#socialnetworking

waynerad@diasp.org

"At a glance, SocialAI -- which is billed as a pure 'AI Social Network' -- looks like Twitter, but there's one very big twist on traditional microblogging: There are no other human users here. Just you."

"In a nutshell, SocialAI lets you share your thoughts with an infinite supply of ever-available AI-powered bots that can endlessly chat back."

"Think about it: No remark you post to SocialAI will ever be greeted with silence nor fail to engage en masse. You simply can't get ghosted. The app's faux users exist to hang on your every word -- leveraging programmed enthusiasm to chip canned commentary into your replies (even the sarcastic, snarky, and pessimistic bots can't resist joining these continuous scroll comment pile-ons)."

Alrighty then.

SocialAI offers a Twitter-like diary where AI bots respond to your posts | TechCrunch

#solidstatelife #ai #genai #llms #chatbots #socialnetworking

waynerad@diasp.org

Facebook's rollout of a sweeping TikTok-like redesign marks the end of the social networking era. Says Scott Rosenberg. Alrighty then, it was nice knowing y'all.

"Under the social network model [...] keeping up with your friends' posts served as the hub for everything you might aim to do online. Now Facebook wants to shape your online life around the algorithmically-sorted preferences of millions of strangers around the globe. That's how TikTok sorts the videos it shows users, and that's largely how Facebook will now organize its home screen."

"Facebook and its rivals call this a 'discovery engine' because it reliably spits out recommendations of posts from everywhere that might hold your attention. But it also looks a lot like a mutant TV with an infinite number of context-free channels that flash in and out of focus at high speed. That's what younger users right now seem to prefer."

Facebook's TikTok-like redesign marks sunset of social networking era

#solidstatelife #socialnetworking

garryknight@diasp.org

Musk sends Twitter CEO poo emoji as relations go down the toilet | Twitter | The Guardian

Elon Musk’s relationship with Twitter’s management has reached a new low after the social media company’s would-be-owner tweeted a poo emoji at the platform’s chief executive.

Maybe they should bring in a grownup.

#technology #tech #internet #SocialNetworking #microblogging #Twitter #ElonMusk

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/may/16/elon-musk-twitter-ceo-poop-emoji?CMP=fb_a-technology_b-gdntech

garryknight@diasp.org

Elon Musk says Twitter deal 'on hold', share price plunges | iMore

Elon Musk says that his bid to buy Twitter is "temporarily on hold" after the company revealed estimates that less than 5% of accounts on the platform are spam bots or fake accounts.
...
It is likely that the valuation of Twitter as a brand which helped Musk arrive at his $44 billion offer is based in part on monetizable users and revenue, which might be lower than anticipated if 5% of those accounts aren't actually real.

Is this confusing to you, too? Is Musk worried that 5% of the accounts aren't real, or that less than 5% aren't real?

#technology #tech #internet #SocialNetworking #microblogging #Twitter #ElonMusk

https://www.imore.com/elon-musk-says-twitter-deal-hold-over-spam-account-revelation

danie10@squeet.me

Remembering Flock Social Browser – Why do no browsers today have integrated social media?

Bild/Foto
Flock was based on Chromium a good 10+ years ago. It fully integrated various social media sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, Digg, and a few more, along with RSS, and even had a media bar which integrated Flickr and some similar media sharing. The point was you did not have to go visit each and every separate site to see updates from your friends. This was all “on tap” in a vertical sidebar next to whatever other browsing you were doing.

I suspect though this was also Flock’s undoing, as back then Facebook, Twitter, etc were all fairly open and 3rd parties could connect easily the feeds. Today, Facebook, YouTube, etc want to be sure you must visit their actual page otherwise you won’t see the adverts, inserted posts in your feed, etc. Much of this functionality that allowed you to interact via a 3rd party became crippled over time.

I still miss Flock’s browser today…

See https://youtu.be/59isa3lKhjY

#technology #flockbrowser #socialnetworking #retro
#Blog, ##browser, ##retro, ##socialnetworks, ##technology

garryknight@diasp.org

Fed Up with Facebook? Switch to One of these 7 Alternatives | Make Tech Easier

Facebook is unparalleled as a tool for social connection and organization but also has privacy issues, constant tracking, and security breaches. Competing social networks, regardless of how good their features are, tend to be underpopulated simply because they haven’t yet accumulated a critical mass of users. If you’re looking to diversify your social media, the Facebook alternatives below, tiny as they are in comparison, are some of your best bets.

One to share with your friends and family, maybe.

#technology #tech #internet #SocialNetworking #social

https://www.maketecheasier.com/facebook-alternatives-social-networks/

garryknight@diasp.org

Facebook plans to change its name as part of company rebrand – report | Facebook | The Guardian

Facebook plans to make a dramatic break with its past by rebranding the company next week, according to a report.
Facebook’s founder and chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, plans to talk about the name change at a company event next week but it could be unveiled sooner, reported the Verge, a US tech news website.

It's the company name that's changing, not the social media site or the app. But what would be a good name? My choice would be Facehugger - a parasitic monster from the Alien movies.

#technology #tech #SocialMedia #SocialNetworking #Facebook

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/oct/20/facebook-plans-to-change-its-name-as-part-of-company-rebrand-report

alien23@friendica.feneas.org

The thing about Mastodon is it rose to making up the single largest constitution of the federation/fediverse in basically no time and out of (seemingly) nowhere. One would think it a minor pop culture phenomenon if they weren't careful.
The thing is, is that much like a CryptoKittie, I'm still yet to know a single person in the physical that actually uses Mastodon.


Salinger 3 - 2021-05-14 00:32:21 GMT

Daily statistics from The #Federation / #Fediverse

Active users
Active users per platform and change from 30 days ago.

#Mastodon: 1094538 (share: 87.2%, value change: 20558)
#diaspora*: 57094 (share: 4.5%, value change: 992)
#PeerTube: 47923 (share: 3.8%, value change: 1998)
#Pixelfed: 19282 (share: 1.5%, value change: 888)
#Prosody: 12075 (share: 1.0%, value change: -88)
#Write Freely: 5763 (share: 0.5%, value change: 374)
#Friendica: 4952 (share: 0.4%, value change: 788)
#lemmy: 2671 (share: 0.2%, value change: 194)
#GNU social: 2326 (share: 0.2%, value change: 18)
#Hubzilla: 2183 (share: 0.2%, value change: -259)
#Funkwhale: 1578 (share: 0.1%, value change: 138)
#bookwyrm: 1052 (share: 0.1%, value change: 625)
#notestock: 948 (share: 0.1%, value change: 14)
#Juick: 924 (share: 0.1%, value change: -45)
#ejabberd: 811 (share: 0.1%, value change: 114)
#activity-relay: 348 (share: 0.0%, value change: 18)
#zap: 174 (share: 0.0%, value change: -118)
#Socialhome: 81 (share: 0.0%, value change: -4)
#corgidon: 65 (share: 0.0%, value change: -55)
#red: 42 (share: 0.0%, value change: 0)
#Prismo: 26 (share: 0.0%, value change: -3)
#smithereen: 14 (share: 0.0%, value change: 13)
#epicyon: 10 (share: 0.0%, value change: -6)
#p3k: 2 (share: 0.0%, value change: 0)
#aoderelay: 2 (share: 0.0%, value change: 1)
#socialtap: 2 (share: 0.0%, value change: -1)
#kroeg: 1 (share: 0.0%, value change: 0)
#solopor: 1 (share: 0.0%, value change: 0)
#martenblog: 1 (share: 0.0%, value change: 0)
#shadowfacts_blog: 1 (share: 0.0%, value change: 0)
#imaginarium: 1 (share: 0.0%, value change: 0)
#lubargw2: 1 (share: 0.0%, value change: 0)

For more statistics visit https://the-federation.info

#fediversestats #fediversestatsdaily #thefederationstatsdaily

from @The Federation
https://the-federation.info

#ThingsThatMakeYouGoHmmm #Mastodon #Fediverse #SocialNetworking #Federation #ActivityPub #Technology #Internet #IoT #shadowfacts blog

alexander@deko.cloud

So you probably saw two posts (1, 2) one of Diaspora core developers Dennis Schubert wrote about past and future of Diaspora and alternative social media in general and how he feels about all that. He brings up a number of great points in there although I can't say I agree with him 100%.

#TLDR - you can safely skip to the next post from here.

And there is also something else mostly written between the lines. It feels like he is disenchanted in social media and their users. To be honest it felt like that for a while.

Can't say I don't get the feeling. I won't say social networks are dying but they didn't quite work for me for some time now. It is lucrative to blame technical reasons for it - privacy problems, blocking not efficient enough, can't upload cat gifs in 4K resolution, whatever - but it is not it. What I miss more and more in social networking is "social" part. "Networking" is there all right.

For me social networking always was about getting to know people. It is not just about getting news, memes or tech advice - there are better easier and better ways for all that. It is not about trends either - these are easily manipulated and generally have zero value. What is special about social networking (at least for me) - it is knowing and feeling the actual person on the other end. What they see and think and why.

My first social network contact happened shortly after I got into the Internet. Her name was Chris and she was from the United States. She liked to draw and rock music. She had a couple of nasty health conditions. She lived in the middle of nowhere. She was poor. When she drove home it was a long slope down so she sometimes turned off the engine and coasted. She thought it was saving some gas. She was alive. We didn't have sophisticated talks as we both weren't sophisticated people and my English sucked back then but as I was reading her stream or talked to her over MSN something magical happened - the US stopped being just an area on the map. There were living people there. With supermarkets, car troubles, bitch neighbors. What she talked about was something she was part of and this had so much more meaning because of that. It was no longer "news" but "part of life".

Social networks brought me many more people both at home and abroad since then. Connecting with them was enriching even if I disliked some of them. Like that one guy who was really annoying Putin fan among other things. However he was real. Also clever. Getting to know him allowed to see the world through his eyes - and once or twice it provided much needed reality check. Because we all tend to be biased and getting carried away with it. We argued a lot but it wasn't about bringing someone down or making sure someone had the last word or most likes. It was more like trying to figure out what the fuck was happening and what others thought.

But then something started to change. Around the time Google launched Plus I think. Maybe earlier. Social networking became much less about social and more about "sharing". Share, share, share. Share this article. Share that picture. Actually share just the picture, who cares about captions. Reshare everything. Like and dislike. Get that shit trending. Be the loudest or help someone else. If you can't do that, at least share some interesting content so you contribute.

It was only logical for trolls, bots and misinformation to appear and start to matter. I mean everyone became a bot of sorts. Automation to reshare content to get maximum coverage for whatever cause they support - or just for the sake of it. And of course real bots are winning - they are simply better equipped. Who is to question them when the only question these days is who has the tallest soapbox?

Don't think I am riding the high horse here - it seems I am also much less of a living person on the Internet these days. I often find myself just scrolling down and when something catches my eye I think "I should ask about this... later" and then it gets drowned in ever-growing pile of new posts. And then I remember I wanted to write something too but there is little time and little reward too so here is cat picture instead.

Not that I dislike cat pictures. I am subscribed to "caturday" tag even. Chris liked cats too. Once she sent me a little plush one for my birthday. I still have it, it is in the picture. Touch of life from somewhere far, far away.

#LateNightThoughts #SocialNetworking #Internet #life