The beginning of the end of corporate-dominated social media

[MUGA]

The point of this post is to start a discussion
on how Usenet could take its rightful place back
at the center of social media, in light of the
political implosion of big tech corporate-owned
social media.

Predictably, the big tech corporate social media
companies that replaced Usenet and blogging have
passed their peak. They have only themselves to
blame. People are abandoning them in droves over
the draconian enforcement of executives'
political opinions and unremitting tracking of
their users' internet activities, app usage and
physical movements. They have turned into a
place where companies blast users with whatever
they want them to read. The average end-user is
left to think that can communicate with the
influencers, when really that's an illusion.
They communicate mainly with bots and trolls and
the typical conversations are at the level of a
subway argument.

Users have started migrating to alternatives,
although the lack of interoperability between
these networks limits their futures just as the
walled gardens at Facebook and Twitter have
limited theirs. One of the few alternatives
having the fundamental openness of Usenet,
Mastodon, has devolved into a patchwork of
walled gardens as their local administrators
follow the lead of big tech in enforcing
political orthodoxy.

Usenet could again rise to the top of the social
media market, if not for a lack of open source
easy to use mobile clients and sufficient
marketing to get them onto the phones of the
mass market. Unlike with corporate social media,
fixing Usenet would require only a moderate
degree of technical effort, not a fundamental
change in the attitudes of those who manage it.

[Daniel]

MUGA <mu...@runbox.com> writes:

> The point of this post is to start a discussion
> on how Usenet could take its rightful place back
> at the center of social media, in light of the
> political implosion of big tech corporate-owned
> social media.

I don't see that ever happening. Back in the day, ISP's provided a
usenet gateway as part of the monthly dues. Now, most have dropped such
service. For me to access usenet, I had to pay a subscription with
a vendor. And even when I initiated my account, they wouldn't let me
post anything until I challenged their charge with paypal. They said I
needed to download a certain amount before I can post. They didn't say
how much I needed to download or for how long. It was completely
subjective. They said 'this is to prevent spam.'

I finally demanded a return of my money since I can download NG's all
day long without having to pay for it. At last they enabled posting for
me but only after the threat of returning my money.

ISP's would need to re-enable usenet access for the userbase. Users
would have to learn how to use it. And if you've ever seen newsgroup
enabled apps on devices, they outright suck. It's best to access them on
computers and... Well, many people no longer own a desktop.

> Predictably, the big tech corporate social media
> companies that replaced Usenet and blogging have
> passed their peak. They have only themselves to
> blame. People are abandoning them in droves over
> the draconian enforcement of executives'
> political opinions and unremitting tracking of
> their users' internet activities, app usage and
> physical movements. They have turned into a
> place where companies blast users with whatever
> they want them to read. The average end-user is
> left to think that can communicate with the
> influencers, when really that's an illusion.
> They communicate mainly with bots and trolls and
> the typical conversations are at the level of a
> subway argument.

They're abandoning those platforms for more open/free-speech oriented
social networks like GAB and Parler. If such services weren't available,
I still doubt users would go to usenet. And even then, most kids have no
clue what it is. They grew up with smartphones.

> Users have started migrating to alternatives,
> although the lack of interoperability between
> these networks limits their futures just as the
> walled gardens at Facebook and Twitter have
> limited theirs. One of the few alternatives
> having the fundamental openness of Usenet,
> Mastodon, has devolved into a patchwork of
> walled gardens as their local administrators
> follow the lead of big tech in enforcing
> political orthodoxy.

Don't sell these alternatives short. They're young and with tons of
growth potential. It's just that, well, this interoperability you speak
of is a device for analytics, spying, and user manipulation. Then
selling of that information. It's not to make your life easier as they
say.

> Usenet could again rise to the top of the social
> media market, if not for a lack of open source
> easy to use mobile clients and sufficient
> marketing to get them onto the phones of the
> mass market. Unlike with corporate social media,
> fixing Usenet would require only a moderate
> degree of technical effort, not a fundamental
> change in the attitudes of those who manage it.

If usenet were to rise, it would be to be masked by a pretty package and
the members of the far left (growing by the day) would demand methods to
censor/cancel those they disagree with. They've grown to be far worse
than any fascist government could ever hope.

--
Daniel
Visit me at: gopher://gcpp.world