In the past, I was a channer. I loved 4chan for it's content, for what the community could produce, and for the activism it used to be able to successfully perform.
But whether it had always been there and I ignored it, or it creeped in over time, 4chan is a BAD place.
In it's sparse and near non-existant moderation, it was very easy for those with dishonest intent to control the general conversation and halt any real progress or productivity. Sure, there were blocking tools, but hiding a thread did not stop new ones, or stop the attitude and discussion of it in other threads. Through simple flooding, sockpuppeting, bad logic and the occasional photoshop, the very culture was very easy for a malicious few to control until through vulnerable hearts, it became the malicious many.
It was very difficult to break from 4chan, because it moved at a NOW pace. The latest information was on 4chan before it was on any news program, forum, or anywhere else. And the content never ended. Press F5, new content instantly.
But I HAD to break from 4chan. as a single entity with few resources, I was helpless, powerless, and this was frustrating. It brought out my worst qualities that I do not want to have stimulated. My voice, no matter how reasonable, meant nothing in a sea of many voices.
Does this all sound familiar...? The point, I want to make, is that I need to take myself away from Twitter. And it won't be easy. I'll falter many times in trying to do so.
I love Twitter for it's content, for what the community can produce, and for the activism it can successfully perform.
But whether it had always been there and I ignored it, or it creeped in over time, Twitter is a BAD place.
Each and every single quality, negative and positive listed above, can apply to Twitter just as it does to 4chan. The only difference is Twitter is slightly more insidious in giving you the illusion of control over your content consumption.
And again, this will be hard. There's some content I can only glean from Twitter. Just as there was some content I could only glean from the chans. I'm not encouraging you to do the same. But I will say it will be harder to catch my attention here.
So if you want me.. I'm always watching my email box. Sometimes I look at Telegram ( https://t.me/ConfusedMujina ) and Discord ( Confused Mujina#7777 ) is starting to push IRC out as my most attentive place. And I most certainly paying as much attention to this place as I used to pay attention to Live Journal back in the day.
I think you'll find that the same manipulation problem happens to some degree on every platform that lets unknown people put content in front of you. But why would you trust or even consider what I say? I'm just an unknown person putting content in front of you.
I think you'll find that the same manipulation problem happens to some degree on every platform that
You're absolutely correct. The counter intelligence program has been active online and offline for quite some time, and had made it's way online since the days of BBS and Usenets. Each community on the internet had it's defense of this of course- The same kinds of defense one uses on simple trolls. Banning or blocking namely.
What defense do you have against 5 semi dedicated trolls? During Usenet, there was none. Usenet is now diluted and useless as a medium now. A BBS, and most forums could restrict membership- Something Awful saw a degree of success with their :10bux: program. A chat service can clam up against a dedicated attack. Your own blog can block members.
But Twitter and Tumblr makes removing a troll from your interaction more difficult. Your feed, the content you see, is so well interconnected, a subject or undesirable can easily infiltrate even when blocked. Membership in Twitter and Tumblr is trivial- Smash one robot, ten robots appear. 5 semi dedicated trolls can easily whip up a few hundred accounts and make something trend. In your own spaces and in a small community space, a lie can be squashed with truth and final words- today there are a thousand Andrew Wakefield, and each lie is as poisonous and difficult to dislodge as the last.
The two keywords that makes an interaction with you here different from an interaction with you on Twitter, Chans, or Tumblr is Community and Control. You have some degree of investment in your current identity because of the Community here- You and others on this service are less likely to act in bad faith for the sake of your identity. I have control over this space. If I block you, then it will take some dedicated effort, such as using friends as a proxy or going to another service, to override that action.
Tumblr/Twitter on the other hand has no community. Only your feed, and hashtags. If you're not a celebrity, or have not performed an action of great public interest, there is no investment in your identity. A person can say you diddle puppies, some will believe it. There could be hard evidence of you diddling puppies, and few will care and some will defend you and claim it's not true. There's no control in Tumblr/Twitter. Blocks are not by IP or anything remotely meaningful. There's no consequence for making a bajillion accounts, even the time to do so is trivial.
Yes, this happens to some degree on every platform, but currently, Twitter is a half step from being an anonymous image board in terms of community and control.
You're absolutely correct. The counter intelligence program has been active online and offline for q
COINTELPRO has been known about since 1971, and that's just one of many known programs. I would be surprised if there aren't at least some accounts here that exist for disinformation, but with more advanced techniques than outright news fabrication.
Blocking works if you know someone's clearly lying. But what about people being selective with their sources and just spinning agreed-upon information to suit their agenda?
I think I see what you mean about Twitter. It has nothing close to moderated group chats, so everyone in the group would have to do the same block, which would get really annoying. Over here, friends-only journals even let whitelisted people interact with each other in a space you control without them having to friend each other, and public journals do much the same while letting the original poster moderate the entire discussion.
Yes, most people here have some investment in the community. But it's just as easy to make new accounts here as on Twitter or most anywhere else. The admins may have invisible-to-me tools for this, but the same "TwitterChan" abuse looks just as technically possible here. It may be easier to "go into hiding" by making content private and only inviting in select people, but it's just as easy to be pressured into that situation in the first place.
COINTELPRO has been known about since 1971, and that's just one of many known programs. I would be
