• circuitfarmer
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    2562 months ago

    Twitter is not a utility. We really need to stop treating techbro services like utilities. If we feel they actually are utilities, the government can step in and make that claim and the appropriate changes.

    • @RmDebArc_5
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      672 months ago

      You would be shocked to know how many people use TikTok as a search engine

      • Dharma Curious (he/him)
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        162 months ago

        I’m not on tiktok, but I’ll admit to using YouTube as a search engine a lot. Also googling something and immediately hitting the video tab before reading any of the results.

          • @[email protected]
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            272 months ago

            I must be a dinosaur because for most things I am looking up I want concise textual information. I’ll look for videos to explain larger complicated concepts

            • @[email protected]
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              112 months ago

              If it’s something like taking apart hardware, videos are great because there are a lot of little details that it’s hard to capture in even a picture.

            • @[email protected]
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              22 months ago

              Sure, video has it’s place. I was just wondering that some people get their info primarily from video. Guess it’s something with abstraction vs. imagination.

          • @[email protected]
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            132 months ago

            I only find videos useful if I’m trying to figure out something that’s procedural. Seeing the procedures and steps done in front of me helps me grasp the concept much faster than text.

            For just information though, text is golden and video is a waste of time.

          • @[email protected]
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            52 months ago

            i hate it, but i just cant find decent written resulta anymore outside of reddit and such

            • @[email protected]
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              Depends on field. Some meth math and programming stuff exists only in PDF. Try find videos on Bounding Interval Hierarchy. At least there are decent videos on BSP trees

              • JackbyDev
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                PDFs break my brain. It’s 2024. Unless you truly intend for something to be primarily and only read in print why use PDF? And I know everybody is able to host HTML because usually everyone is grabbing these PDFs from a webpage.

                Edit: down voters, convince me on valid uses of PDFs for things that aren’t meant to be printed. At least list some. I’m aware this is an extreme opinion. It’s one I’ve thought about a lot, but I just can’t think of any. For things that are meant to be printed then I agree they’re the best. Everything else I think HTML is better for because it can be resized arbitrarily and isn’t bound to a specific layout. Also copying text from PDFs is bonkers.

        • @Peppycito
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          12 months ago

          That’s how I use Bing. 😻

        • @[email protected]
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          12 months ago

          I liken using groogle for finding factual information to using the yellowpages for doing the same. YT isn’t much better but it suffers many of the conflicts of interest traditional media outlets also had, depending on the corporation. In this case the almighty algorithm is the conflict of interest, though there are clever content creators out there making some good stuff, they’ll always be beholden to the owners of the platform and the true customers - the advertisers. As an advertising platform which can direct punters to actual long form content directly supported by watchers via patreon or similar, I understand why it is used : the sheer numbers using it.

          • @[email protected]
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            52 months ago

            Why? All it’s going to do is output some words that have a statistical correlation to your input words

            • @[email protected]
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              12 months ago

              Well, that is mostly what I need and it summarises the search results as well.

              Of course, you have to apply your critical thinking skills, but you gotta do that always everywhere. Normal humans talk as much trash as LLMs do, in my experience.

    • @[email protected]
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      372 months ago

      If it’s a private company that con do what it wants, like blocking political opponents, it should not be under safe harbor protections.

      That’s the point in yelling about this. If Elon wants a private forum for him and his mates, he should also be fully responsible when his mates posts child porn on his servers.

    • Logi
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      42 months ago

      The EU has declared Twitter and a few others to be gate-keepers and they will now be held to a higher standard. But I don’t think the EU is going to use this power to save US democracy.

  • @kenkenken
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    1442 months ago

    Imagine trying winning chess when the board itself plays against you. Twitter/X must be dropped immediately, it’s a censorship-propaganda machine which is now only works for those who control it.

  • KⒶMⒶLⒶ WⒶLZ 2Ⓐ24
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    1032 months ago

    If only the federal government could implement some sort of server that would allow them to self-host social media for officials and prominent candidates. I wish there were some well-known and tested service that other governments were using and they could just implement in the USA.

    • @[email protected]
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      82 months ago

      If they build it, will anyone come? Or does private social media only work because the user base is already scrolling endlessly there?

      • @Socsa
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        72 months ago

        This kind of event is precisely what drives things like social media adoption. If Harris and the DNC organized an actual messaging campaign and took advantage of this energy to promote Twitter alternatives, a lot of people would join.

      • @[email protected]
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        42 months ago

        Newsies will go there for the announcements. That’s the wedge that keeps growing.

        Not all growth strategies are just having the bandwagon.

      • @[email protected]
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        2 months ago

        I mean, it wouldn’t stop them from continuing to post to Xitter. They can do both!

    • Cethin
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      32 months ago

      I don’t think legally the Federal Government is allowed to do that. Maybe if the service is available to everyone. Now that option would be pretty cool. I’m fine with nationalized federated social media hosts.

      • @[email protected]
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        112 months ago

        That sounds pretty shakey. Federal employees have their own email addresses, but you can’t just go ask for a .gov email address, you have to get a job with the government for one. The federal government has plenty of places that only some are allowed to post to. Now, if they were to say, only allow certain people to have accounts with no apperent rhyme or reason that would be grounds for a discrimination lawsuit, but they could simply say “any verified current or former federal elected official, federal department head, or state governor is allowed an account” and expand or shrink the scope as needed. The fediverse honestly makes that so much cleaner than something they host themselves with all of the nuances of what is and isn’t federated, the government could simply configure the federation to meet their legal and liability needs while users can stream in from any fediverse instance

        • Cethin
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          42 months ago

          If they’re using it for campaigning, I think it’d have to be written as “… or any party nominee” or “… or anyone running for elected office.”

          But yeah, the fediverse would be perfect for it.

    • @[email protected]
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      252 months ago

      Can’t believe Biden let the world know his decision first on Twitter, even before the White house Press office.

  • Lucidity 🪷
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    2 months ago

    Sigh. Not surprised… given that Musk is a hypocrite on free speech completely. It’s getting wild. I use this place now because after years of no issues… suddenly I’m shadow banned on Reddit. Instead of getting mad I just left. Screw those who would stifle others but pretend to believe the opposite.

  • mox
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    822 months ago

    Yet another reason to ditch that platform.

  • @[email protected]
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    622 months ago

    What are these fucking people doing on Twitter anyway? Why they hanging out with the Nazis? You’re still on Twitter this point I have some healthy suspicions about your character.

    • @[email protected]
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      282 months ago

      People go where they think the people are. X is still the closest thing to Twitter since Elon came along. I deleted my account, but feel like I’m in the minority.

      • @[email protected]
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        32 months ago

        You know I once read this really amazing book called They Thought They Were Free. It was written by a journalist right after World War II who went to Germany and talked to normal Germans just German citizens. About how they allowed Nazis to take over how they lived in a Nazi Society how they were okay with it how they kind of joined in on it. A lot of the things they said being said in this thread. It’s all the same fucking logic.

      • @[email protected]
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        If they choose to support Twitter, they must expect to take the consequences. It’s a known cess pit. Being active on a centralised network does harm. You can’t grizzle after drawing innocent people in to such a bad place.

    • @[email protected]
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      262 months ago

      They are on Twitter because nothing has displaced Twitter for what it is. That’s tricky because people follow the content, so the content generators, the heavy hitters, have to choose en masse to go somewhere else.

      • @[email protected]
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        -52 months ago

        I think that’s what that Dulles brother said about why he kept doing business with the Nazis even into the 1940s. Even when the rest of the heads of his business said you should stop doing this we don’t need to be invested with the Nazis they just invaded Poland he said no money still there I want to hang out with Nazis.

        Cuz here’s the thing if everyone who wasn’t one left that site it wouldn’t be a problem anymore, a different site would be used.

    • @[email protected]
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      92 months ago

      I’m on Twitter because all the OSINT people who track the invasion/war in Ukraine basically only use Twitter. I like following OSINT info to get a real perspective on what’s going on.

      • @[email protected]
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        32 months ago

        I’d like in on that perspective but I’m not going to twitter for anyone. Shit is toxic and stupid.

        On Ukraine, got any non twitter suggestions for perspective? Also, not familiar with OSINT. Care to enlighten me? Open source intel tools?

        • BombOmOm
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          On Ukraine, got any non twitter suggestions for perspective?

          not familiar with OSINT

          Exactly what you said! Open Source INTelegence. Basically people taking publicly available data and using it to confirm attacks. Things like NASA FIRMS data can be used to verify where fires are; and when combined with videos of a fire in the direction of an airfield, for example, can be used to confirm that yes, on this specific date, these parts of an airfield are on fire.

        • @[email protected]
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          Understandable, I don’t know of anyone off of Twitter but maybe some of the people I follow are on Mastodon. I’ll try and find out sometime and get back if they are.

          And yea pretty much, just stands for open source intelligence, people just use publicly available data (mostly drone videos, and paid satellite imagery) to analyze progress from both parties in the conflict giving a real, semi live perspective on advances on the ground, what kind of equipment and quantity of that equipment that have been destroyed.

          This site by oryx is the main one I know of that tracks destroyed Russian equipment that’s confirmed through imagery, so the numbers are likely fairly lower than reality, and the destruction numbers are still staggering.

          Ops I see someone below already linked oryx and some other good sources!

      • @[email protected]
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        -22 months ago

        Maybe it would behoove you to remind those people that they’re on a website run by someone who has a material and vested interest in the destruction of Ukraine. That they should change to another website.

    • @[email protected]
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      52 months ago

      Unfortunately Twitter is the absolute best source for the most up to date breaking sports news and nothing that I’m aware of comes close.

      • @[email protected]
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        82 months ago

        If you can’t porn from Pornhub because of silly age verification laws. Twitter is the next best place, I guess?

    • @[email protected]
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      Not all parts of twitter is chock full of Nazis. The parts I follow probably won’t ever move over to Mastodon, so I’m stuck with Twitter. The good thing is that part barely has any Nazis.

      Good job on brushing everyone on Twitter with the same broad stroke, though. Really shows how progressive you can be.

        • @[email protected]
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          42 months ago

          It’s a website that purposely and specifically endorses Nazis. Yes you are tainted by association.

          And this is a site run by developers that purposely and specifically endorses Tankies, yet it’s still stupid to call everyone on this site a Tankie.

          That’s what I think of anyone who hangs out with Nazis. Why you doing that? Why you hanging out with Nazis?

          Because we don’t, we kick them out of the circle, that’s why there’s few of them amongst those I follow. The fact that you can’t comprehend such a simple concept is the problem.

          • Andromxda 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇹🇼
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            52 months ago

            And this is a site run by developers that purposely and specifically endorses Tankies, yet it’s still stupid to call everyone on this site a Tankie.

            The software is partially written by Tankies, but most instances aren’t run by Tankies. Since it is free & open source software under the AGPLv3, anyone can freely use it. Lemmy also uses ActivityPub, an open standard, and is fully compatible with other Fediverse software like Kbin/Mbin and Piefed. Using lemmy.ml or other instances means that you’re associated with Tankies, but using Lemmy the FOSS software doesn’t. Since Twitter is proprietary, the only option is using twitter.com which is run by a Nazi and actively supports Nazis.

            • @[email protected]
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              32 months ago

              The main dev is a Tankie, so not just partially written. And you’re missing the point. Even on lemmy.ml there are plenty of non-Tankies. There are reasons for people to be there other than to support the Tankie devs. In the same vein, there are plenty of reason for people to be on Twitter other than to support the Nazis.

              Being this pedantic in an effort to defend broad brushing groups of people together when they don’t have that much in common is, frankly, pathetic.

                • @[email protected]
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                  12 months ago

                  No, I meant that amongst the community that I follow, there are few Nazis. At the end of the day, you cannot be sure that there are 0 Nazis in any community that you follow, that’s just unrealistic.

                  You’re just being pedantic and making so much mental gymnastics in order to call me a Nazi. That shows just how fucked up your mindset is. You’re pretty much trying to demonize a group of people using broken logic to justify your hate. Why are you trying to emulate the Nazi thought process?

      • @[email protected]
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        02 months ago

        The good thing is that part barely has any Nazis.

        What was that saying about letting a few nazis into your bar as long as they stay on the side and don’t cause trouble?

        • @[email protected]
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          22 months ago

          We don’t let them into our bar, that’s why the part has so few Nazis. The Nazis are running rampant in other parts of the site, but not on the part that I frequent, from my observation at least. That’s why it’s stupid to group everyone using Twitter as Nazi adjacent.

          • @[email protected]
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            Maybe you’re just not identifying them as Nazis? What part do you hang out on where there aren’t insane propagandists and bots?

            • @[email protected]
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              22 months ago

              Does a Nazi infested group calls out whenever people is being racist or openly makes fun of Elon Musk?

              I’m sure you can always just argue that they are being Nazis secretly or something, but to call out a group of people to be suspicious of being a Nazi, I would prefer if you have more proof than just conjecture.

  • @[email protected]
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    502 months ago

    Good. They should abandon twitter and all other racist, misogynist, transphobic, xenophobic, homophobic bigoted platforms. I hope they have a bad time there.

    • @[email protected]
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      452 months ago

      Political parties should host their own mastodon instances, and give their members accounts. Companies should do the same. It removes all the problems of imitation because the organisation stands as guarantor that the account is the official one.

      • @[email protected]
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        12 months ago

        I’m not sure on the capabilities of Mastodon. But companies will never go for this if Mastodon doesn’t support saml or active directory (or other Auth systems). It needs to integrate with their enterprise tools.

        • @[email protected]
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          32 months ago

          But companies will never go for this if Mastodon doesn’t support saml or active directory (or other Auth systems). It needs to integrate with their enterprise tools.

          I think you are confusing server-server protocol and client-server protocol.

          • @[email protected]
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            22 months ago

            I’m not sure how that applies here.

            I am talking about enterprises being able to leverage their current infrastructure to manage their users in Mastodon from a central location, Like AD. Rather than have to manage local accounts.

            I am not talking about activitypub in anyway.

        • @[email protected]
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          12 months ago

          There are several mastodon servers that have different feature sets. What you’re saying is like “email must support AD”. Well some email server might do that and another wouldn’t.

    • FarraigePlaisteach
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      122 months ago

      I tend to feel the same but at the same time, the shadowy figures involved there would love it to see the ratio of extremist increase. An exodus of more sane members might play straight into their hands.

      That said, I can’t understand why anyone without an official state role is still on that platform.

  • @[email protected]
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    472 months ago

    This reminds me that someone set up a donation link via actblue where donations via that link come with the message that she and her campaign should set up their own mastodon server.

    They are up to $40,000 as I type this.

    So if you were thinking of donating anyway, you can go through here to point that money to a “cause” you want her to consider. May not happen, but at least we might get it on their radar.

    https://secure.actblue.com/donate/mastodon-for-harris

    The originator of this started with this Masto post:

    https://mastodon.social/@heidilifeldman/112831902073897712

    • @[email protected]
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      72 months ago

      This has the opportunity to be a great battle.

      Harris, backed by Mastodon users vs Trump, backed by Twitter bots.

        • @[email protected]
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          22 months ago

          Yeah he couldn’t come up with his own software so they just spun up a Mastodon instance and passed it off as their own product.

    • @[email protected]
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      42 months ago

      The VP having control over the platform they announce things?

      What a novel idea /s

      So dumb how much power twitter got for politics. Fediverse for life!

      • @[email protected]
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        572 months ago

        It pisses me off how twitter went to fuck. People cried that we need something not owned by some rich cunt. We told everyone to join mastodon so that wouldn’t happen again. What did people do? Wait for another rich cunt (mark suckerberg) to start a clone and the original creator of twitter to make another one and join that…

        People are dumb as shit… I’m sick of it.

        • ѕєχυαℓ ρσℓутσρє
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          Yeah, I don’t get it.

          Kind of unrelated, but a parallel I experienced recently.

          Yesterday I was annoyed by SplitWise. We had a small trip over the weekend and were adding expenses to it, and it turns out that there’s now a limit to how many entries you can put in per day. Even with ads. So we decided to find another platform, and a friend suggested another closed product which is probably gonna get as shitty as SplitWise soon. Anyway, I was able to convince them to use Spliit instead. If the hosted service goes to shit, at least I can self host it and keep all the data.


          • @[email protected]
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            52 months ago

            Glad you were able to convince them :) I love self hosting stuff. I like having control.

        • @[email protected]
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          42 months ago

          Musk started removing links and even references to Mastodon from Twitter.

          If a high profile politician (particularly one Elon disagrees with) promoted Mastodon, they’d have an account ban lickety split.

      • @[email protected]
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        82 months ago

        …but these people just use it as a way of talking to the media. As long as people of power and influence shift, so will the press, and then so will everyone else.

        Home many times do you hear “Trump, on his platform truth.social, said…”? They’ve gone there because he’s gone there.

      • @[email protected]
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        52 months ago

        Makes me curious if you get more attention on mastodon though. Like if I pitched something on Lemmy there’s a good chance I get the same number of eye balls compared to Reddit, not counting ads. (Although if Kamala posted about Linux and/or Star Trek that’s front page, no ad money needed! Lol)

      • KⒶMⒶLⒶ WⒶLZ 2Ⓐ24
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        42 months ago

        in november of 23, i had a client that let me schedule mastodon posts. this was not made by someone who uses mastodon.

      • @[email protected]
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        12 months ago

        Nice graphic! But this data seems wildly out of date. For example, LinkedIn has over 1 billion users. Unless this is referring to weekly active users or something, but the row just says “users”.

        • Stern
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          482 months ago

          We’re not doing a research paper. We’re commenting on a internet post. Calm down.

          • KryptonBlur
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            22 months ago

            Yeah but because Wikipedia articles, to an extent, ephemeral it is good practise to use the sources at the bottom of the article as your source, rather than the Wikipedia article itself. It makes finding the origin of the information easier.

            If it is something more permanent like a paper or a published article, then that doesn’t suffer from the same issues

        • Fushuan [he/him]
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          12 months ago

          You can argue the veracity of looking the user count of the platforms on wikipedia, but it is a source.

    • @[email protected]
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      72 months ago

      It’s not about the campaigns not using Mastodon, it is about the voters. They are on Twitter still so that is where the campaign wants to meet them.

      Mastodon needs to be more widely known for that to be a realistic option.

  • @zarkanian
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    292 months ago

    I used to think “Elon Musk” was some type of fancy French perfume. I miss those days.

  • r00ty
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    292 months ago

    Yeah, I have a problem too! No, wait. It’s because I don’t have an X/Twitter/whatever account.

  • NutWrench
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    252 months ago

    Who would have guessed that a social media platform owned by an apartheid-loving fascist would trend conservative?