I just opened YouTube on my iPhone and realized there was no UI at all for seeing my subscriptions. I had to relaunch the app and notice right when it opens they show a subscriptions link at the top but it auto-hides. So what you need to do is tap on the screen and then tap on the subscriptions link. There’s no other reference to subscriptions anywhere. It’s almost completely hidden now.

I have “watch history” disabled, which turns YouTube from a wannabe TikTok into its former self. You get no algorithmic suggestions and you can’t watch shorts (unless linked to them directly or through subscriptions). So now the YouTube app essentially has no content unless you dig through hidden UI. This is crazy.

Step 1: Post anything with a rage bait title
Step 2: Some poster comes in with an obviously bad take
Step 3: That obviously bad take gets upvoted/liked/whatever
Step 4: Now people have to engage with it because it's been pushed to the top
Step 5: Drama/engagement/so much traffic tho

Social media sites just automated steps 1-3 and all us dummies fall right into it.
I wish there was a meta category? Is there? #meta-tildes
Edit: oh there is a ~Tildes. apologies.

This video is a bit goofy in content, but I came across this youtube short of an MMA fighter "Seamus O'Grady". I don't know all that much about MMA, but I find it somewhat interesting and look up more clips about the dude. I then try looking up who this guy is online, and he's entirely AI generated from what I can gather (youtube comments say he's AI and there are no pages online about him).

These videos are basically indistinguishable from reality. The biggest "tell" is just how surreal the actual situation is, not necessarily the ability of AI to generate something life-like. And, of course, AI generated video will only get better. As far as I'm concerned, we've officially reached the point, in a completely non-hyperbolic way, where there's basically no reason to believe that what you're seeing online is real, unless it's coming from the verified account of a "legacy" creator.

There are some major questions that now get raised. Is video as evidence at all basically a thing of the past? How can we admit video evidence into a court of law, perhaps unless it's played directly off a recording device that's technologically incapable of having video uploaded to it? Is citizen journalism even possible now? How can we trust, from today onwards, that we aren't being fed a narrative by even traditional media that's a complete literal fiction?

I frame this in the affirmative because we would not be here if we did not agree. I have only been engaging actively with Lobsters and Tildes recently but find it more enjoyable than Lemmy, Piefed, Mastodon, etc.. Why is that? I believe the fediverse is a cringe circle-jerk of Linux and echo-chamber liberal-not-leftists. Lobsters has the same tech-leaning of the fediverse but it is much more interesting and technical. What then makes Tildes more interesting? Quality or lack of fediverse cringe?

Curious what you all think?

Since getting into Reddit since 2014 or so, that is been my main source of forum activity. Since Reddit proved to not be a good site, I have tried to find alternatives.

Edit: I think Tildes best feature I have recently enjoyed is that the feed is based on activity which can include super old posts that have a new discussion. I like that this allows me to see what is being discussed now while also limiting discussions to one post. This is much nicer than having to search through tons of threads of the same topic.

Recently, I have found myself almost unable to find things online to engage with, Tildes being the rare exception. I feel like I used to be able to find my way down Youtube rabbit holes, scroll on Reddit endlessly, and for a period even get lost on Instagram reels. I still have the urges, but now when I indulge it doesn't feel like an effortless dopamine hit, I feel like I'm fighting the platforms for something, anything engaging.

The channels I enjoyed, even the small ones, seem to all be chasing monetization and the lowest common denominator. Even Beau Miles, one of my favorite people on earth, joined the absolute deluge of people focusing on renovating a crumbling "historic" building or just rehashing his old fun ideas. Gone are the days of the inspired videos like the Human Bean. The miniature painters all seem to be hocking their own inventions or models. It feels like capitalism has crept into every video. Reddit is even worse, where it always feels like there is an agenda or a link to a patreon or scrappy youtube channel and I just feel manipulated by the posts being made.

For lack of a better phrase, I'm just constantly feeling the "ick" being online. I'm actively trying to search out things to engage with, anything even remotely genuine or authentic, and running up against a wall. It just feels bizarre. Maybe I'm alone on this. Or maybe I'm reaching a different stage of life and no longer the target demographic. In any case I just feel myself reaching for my laptop less and less and less. For most folks I think that would be a good thing, but when it's dark out, and I'm too burnt out from work to make progress on whatever home or art project I'm doing it was a really nice way to turn off my brain.

Is anyone else having a similar experience? Are folks happy with this version of online content? Are we entering the dead internet? I'm trying to figure out if this is a real trend or just a personal experience.

Lately on YouTube I’ve been getting a few really weird ads.

The first was a 5 second spot video for Fatty brand meat sticks. They say “vegans look away” as they spin on the screen.

I’m plant-based: I don’t eat animal products 99.9% of the time. And well before I was like this I wouldn’t have eaten their product because meat sticks were just simply gross. But literally every time I see an advertisement for a food product I see something that looks more like actual meat on the screen so when I see the ad in question, it is basically the single most flaccid insult I have ever seen.

I wouldn’t even be bringing it up except for today I had a different ad show up from dbrand, this time as an image as I was looking through the recommended videos. It was a screenshot of a conversation between them and peta over some leather something or other.

I just think about what this kind of advertising is supposed to do. It’s supposed to position the product in a persons mind. It says to them “buy this to stick it to those leftist vegan cucks” while still being soft enough that a leftist vegan cuck might not be bothered by it and might still consider buying it.

But I think there is a different message we should take from these ads: these companies are run by assholes. The fact that leather and meat require animals to die is a morbid fact that our society has accepted, and rubbing that into the faces of those who disagree with it is not a good look; it just reveals them as the children that they are.

While my dietary restrictions may have prevented me from buying anything from Fatty, the only thing stopping me from buying from dbrand is their own idiotic marketing. Why on earth did they think that they think that their trolling would be effective advertising outside of the trolling website?

Hi Tildeans,

I am not an artist, but I know artists who are searching for online spaces where they can post / share / engage with artwork without the AI generated art being ever-present.

I’m wondering if anyone on Tildes is aware of platforms in the small web that are trying to accomplish this? I’m specifically looking for smaller platforms, since I think Tildes does a good job creating an online community where it feels like I’m engaging with real people. I appreciate anyone who has any suggestions!

For most of the history of Tildes, if someone came across the site and decided they wanted to join, but didn't know anyone already on, they could email Deimos with an invite request. However, with the rise of LLMs, the noise-to-signal ratio has become so high this is no longer a way to join Tildes - explanation by Deimos: https://tildes.net/~tildes/1vl3/is_there_any_interest_in_building_a_tildes_successor#comment-if6r

I've read the recent discussions on Tildes being maintained as is and not actively grown, but I think most of us believe the community is up for many more years of enjoying each other's company, and would like to pick up a few more members along the way if they seek us out. That just requesting to join isn't possible anymore makes me a little sad.

I had the thought that larger sites are able to invest more resources into spam account filtering, many of us have active accounts on other social media sites (or other types of sites with community interactions), and I speculate that almost everyone who finds tildes and is interested in joining has already been active in some other online community. Some of us Tilderinos could post here our handles in other communities, and offer to consider sharing one of our invite requests to Tildes if DM'd in our other community. We'd have to reject requests from new accounts, and use some judgement on established ones, but I am thinking having people go through the filtering process those other communities use would reduce the spam requests enough to make it workable.

What do you guys think?