So many cool posts about #emacs recently but I am not sure the microblog UI is the best for them. Ideally, I wish we could group AP actors to announce any activity by a certain hashtag, so they could become posts in something like #lemmy instead.
In the meantime, how do I get more of this emacs conversation on @emacs ?
I remain skeptical that the microblog format is beneficial for anything much, except for the self feeding logic that people use it, so therefore it becomes a place to discover things.
Discussion is limited and stunted, with negative feedback only be of the form of posts. Systems without negative feedback cannot be stable. Facebook groups have the same problem and it’s one of the reasons its geographical groups descend to toxicity.
On the one hand the Lemmy/Reddit style is better, but I’m pessimistic Lemmy has the ability to survive the manipulations that grow with popularity. Both are best in their backwaters that avoid bot/shill or authoritarian enshittification.
@sping
What do you mean “by negative feedback only in the form of posts”? Do you mean “you can not downvote a post”?
Yes - the only way to express disagreement is to compose a post.
[This is particularly bad on Facebook where an account is typically public with your real name, so reactionary blowhards spout their shit and the only possible resistance is from people willing to publish a statement against them. I find it ironic that (in my opinion) their requirement against anonymity significantly adds to the level of toxicity. But that’s Facebook and Facebook should die.]
Superficially it could be argued this is beneficial, as you have to have thoughtful reasoned discussion, or something, but in reality when I see something I think is wrong-headed or toxic, I just have a dread of getting sucked into trying to fix “someone is wrong on the internet”, and move on leaving them unchallenged with no sign of disapproval or disagreement, and I’m pretty sure my reaction is typical.
I find it interesting that, in my opinion, negativity (downvoting) and anonymity are actually positives for healthy discussion, contrary to many people’s opinions and a common contemporary cultural view that only positivity is helpful.
@sping
Your whole premise falls short for one reason: you can *dislike* a post on microblogging UI. Reaction emojis are a thing. How is a bunch of thumb-downs different from a bunch of downvotes?
I had no idea you could do that - I was thinking of Mastodon. I don’t see that as an option and don’t see any emojis on posts there. Where do you have in mind?
It would weaken my point, but there is no algorithmic weight attached to it. You can’t sort by how many negative emojis are attached.
@sping I was talking in the general case, but you are right that Mastodon doesn’t have it. Sharkey/IceShrimp and family does, though.