Ages and ages ago I had a guestbook, forum and chatroom on my site just because I could, just because it was fun. I think only one other person ever used it, though. But the possibility of having a random interaction with someone was what made it interesting.
Now my comments feed is my curated Mastodon account, very much a filter for nonsense. I wouldn't even think of putting a chat up on my site, it would almost entirely be bots, and then trolls. There's literally no point in trying to interact with people online anymore without some kind of curation or moderation, every possible interaction has to be treated as hostile.
It helps that I have a small, single user hosted instance so I don't need to worry about admin drama. It also helps that I generally align with the culture politically but also avoid posting about politics (because I think doing so is mostly performative and not useful.)
But I think just about any layer of moderation will do. I'd be using Disqus except it's too "engagement" oriented and collects analytics I don't want or need.
On the one hand, sure, but on the other hand I'm not hosting a Nazi bar and there are some political conversations I'm simply not interested in having.
But I'm not even trying to filter for politics, really, so much as literal humanity and basic decency. Just that has become a hard problem. Dealing with trolls whose entire identity is performative politics is another.
I totally get that, but I also understand that the word "Nazi" has been redefined to mean something other than what it originally meant. This whole "redefinition" of language business has muddied the waters of trying to find literal humanity and basic decency. It is akin to redefining the word "hate" or "love". What you or I feel subjectively as hate or love in a given moment may be due to Vaseline on the lens of reality. If we start making decisions for everyone on that basis, well, all we are doing is getting confirmation of the reality we are projecting.
"What even is a Nazi" is a perfect example of a conversation I'm not interested in, because at the end of the day it's just an endless semantic treadmill.
My definition is what matters to me. If you're a white supremacist, white separatist, antisemite, transphobic or homophobic, if you support fascist ideals and violence as a means to political ends, If you think Hitler did nothing wrong, if you think immigration and multiculturalism are objectively harmful to "civilization," that Islam is a "religion of evil" or that the "degenerates" needs to be put against the wall, then I'm going to call you a Nazi and I don't want to hear what you have to say about anything. No I'm not interested in litigating those terms either.
And yes, some of these can be laid at the feet of the left as well as the right. I don't fuck with tankies and BRICS-pilled socialists either.
Not every platform has to be a culture war battleground.
because at the end of the day it's just an endless semantic treadmill.
Not quite. Historically there is a very, very specific definition.
My definition is what matters to me.
And there is the problem and why people cannot simply disagree anymore. It is "my platform" that matters to me, "my worldview only" that matters to me, "my money" that matters to me. That's all well and good, but there are also other people in the world and their definitions are gonna matter just as much to them as yours does to you (or money) (or platform). As to the rest of what you are saying here, I have some strong opinions on the subjects you raise, but now is neither the place nor time to indulge those. I will say that a person ought to go live among the people they feel the most sympathy for for awhile to make sure their ideals are true to reality. Most people don't do that.
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The social web has become the adversarial web, unfortunately. You have to have a huge squelch knob if you want any meaningful signal now.
Ages and ages ago I had a guestbook, forum and chatroom on my site just because I could, just because it was fun. I think only one other person ever used it, though. But the possibility of having a random interaction with someone was what made it interesting.
Now my comments feed is my curated Mastodon account, very much a filter for nonsense. I wouldn't even think of putting a chat up on my site, it would almost entirely be bots, and then trolls. There's literally no point in trying to interact with people online anymore without some kind of curation or moderation, every possible interaction has to be treated as hostile.
I tried Mastodon for awhile but found the fediverse was almost as bad as the centralized control verse. It sounds like it works for you, though.
It helps that I have a small, single user hosted instance so I don't need to worry about admin drama. It also helps that I generally align with the culture politically but also avoid posting about politics (because I think doing so is mostly performative and not useful.)
But I think just about any layer of moderation will do. I'd be using Disqus except it's too "engagement" oriented and collects analytics I don't want or need.
Someday people will be able to disagree politically again without having to de-platform each other for doing so.
On the one hand, sure, but on the other hand I'm not hosting a Nazi bar and there are some political conversations I'm simply not interested in having.
But I'm not even trying to filter for politics, really, so much as literal humanity and basic decency. Just that has become a hard problem. Dealing with trolls whose entire identity is performative politics is another.
I totally get that, but I also understand that the word "Nazi" has been redefined to mean something other than what it originally meant. This whole "redefinition" of language business has muddied the waters of trying to find literal humanity and basic decency. It is akin to redefining the word "hate" or "love". What you or I feel subjectively as hate or love in a given moment may be due to Vaseline on the lens of reality. If we start making decisions for everyone on that basis, well, all we are doing is getting confirmation of the reality we are projecting.
"What even is a Nazi" is a perfect example of a conversation I'm not interested in, because at the end of the day it's just an endless semantic treadmill.
My definition is what matters to me. If you're a white supremacist, white separatist, antisemite, transphobic or homophobic, if you support fascist ideals and violence as a means to political ends, If you think Hitler did nothing wrong, if you think immigration and multiculturalism are objectively harmful to "civilization," that Islam is a "religion of evil" or that the "degenerates" needs to be put against the wall, then I'm going to call you a Nazi and I don't want to hear what you have to say about anything. No I'm not interested in litigating those terms either.
And yes, some of these can be laid at the feet of the left as well as the right. I don't fuck with tankies and BRICS-pilled socialists either.
Not every platform has to be a culture war battleground.
Not quite. Historically there is a very, very specific definition.
And there is the problem and why people cannot simply disagree anymore. It is "my platform" that matters to me, "my worldview only" that matters to me, "my money" that matters to me. That's all well and good, but there are also other people in the world and their definitions are gonna matter just as much to them as yours does to you (or money) (or platform). As to the rest of what you are saying here, I have some strong opinions on the subjects you raise, but now is neither the place nor time to indulge those. I will say that a person ought to go live among the people they feel the most sympathy for for awhile to make sure their ideals are true to reality. Most people don't do that.