow specifically reskeets it themselves.
With this in mind, most people seeing the trolls’ posts will likely only be the trolls themselves. Of course they can hop into the comments of a popular skeet; but once they are blocked by the original poster, their skeet becomes removed for everybody.
From what I can tell, the enhanced moderation tools combined with the followed-only feed should make being a troll on Bluesky much harder…
It seems like Twitter may have passed the thermocline and now seems to be hemorrhaging left leaning users.
What I found interesting about this article was how the right leaning users are likely to follow them because they need the left leaning users for engagement. I suppose on some level it’s common sense. Truth Social and Gab never took off for a reason; but it’s still interesting to think about.
Some Representatives are making statements, though I’m not sure what it would take to have this officially dealt with.
Right now, the declaration is still pretty new; but I bet if you contacted some of the local LGBTQ+ orgs in your area, they might know of demonstrations that are being organized currently.
I wonder what kind of reaction you would get from a Republican Representative if you told one that Speaker Johnson is violating women’s spaces by making a rule that forces men to use the ladies restroom and that it makes you very uncomfortable.
I do worry that could backfire and they might just make a secondary rule punishing trans men, though…
I usually try to call my Representative and Senators during my commute. The only tricky part is remembering the bill numbers.
I have the distinct impression I’m going to have something to say to them every day over the next four years…
This is especially vile to announce on Transgender Day of Remembrance; but I have no doubt in my mind that it was intentional.
This feels like a move made with the explicit purpose of hurting people as much as possible. (“The cruelty is the point.”)
To my knowledge, there is no legal recourse for this, but I am not a lawyer, so I could be wrong…
I know it likely won’t do much, but I do recommend calling your representatives. I asked mine to issue a statement saying that they will not be party to enforcing this rule. I hope they issue such a statement of solidarity soon 🤞
I don’t think anyone could make the case that Rep. McBride is dangerous; but Republicans are fighting not to release the ethics report on Matt Gaetz before he is placed in a position of immense power, when it seems quite likely that he was directly harming women.
As you say, this is all about tormenting Rep. McBride (along with any other Trans women they are able to hurt at the same time).
The bill’s cruelty is precisely why I think it’s so important for every American to contact their representative (even Republican ones). It might not be enough to change a Republican Congressperson’s mind, but it’s good for them to know that the American people are not going to let Trans people be an easy target for them.
I encourage every American reading this article to call their district representative and let them know that you do not approve of this bill. It’s hateful and cruel; and I fear that if it passes, it will pave the way for similar, wider reaching, legislation.
I called my Representative earlier today and their intern was able to tell me the bill number: H.Res.1579. Knowing the number should hopefully make it easier to voice your disgust in this abhorrent bill.
While on the phone (or email) with your Representative, I encourage everyone to voice their displeasure with H.R.9495 as well. H.R.9495 will allow the executive branch to unilaterally declare non-profits as terrorist organizations and strip them of their non-profit status. This would functionally give the executive branch authority to end any non-profit that is engaging in activities they don’t approve of, which would likely result in the destruction of any non-profit engaging in harm reduction.
I encourage every American reading this article to call their district representative and let them know that you do not approve of this bill. It’s hateful and cruel; and I fear that if it passes, it will pave the way for similar, wider reaching, legislation.
I called my Representative earlier today and their intern was able to tell me the bill number: H.Res.1579. Knowing the number should hopefully make it easier to voice your disgust in this abhorrent bill.
While on the phone (or email) with your Representative, I encourage everyone to voice their displeasure with H.R.9495 as well. H.R.9495 will allow the executive branch to unilaterally declare non-profits as terrorist organizations and strip them of their non-profit status. This would functionally give the executive branch authority to end any non-profit that is engaging in activities they don’t approve of, which would likely result in the destruction of any non-profit engaging in harm reduction.
You are unfortunately correct. It looks like it went back up and it is being voted on today. This time it only needs a simple majority, which is would have gotten last time.
This means that calling your representative is even more important this time around.
Luckily, my understanding is this time it will need to pass through the House and the Senate; so hopefully we’ll have more of a shot to knock it out.
In case anybody stumbles upon my comment later and is also looking for the answer: I had much better luck today calling their local offices (not the DC offices).
For H.R. 9495 I emailed my Representative because I was not feeling up to a phone call, but this morning I tried calling my Senators and neither picked up.
While I have no way of knowing if my email was ever read, if the call doesn’t connect, they will guaranteedly not get my message.
Does anyone have any tips on contacting your Congresspeople by phone (ie: best time to call, best office to call, etc)?
I posted about H.R. 9495 a couple of days ago and the danger it presented; and I thought it was important to share it got rejected too.
Going from almost unanimous support to 145 nays, is a pretty big swing. I would imagine a lot of it came from the fear of the next president abusing that power, but people contacting their Reps cannot be undersold here as well.
Over the next four years a lot of nasty bills are going to be floated, but please let this be a reminder that contacting your Congresspeople can help make a difference.
You can view the results of the vote here.
If your representative voted no, please contact them and let them know you appreciate it. I’ve heard that helps too.
If you aren’t sure who your representative is, you can find that here.
From my understanding, this was co-authored by a Democrat, so I’m not actually sure if it has other Democratic support. On its face, it sounds pretty staunchly authoritarian, so I would be surprised if it had widespread Democratic support. Having said that, I have no idea how enticing the hostage relief section is.
I would hope that this act would fail automatically, but as last week reminded us: you can’t count on rational decision-making. This is why I encourage everyone to contact their congressperson to make sure they know we expect a rational decision from them.
Right now things seem pretty bleak, and I know it can feel like we are powerless; but we can still do small things to make a difference. In this case, I highly encourage you to reach out to your Congressperson and let them know you do not support this act and that you, their constituent, want them to vote no.
There are nonprofits who will work every day to do harm reduction over the next four years, but they won’t be able to if this goes through.
If you aren’t sure who to contact, you can find out here.
I don’t have a full picture idea yet, but I would probably upload art/ projects/ WIPs. I also was considering adding writings, but I’m not sure if there would be enough there to have a section for writings.
I definitely don’t have as much to share as others, but I would like to see the Internet become a less centralized space.
An author I follow on Bluesky has been talking about neocities a lot and it seems pretty silly and fun. You probably need to be signed in to view this, but you can see her talk about the process here.