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[sociocosmos]

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[conre36]

Have you heard of AliExpress! The number ONE sales platform in the world.

[rockspaycard]

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[mostlysignssomeportents]

Someday, we’ll all take comfort in the internet’s “dark corners”

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me on SUNDAY (Mar 24) with LAURA POITRAS in NYC, then Anaheim, and beyond!

Platforms decay. Tech bosses, unconstrained by competition; regulation; ad blockers and other adversarial interoperability; and their own workers, will inevitably hollow out their platforms, using ultraflexible digital technology to siphon value away from end users and business customers, leaving behind the bare minimum of value to keep all those users locked in:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/30/go-nuts-meine-kerle/#ich-bin-ein-bratapfel

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/23/evacuate-the-platforms/#let-the-platforms-burn

Enshittification is the inevitable result of high switching costs. Tech bosses are keenly attuned to opportunities to lock in their customers and users, because the harder is to leave a platform, the worse the platform can treat you – the more value it can rob you of – without risking your departure.

But platform users are a heterogeneous, lumpy mass. Different groups of users have different switching costs. An adult Facebook user of long tenure has more reasons to stay than a younger user: they have more complex social lives, with nonoverlapping social circles from high school, college, various jobs, affinity groups, and family. They are more likely to have a chronic illness, or to be caring for someone with chronic illness, and to be a member of a social media support group they value highly. They are more likely to be connected to practical communities, like little league carpool rotas.

That's the terrible irony of platform decay: the more value you get from a platform, the more cost that platform can extract, a cost denominated in your wellbeing, enjoyment and dignity.

(At this point, someone will pipe up and say, "If you're not paying for the product, you're the product." It's nonsense. Dignity, respect and fairness aren't frequent flier program perks that tech companies dribble out to their best customers. Companies will happily treat their paying customers as "products" if they think those customers can't avoid other forms of rent-extraction, such as "attention rents")

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/06/attention-rents/#consumer-welfare-queens

Now, consider the converse proposition: for younger users, platforms deliver less value. Younger users have less complex social lives on average relative to their parents and grandparents, which means that platforms have fewer ways to sink their hooks into those young users. Further: young users tend to want things that the platforms don't want them to have, right from the first day they sign up. In particular, young users often want to conduct their socializing out of eyesight and earshot of adults, especially parents, teachers, and other authority figures. This means that a typical younger user has both more reasons to leave a platform as well as fewer reasons to stay there.

Younger people have an additional reason to bail on platforms early and often: if your online and offline social circles strongly overlap – if you see the same people at school as you do in your feed, it's much easier to reassemble your (smaller, less complex) social circle on a new platform.

And so: on average, young people like platforms less, hate them more, and have both less to lose and more to gain by leaving one platform for another. Sure, some young people are also burning with youth's neophilia. But even without that neophilia, young people are among the first to go when tech bosses start to ratchet up the enshittification.

Beyond young people, there are others who tend to jump ship early, like sex-workers:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/21/early-adopters/#sex-tech

Sex-workers' technology changes are only incidentally the result of some novelty-seeking impulse. The real reason to change platforms if you're a sex-worker is that the platforms are either absolutely hostile to sex-workers, or profoundly indifferent to the suffering their policy changes rain down upon them.

The same is broadly true of other disfavored groups, including those with out-of-mainstream political ideologies. Some of these groups hold progressive views, others are out-and-out Nazis, but all of them chafe at the platforms' policies at the best of times, and are far more ready to jump ship when the platforms tighten the noose on all their users.

This is where "dark corners" come in. The worst people on the internet have relocated to its so-called dark corners – privately hosted servers, groupchats, message-boards, etc. Some of these are notorious: Kiwi Farms, 4chan, 8kun, sprawling Telegram groupchats. Others only breach when they are implicated in waves of unthinkably cruel and grotesque crimes:

https://www.wired.com/story/764-com-child-predator-network/

The answer to crimes committed in the internet's dark corners is the same as for crimes committed anywhere: catch the criminals, prosecute the crimes. But a distressing number of well-meaning people observe the nexus between dark corners and the crimes that fester there, and conclude that the problem is with the dark corners, themselves.

These people observe that social media platforms like Facebook, and intermediaries like Cloudflare, DNS providers, and domain registrars constitute a "nexus of control" – chokepoints that trap the online lives of billions of people – and conclude that these gigantic corporations can and should be made "responsible" for their users:

https://www.techdirt.com/2020/06/23/hello-youve-been-referred-here-because-youre-wrong-about-section-230-communications-decency-act/

From there, it's a short leap to conclude that anyone who isn't in a position to be controlled by these too big to jail, too big to fail, relentlessly enshittifying corporations must be pushed into their demesne.

This is a deal with the devil. In the name of preventing small groups of terrible people from gathering in private, beyond the control of the world's insufferable and cruel tech barons, we risk dooming everyone else to being permanently within those unworthy billionaires' thumbs.

This is why people like Mark Zuckerberg are so eager to see an increase in "intermediary liability" rules like Section 230. Zuckerberg's greatest fear isn't having to spend more on moderators or algorithms that suppress controversial subjects:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/03/instagram-users-outraged-by-app-limiting-political-content-ahead-of-elections/

The thing he fears the most is losing control over his users. That's why he bought Instagram: to recapture the young users who were fleeing his mismanaged, enshittified platform in droves:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/03/big-tech-cant-stop-telling-on-itself/

A legal mandate for Zuckerberg to police his users is a legal requirement that he surveil and control those users. It's fundamentally incompatible with the new drive in competition circles to force Zuckerberg and his fellow tech barons to offer gateways that make it easier to escape their grasp, by allowing users to depart Facebook and continue to socialize with the users who stay behind:

https://www.eff.org/interoperablefacebook

Remember: the more locked-in a platform user is, the harder that platform will squeeze that user, safe in the knowledge that the cost of leaving is higher than the cost of staying and tolerating the platform's abuse.

This is the problem with "feudal security" – the warlord who lures you into his castle fortress with the promise of protection from external threats is, in reality, operating a prison where no one can protect you from him:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/08/leona-helmsley-was-a-pioneer/#manorialism

Rather than fighting to abolish dark corners because only the worst people on the internet use them today, we should be normalizing dark corners, making it easier for every kind of user to find a cozy nook that is shaded from the baleful glare of Zuck and his fellow, eminently guillotineable tech warlords:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/15/normalize-dark-corners/

Enshittification is relentless. The collapse of the restraints that penalized tech companies who abused their users – competition, regulation, interoperability and their own workers' consciences – has inculcated every tech boss with an incurable enshittification imperative.

Efforts to make the platforms safer for their users can only take us so far. Fundamentally, these vast, centralized systems that vest authority with flawed and mediocre and frail human dictators (who fancy themselves noble, brilliant and infallible) will never be safe for human habitation. Rather than focusing on improving the platforms, we should be evacuating them:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/09/let-the-platforms-burn/

Online communities that control their own moderation policies won't always get it right. But there is a whole host of difficult moderation calls that can never be adequately handled by outsiders overseeing vast, sprawling platforms. Distinguishing friendly banter from harassment requires the context that only an insider can hope to possess.

We all deserve dark corners where we stand a chance of finding well-managed communities that can deliver the value that keeps us stuck to our decaying giant platforms. Eventually, the enshittification will chase every user off these platforms – not just kids or sex-workers or political radicals. When that happens, it sure would be nice if everyone could set up in a dark corner of their own.

Name your price for 18 of my DRM-free ebooks and support the Electronic Frontier Foundation with the Humble Cory Doctorow Bundle.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/23/evacuate-the-platforms/#let-the-platforms-burn

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

[suburbanbonfire]

3 Keys for the Kraken

As the Seattle Kraken head onto the the ice for their first regular season meeting against the struggling Edmonton Oilers, here are the three keys to keep in mind as they try once more to sustain a winning streak.

Gain a lead of anywhere from 1-3 goals. Go into the third period with this lead and make sure the fans are feeling good about it!!

Lose that lead. Make SURE that this lead is lost within the first five minutes of the third period. Bonus points if the Kraken can let in one extra goal to keep it crazy.

In the last minute of the game, flip a coin! Who fucking knows!! If the coin comes up Kraken and the game is tied, make sure to go to the shootout and lose.

[moving-to-dreamwinged]

in the vein of my last post kinda im wondering if maybe it’s time to start blocking ppl . .. i would feel so guilty but honestly i do think i i probably need to for my comfort i just feel SO BAD 😭 like why should i Wipe u from my field of vision just because we want to kiss the same jpeg ? ? but alas i get so scared and anxious (pathetic i know) whnvr i see it… sigh sigh sigh BIG SIGH

[wiki-howell]

guess who managed to mention dnp in his a level media exam 🔥🔥

[distant-eclipses]

Uh- who?

Aka a deep dive of sorts on the character formerly known as Eclipse, who I'm going to dub Pseudo-Eclipse(is there a popular new name for him?) and the stuff that followed. Spoilers for part of Security Breach Ruin

Who is Pseudo-Eclipse: Most people who have the Daycare Attendant as their favorite character(s) know who this is, but even now there's probably some fans who don't know(or, if they do, don't know the fully situation)

In Security Breach there's an arcade cabinet in the Daycare Attendant's room called Balloon World

In the game you play as Balloon Boy and try to stay floating as long as possible. The game is similar to Flappy Bird, but with a few differences. One of the important ones is the day/night cycle, with Sun and Moon in the background of their respective times of day

Another difference is the purple glitches which, if touched, lead to this weird glitchy world

If you follow the weird line of glitchy squares, eventually the trail will end and this will happen

After a few seconds of this screen(which isn't a still image, but I wanted a good shot of the "good night" messages) the arcade game crashes and you get sent back to the Daycare Attendant's room

This (sorta)character eventually became known as Eclipse to the Daycare Attendant side of the fandom(I don't know how well known it is outside of that group)

Why this interpretation: Why was he called Eclipse by most of the fandom? Why was he usually called a fusion? Some people called it something related to Sun and/or assumed he was Sun if he was infected by Glitchtrap, but those people were in the minority

Well here's a clearer look at Pseudo-Eclipse's sprite. While he has Sun's rays, his face is obviously Moon's(Sun also has a grinning sprite, but Moon's smile seems closer to it). Almost like Moon is right in front of Sun, aka

an eclipse(specifically an annular eclipse). Which would explain the odd coloring(due to the moon's lack of light to reflect and the ring of fire) and the background(the redder color of the sky mixed with the virus' purple)

So because of that, he was called Eclipse. And while it's unclear if Moon is just in front of Sun or if Pseudo-Eclipse is one (fused)entity, it's funner to imagine it as a character

Fanon: interpretations of Pseudo-Eclipse can vary wildly in design, personality, and origin. But one common personality I see is him being depicted as evil, which makes sense because of the implied connection to Glitchtrap. There's also quite a few who depict Pseudo-Eclipse as a middle ground between the two(one could argue Eclipse works in a similar way)

The way he shows up also differs depending on the universe. In works that are more similar to canon, I've seen it show up in specific lighting conditions, be a security mode, or just come from the arcade. In aus where Sun and Moon are separate beings I've seen Pseudo-Eclipse be a sibling, some other relative, or just a dude that's entirely unconnected to them. Funnily enough, I haven't seen many people depict it as an actual fusion

One trait I've seen in a lot of fan designs is him having 4 arms(I even ran a poll for it, a majority of the voters preferred 4 arms), though I did see a cool design that gave him 6 arms. This fits with his nature as a glitch/fusion/generally odd being

However, while "Eclipse" quickly became a fusion name(as well as its own character in some way pre-Ruin), some designs seemed to forget or not notice why Pseudo-Eclipse was called that in the first place. I've also seen designs that, while obviously based on the arcade glitch, take a lot of creative liberties

On the more astronomy-accurate-arcade-inaccurate side of Pseudo-Eclipse designs, I've seen a lot of people make it look more like a partial eclipse than an annular one. This fits with the Daycare Attendant's half and half design and is possibly what Steel Wool chose to do with Eclipse(though it may be a coincidence)

There's also those who make Eclipse more purple/blue? Some of the designs may be based on other types of eclipses, but aside from a possible Sun-design-Moon-color for balance reasons(astronomy accuracy be damned), I'm not sure why this is

On the other side of the coin, there's those who decided to make ocs and/or other fusions

Fan characters: Pseudo-Eclipse was able to open the door to other ideas for eclipse-based designs that weren't supposed to be the arcade glitch or your average fusion. One that I've only seen a few times is fans noticing that Pseudo-Eclipse is an annular eclipse and making a design based off of a total eclipse

Another Sun-based design is "Solar Eclipse", despite Pseudo-Eclipse already being one of those. Accuracy varies, but these tend to be on the more accurate side and I've seen ones based on annular and partial eclipses. There's also those who call the "Nice Eclipse" from The Sun and Moon Show this, despite him looking like a weird Sun most of the time

But the thing about Pseudo-Eclipse is that he mostly looks like Sun. So the idea of a Moon-based design, aka Lunar Eclipse, became a thing. These designs are usually pretty blue, probably meant to mirror Pseudo-Eclipse's orange. They usually have a nice personality, possibly because of Pseudo-Eclipse usually being depicted as evil. A popular example of this is Lunar from The Sun and Moon Show

These designs are nice, but most of them are in a similar boat to several fan designs for Pseudo-Eclipse. Because while lunar eclipses do exist, this isn't an "astronomy accurate" design. Though in my experience, some people will probably be more familiar with another name for a lunar eclipse

aka, a blood moon. Which is also the name of some fan characters, though the most popular one is probably from The Sun And Moon Show

Despite both being lunar eclipses, Blood Moon and Lunar Eclipse don't seem to have any connection beyond them both working/having worked with SAMS-Eclipse

Ruin(ed) tags: When the ruin dlc came out, Daycare Attendant fans were blessed with a canon Eclipse(who is a wonderful character, but not the topic of this post)

But all good things come at a cost and this is no exception. While Eclipse is the main one showing up in search results and tags, Pseudo-Eclipse still appears a lot. On top of that, as of now there's no real way to search for(or stop seeing) Pseudo-Eclipse content and without any pictures it can be hard to tell which one a person is talking about(I don't know how ao3 users are doing, but I imagine it's a similar story over there)

"Glitch Sun" seems to be one people like(use of this name goes back to 2022), but while it may be getting more popular it's not nearly as well known as "Eclipse. It also assumes that Pseudo-Eclipse is Sun, which a lot of people disagree with. This interpretation may get more popular thanks to Ruin, but it doesn't really work for those who still view Pseudo-Eclipse as a eclipse and don't want to call it a sun

I've also seen tags used for specific au versions of Pseudo-Eclipse and The Sun And Moon Show. While designs vary, several are accurate or inaccurate enough for a lot of fans. However, these are specific characterizations of him with specific origins. Not to mention the specific settings and lore. However, too many of these would defeat the purpose of using specific tags to filter stuff out

One fan name I've seen suggested is referring to Eclipse as a lunar eclipse and Pseudo-Eclipse as a solar eclipse. But they're both obviously solar eclipses or at least solar eclipse adjacent. Also, it would just turn into "which Lunar are they talking about" for those who post about Lunar Eclipse

Ruin: While fans love Eclipse(and hopefully Steel Wool will give it more attention), that doesn't mean they're done with Pseudo-Eclipse. And neither is the game

As I mentioned in a previous post, while the arcade game is broken and unplayable in Ruin, if you look up in the room and wait a few seconds while wearing the rabbit mask

it's still there. So, that begs the question of who this is. While we know that he's connected to Glitchtrap/the Mimic's virus and is most likely not a sun, there's not a lot to work with

But at the end of the day, he's just a neat little easter egg character that fans grew attached to. It may not have a major place in the lore, but he still left a big impact

[william-r-melich]

Tik Tok on the Chopping Block - 04/25/2024

Yesterday, Joe Biden signed the Tik Tok Divest-or-Ban bill into law. I covered this bill extensively in my post, "Tik Tok Bill/HR 7521" back on March 16th of this year. This bill forces ByteDance to sell Tik Tok within one year. It's clear to me that this Chinese owned company is controlled by the CCP and is using it to gather information on US citizens and influence children toward committing self-harm and suicide.

Tik Tok's CEO, Shou Zi Chew released the following video statement yesterday. "Make no mistake, this is a ban, a ban on you and your voice. We are confident, and we will keep fighting for your rights in the courts. The facts and the Constitution are on our side, and we expect to prevail again." He was referring to how they circumvented Trump's executive order to ban the app in the U.S. back in 2020. Tik Tok's position is that through China's Counterespionage Law, its customer data is stored in Virginia and backed up in Singapore. They claim that they have never or ever will share U.S. data with the CCP. Yet the owner of ByteDance previously issued a letter of apology to the CCP about failing to follow the CCP's directives. It's obvious to me that they are more of an arm of the CCP than a private company and we should not trust them. At the same time, I'm also conflicted about trusting our own government. Regardless it's now signed into law, like it or not.

Tik Tok and ByteDance together spent over $7 million since the beginning of this year on TV and digital ads in an effort to stop legislation from passing the bill. A Tik Tok spokesperson said this, "This expenditure reflects work we do to educate policy makers about how legislation could affect our community of 170 million American users." Tik Tok officials lobbied Congress and Biden's executive office last quarter. Biden's executive office contains the National Security Council, the Office Management and Budget, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, and other divisions.

As I mentioned in my previous post on this bill last March, Donald Trump and Elon Musk both came out against it. Trump is concerned that it could expand government powers on other platforms, and Musk is concerned about censorship. The bill is intended to remove any foreign influence and investment in social media platforms and websites here in the U.S. The government would have to prove that a foreign entity is directly involved and then initially force divestment, and then later if necessary deplatform the app and shut down their operating websites.

I'm all for private companies operating platforms that allow freedom of expression, but not if they're being operated by a foreign adversary like China's CCP. Yet I'm always very skeptical of our government and their tendencies to over-reach in order to go after their political opposition. Especially with this current bunch in charge. All we can do is to stay informed and hopefully for the sake of our freedom and security vote in Republican majorities in both the house and senate, and get Donald Trump back into office, in my opinion.

[allaboutforexworld]

Social Trading in a Nutshell

Social trading has revolutionized the way individual investors participate in the financial markets. By leveraging the collective wisdom and strategies of experienced traders, newcomers can improve their trading outcomes. This article explores the concept of social trading, its benefits, risks, and how to get started. What is Social Trading? Social trading is a form of investing that allows…

[rockspaycard]

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[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

After The White House and Republicans in Congress reached a tentative agreement on the debt ceiling, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy went on Fox News Sunday to boast about making struggling Americans work in order to continue receiving food aid.

Although precise details have not been released, the deal will increase the maximum age at which adults must work in order to receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food stamps from age 50 to 54. There are exceptions, however, for veterans, unhoused individuals, and those with dependents. The deal also includes changes to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) but those details have not been made public.

“We finally were able to cut spending. We’re the first Congress to vote for cutting spending year over year,” McCarthy boasted Sunday on Fox. “So, you cut that back. You fully fund the veterans. You fully fund defense. But you take that non-defense spending all the way back to 2022 levels. Now you get work requirements for TANF and SNAP. The Democrats said that was a red line.”

At another point in the interview, McCarthy claimed that “We’re going to get America working again,” and that the deal includes “work requirements to help people out of poverty into jobs.” At this, host Shannon Bream pushed back on McCarthy, arguing that the work requirements are not tough enough for the most extreme members of the GOP caucus.

"We're gonna get America working again … When Republicans had the Presidency, the Senate and the House, did they ever cut spending? No, they increased it."

“The White House, that’s an area where they’re celebrating,” Bream said of the work requirements. “They say there are no changes to Medicaid. You referenced SNAP and TANF. So basically, SNAP includes an expansion for veterans and people who are homeless. So there’s an expansion there to some extent… and the changes that you did get will lift the age and the requirements and those kinds of things, but they sunset. So they don’t last for very long.”

It should be noted, though, that the vast majority of Americans are working. Unemployment remains extremely low at 3.4% as of this April.

McCarthy also bragged about cutting funding to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “This is the largest recision in American history,” McCarthy said. “You can add up all the recisions from all the other Congresses. This is greater. And what are we pulling back? CDC’s Global Health Fund. So no longer are we sending $400 million of American taxpayers’ money to China.”

According to the CDC, the Global Health Fund supports HIV/AIDS prevention and care, immunizations, and global disease detection and emergency response. On the heels of a global pandemic, cutting this funding seems dangerous, but after seeing their response to COVID, it’s not surprising that Republicans in Congress don’t take global health seriously.

Returning to the topic of work requirements, McCarthy said, “At the end of the day, it saves more money, ’cause what does a work requirement do? It’s only on able-bodied people with no dependents. Instead of borrowing money from China to pay somebody to sit on the couch, we now give them the process to go get a job. Every study has shown when you do that, it puts people to work. And when they work, what happens? More people are paying into social security and Medicare.”

Sure, it may “save” some money in food aid, but at what cost?

[blujayonthewing]

while I have not really worked on my costume hooves at all since last year, I HAVE been getting pretty good at walking and standing still in the shoes since recently putting them in my room where I could easily put them on and wander around on a whim

the bad news is they've now broken in enough that my heels wanna slip out of them, and apparently the remedy to that is 'buy a size down'

[katyspersonal]

I really hate it when someone says or does something mean and unfair and I try to address how wrong it is, and all they can react as "hey this is just internet and we are also strangers move on why are you getting so worked up about words in the iNtErNeT fRoM sTrAnGeR grow up pls I can be a mean unfair bitch for no reason to StRaNgErS on the InTeRnEt 🥺🥺🥺"

Like, the fact that we are not sharing physical space doesn't cancel the fact that what you just did not only didn't make rational sense, but was mean? And you are not supposed to be a rude bitch to "strangers" either? How are you a mature, secure adult if the only way you can handle the fact of misjudging someone and being rude is to try to gaslight them with that "you're overreacting uwu" thing? I am reacting just right, by pointing out an unfair action for being unfair, I am physically unable to react more rationally.

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]