🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Employees Describe an Environment of Paranoia and Fear Inside Automattic Over WordPress Chaos'

- kudos:

Wild to read this so soon after finishing Character Limit, because I’m getting very similar vibes. link to “Employees Describe an Environment of Paranoia and Fear Inside Automattic Over WordPress Chaos”

📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter, by Kate Conger and Ryan Mac

- kudos:

Like Zoë Schiffer’s Extremely Hardcore, I think this book will be even more valuable in the future than it is right now. I also wish I’d waited to read it for a bit instead of so soon after Schiffer’s book! What a wild, depressing story the Musk acquisition has been. I appreciate this book for giving more insight into the pre-Musk troubles of the company, but it still doesn’t shy away from how disastrous one billionaire’s ego has been.

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Twitter Barred Them. What Happened When Elon Musk Brought Them Back?'

- kudos:

I don’t understand why anyone would stay on Twitter at this point, unless they’re staying for the nonsense. gift link link to “Twitter Barred Them. What Happened When Elon Musk Brought Them Back?”

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Big Tech’s Promise Never To Block Access To Politically Embarrassing Content Apparently Only Applies To Democrats'

- kudos:

Worth reading (and bookmarking). I’ve been hesitant to make the “no, actually, Big Tech is biased against liberals” argument, but this seems a compelling datum for that conclusion… link to “Big Tech’s Promise Never To Block Access To Politically Embarrassing Content Apparently Only Applies To Democrats”

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'A day in Elon Musk’s mind: 145 tweets with election conspiracies and emojis'

- kudos:

24 hours on Elon’s Twitter feed is a great idea for a story, and I’m glad someone did it! link to “A day in Elon Musk’s mind: 145 tweets with election conspiracies and emojis”

📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for Extremely Hardcore: Inside Elon Musk's Twitter, by Zoë Schiffer

- kudos:

I dedicated most of my early career to Twitter and probably owe my tenure to the ease of collecting Twitter data once upon a time. Were it not for some timely decisions to diversify what platforms I was looking at, the API cutoff documented in this book would have really messed me up. Because of how important Twitter was to me professionally, I followed a lot of this news as it was happening.

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'What Musk's Twitter takeover could tell us about a possible government appointment'

- kudos:

I’m currently reading Extremely Hardcore and can’t wait to read Character Limit. The Twitter purchase alone ought to dismiss any serious ideas that Musk could do this kind of work. link to “What Musk’s Twitter takeover could tell us about a possible government appointment”

the new Reeder is exactly the app I want right now

- kudos:

introduction and history I’ve experimented for a while with consuming a range of media through an RSS reader. I don’t remember how long I subscribed to Feedbin, but being able to follow both Twitter accounts and email newsletters in the same app as my RSS subscriptions was a real game-changer. Eventually, I jumped ship for NetNewsWire—I don’t remember all the reasons behind the switch, but knowing that I could keep subscribing to Twitter and start following some subreddits was definitely a major factor.

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Fayette County schools leaving X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter'

- kudos:

Wish it were for more principled reasons, but I’ll take it. link to “Fayette County schools leaving X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter”

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk Deletes Nazi Apologist Tweet After Near-Universal Backlash'

- kudos:

What a disaster. link to “Elon Musk Deletes Nazi Apologist Tweet After Near-Universal Backlash”

follow up on research ethics implications of Twitter's 'general amnesty'

- kudos:

This is just a few words to say that this post that I wrote back in December 2022 has suddenly become relevant. In short, some of my recent work has been on an online Mormon community that has some overlaps with the far-right. In between my collection of the data and eventual publication of our various articles, my co-author and I have noted some prominent accounts’ being suspended from Twitter. Because we work hard to not use identifiable quotes in our writing, and because of Elon Musk’s decision to unsuspend nearly all suspended accounts after taking the platform over, I’ve been checking accounts I knew to previously be suspended as we work on a new manuscript.

- kudos:

I have zero personal interest in joining Bluesky, but I’m happy that you can follow accounts via RSS and even happier that whatever bug was stopping my RSS reader from pulling posts has been resolved. Glad to be following some people I haven’t seen since Twitter.

setting up POSSE-style microblogging with a Hugo static site and Micro.blog

- kudos:

I was recently talking to some friends about how I’ve been working to make my Hugo blog the center of my online presence. In particular, even though I didn’t know the term at first, I’ve been trying since 2019 to follow the POSSE strategy of “Publish (to) Own Site, Send Elsewhere” (note that, in the grand tradition of many tech acronyms, everyone agrees what the acronym means, but there are multiple ways of understanding what it stands for exactly).

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Discovers When Content Moderation Makes Sense: When He Can Use It To Protect Racist Bigots From Being Called Out'

- kudos:

“Mentioning names both is and isn’t allowed. It’s a quantum superposition of content moderation that only collapses when observed by Musk himself.” 😂😂😂 link to “Elon Discovers When Content Moderation Makes Sense: When He Can Use It To Protect Racist Bigots From Being Called Out”

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk abruptly cancels Don Lemon’s X talk show hours after interview'

- kudos:

Free speech absolutism wins again. link to “Elon Musk abruptly cancels Don Lemon’s X talk show hours after interview”

far-right Mormonism and the boundaries of Twitter hashtags

- kudos:

There are a couple of weeks before the deadline to submit abstracts for the Mormon Social Science Association’s sessions at the 2024 meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, so I’ve been filling some nooks and crannies of my busy work week by looking at some Twitter data. Last year, I published with my colleague Amy Chapman a qualitative look at the #DezNat Twitter hashtag, which blends Mormon orthodoxy with far-right and anti-feminist thinking.

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Only Started Buying Up Twitter Shares After Twitter Refused To Ban Plane Tracking Account'

- kudos:

Musk’s pettiness knows no bounds. link to “Elon Only Started Buying Up Twitter Shares After Twitter Refused To Ban Plane Tracking Account”

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk Spreads Election Misinformation on X Without Fact Checkers - The New York Times'

- kudos:

I was already fed up with Twitter before election season started. C’mon, Musk. Gift link. link to “Elon Musk Spreads Election Misinformation on X Without Fact Checkers - The New York Times”

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'X is being flooded with graphic Taylor Swift AI images - The Verge'

- kudos:

I don’t get what’s missing from a world without generative AI—and examples like this don’t make me any more convinced. link to “X is being flooded with graphic Taylor Swift AI images - The Verge”

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Haine en ligne : Elon Musk promet de payer les recours en justice contre la future loi irlandaise'

- kudos:

Musk ne s’intéresse à la liberté d’expression que quand il peut en profiter. link to “Haine en ligne : Elon Musk promet de payer les recours en justice contre la future loi irlandaise”

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on ''Shameless': Reporters Without Borders rebukes X for claiming to support it : NPR'

- kudos:

Kind of hilarious, actually, but in the depressing way that most Twitter news is these days. link to “‘Shameless’: Reporters Without Borders rebukes X for claiming to support it : NPR”

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Community Notes Is Great Until It Challenges Elon, And Then It’s Being ‘Manipulated’ By State Actors | Techdirt'

- kudos:

Is this the same feature Elon says will be sufficient for keeping Alex Jones in check? link to “Community Notes Is Great Until It Challenges Elon, And Then It’s Being ‘Manipulated’ By State Actors | Techdirt”

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk unbans conspiracy theorist Alex Jones from X - The Verge'

- kudos:

This… this is even worse than just giving him an account back. Ugh. link to “Elon Musk unbans conspiracy theorist Alex Jones from X - The Verge”

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk restores X account of Alex Jones : NPR'

- kudos:

Musk keeps digging his hole deeper and deeper. link to “Elon Musk restores X account of Alex Jones : NPR”

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'X Sues Media Matters Over Research on Ads Next to Antisemitic Posts - The New York Times'

- kudos:

What a joke. link to “X Sues Media Matters Over Research on Ads Next to Antisemitic Posts - The New York Times”

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on '‘Free Speech Absolutist’ Elon Musk Promises To Sue Media Matters To Silence Their Speech | Techdirt'

- kudos:

Masnick’s frustration here is fun to read. link to “‘Free Speech Absolutist’ Elon Musk Promises To Sue Media Matters To Silence Their Speech | Techdirt”

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'As Elon Musk Endorses Bigoted Nonsense, Advertisers Find Their Ads On Nazi Content | Techdirt'

- kudos:

I’ve been waiting for Masnick’s response to this, and it’s good. link to “As Elon Musk Endorses Bigoted Nonsense, Advertisers Find Their Ads On Nazi Content | Techdirt”— date: 2023-11-17T15:27:24-05:00 tags: [“link”,“Communities”,“Mile Johnson”,“Christian nationalism”] title: “🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on ‘Weeks Before Election as Speaker, Johnson Lamented ‘Dark and Depraved’ Culture - The New York Times’” I’ve been reading a number of these stories as they’ve been coming out but without posting about them.

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'IBM pulls X ads as Elon Musk endorses white pride - The Verge'

- kudos:

What the hell, Musk. link to “IBM pulls X ads as Elon Musk endorses white pride - The Verge”

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'X Races to Contain Damage After Elon Musk Endorses Antisemitic Post - The New York Times'

- kudos:

What a mess Musk has made Twitter into. link to “X Races to Contain Damage After Elon Musk Endorses Antisemitic Post - The New York Times”

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Major critic of X sues after being banned from platform | Ars Technica'

- kudos:

The headline obscures something important—that this is about research, access to data, and Terms of Service. Worrying stuff. link to “Major critic of X sues after being banned from platform | Ars Technica”

- kudos:

I have thought for years about the way that Twitter research (in the aggregate) serves as a largely unintentional history of Twitter, but I’ve never thought to wonder what that specifically looks like right now.

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Blue checks on X are ‘superspreaders’ of Israel-Hamas war misinformation - The Verge'

- kudos:

Looks like Masnick’s (and others’) predictions about Musk’s changes to Twitter are coming true. This isn’t what verification is for. link to “Blue checks on X are ‘superspreaders’ of Israel-Hamas war misinformation - The Verge”

attending a conference 'among my own kind'

- kudos:

One paper that I read and reread as I was starting to get into Twitter research was Anatoliy Gruzd, Barry Wellman, and Yuri Takhteyev’s “Imagining Twitter as an Imagined Community,” published in a 2011 issue of American Behavioral Scientist. I thought of this paper again yesterday; more specifically, I thought about the anecdote that the article begins with: Barry and Beverly Wellman moved to Toronto more than 40 years ago. Not being able to get a public school job at first, Beverly went to teach English-language subjects at a Jewish day school.

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Twitter is Throttling Patreon Links, Creators Say It Undermines Their Livelihood – The Markup'

- kudos:

Free speech absolutism at its finest. link to “Twitter is Throttling Patreon Links, Creators Say It Undermines Their Livelihood – The Markup”

🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The Israel-Hamas War Is Drowning X in Disinformation | WIRED'

- kudos:

How a platform is managed has real consequences. link to “The Israel-Hamas War Is Drowning X in Disinformation | WIRED”

- kudos:

One of the Vice journalists currently reporting on the Tim Ballard allegations just followed my (now dormant) Twitter account, and I’m going to take that as validation of my research on far-right Mormonism.