MetArtScroll's recent activity

  1. Comment on Four Congressional Reps Ask Bill Barr To Restart His War On Porn in ~misc

    MetArtScroll
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    Back in the 1990s, similar efforts led to the Communications Decency Act (CDA). The CDA was declared unconstitutional by the SCOTUS, with one exception. That exception was CDA 230, which has...

    Back in the 1990s, similar efforts led to the Communications Decency Act (CDA).

    The CDA was declared unconstitutional by the SCOTUS, with one exception.

    That exception was CDA 230, which has become a crucial legal foundation of today's global Internet.

    2 votes

  3. Comment on Some Reddit comments are being hidden by default as "potentially toxic content" (i.e. a swear filter) in ~tech

    MetArtScroll
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    I expected this answer. Indeed, a private firm can make decisions as it wants within the law. Unless its market power becomes too high, and then anti-monopoly regulations start to apply. I believe...

    I expected this answer.

    Indeed, a private firm can make decisions as it wants within the law.

    Unless its market power becomes too high, and then anti-monopoly regulations start to apply.

    I believe that the major Internet platforms (Google, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, possibly some others) are already on THAT side of the market power threshold.

    4 votes

  4. Comment on Some Reddit comments are being hidden by default as "potentially toxic content" (i.e. a swear filter) in ~tech

    MetArtScroll
    Link Parent
    Banning users for participation in other subs (even non-automatic) is also against Reddit's TOS, but… And no, I am not developing any scripts for Reddit, and I do not downvote anything on Reddit....

    Banning users for participation in other subs (even non-automatic) is also against Reddit's TOS, but…

    And no, I am not developing any scripts for Reddit, and I do not downvote anything on Reddit. I use Reddit almost like Tildes: if I like it, I (up)vote; if I am indifferent to it, or if I dislike it, I skip.

    2 votes

  5. Comment on Some Reddit comments are being hidden by default as "potentially toxic content" (i.e. a swear filter) in ~tech

    MetArtScroll
    Link Parent
    While collapsing a comment is de jure not censorship, the vast majority of users do not bother to open most collapsed comments, and many do not open any collapsed comments. You are mostly right...

    1. While collapsing a comment is de jure not censorship, the vast majority of users do not bother to open most collapsed comments, and many do not open any collapsed comments.

    2. You are mostly right that popular negativity is still negativity, but why is it Reddit as a whole (represented by its admins) who decides what negativity is?

    5 votes

  6. Comment on Some Reddit comments are being hidden by default as "potentially toxic content" (i.e. a swear filter) in ~tech

    MetArtScroll
    Link Parent
    From the naive idealist POV, this is such a great idea… The underlying assumption is that any new participant is a brigader/troll/spammer/bigot and the like. While there are rare cases described...

    From the naive idealist POV, this is such a great idea…

    If a person doesn’t have a relationship with your community yet, then their comments will be collapsed.

    The underlying assumption is that any new participant is a brigader/troll/spammer/bigot and the like. While there are rare cases described in the comments to the linked Reddit post (“the relevant local sub suddenly finds themselves the center of Reddit's collective attention”), most new participants are either good-minded users or just users wanting within rules to respond to what they find worth responding. Think about new Tildes users: how many of them turned out to be malicious?

    if you want something less strict, you can limit Crowd Control

    And if you do not, you are welcome to turn your sub into a NIMBY echo chamber. How easy is it to amend RES-like tools with a functionality of automatically downvoting auto-collapsed comments? I bet it is straightforward, and then any new user not pre-approved by mods has no chance of being ever seen in the place.

    And you can always choose to show any comments that have been collapsed by Crowd Control.

    While I always expand everything on Reddit (while really awful content does indeed occur, most of unpopular comments are just going against the momentary mood of the sub), I know I am an exception. The whole idea is: a new user leaves a comment of any nature → a few power users downvote → the new user is never visible again. BTW, this is how today's Voat works.

    3 votes

  7. Comment on Some Reddit comments are being hidden by default as "potentially toxic content" (i.e. a swear filter) in ~tech

    MetArtScroll
    (edited )
    Link
    Certainly, if we view this as an isolated incident, then by Hanlon's razor it was just a mistake. However: The built-in chat is a small part of Reddit, and I do not understand why they so...

    Certainly, if we view this as an isolated incident, then by Hanlon's razor it was just a mistake.

    However:

    • The built-in chat is a small part of Reddit, and I do not understand why they so specially care about it. There is hardly any difference between being sworn at in the chat and being sworn at in a regular comment reply.

    • This is not the first mistake on the censorship side. Back in September, it was discovered that NSFW subreddits had been given noindex, nofollow, which was later reverted as a “mistake.”

    • There have never been such mistakes on the other side, e.g. all quarantined subreddits have been unquarantined by mistake—no, anything like this has never happened recently.

    I must add that I am not surprised at all.

    12 votes

  8. Comment on A page has been added to view the posts you've voted on (up to 30 days old) in ~tildes.official

    MetArtScroll
    Link Parent
    This is basically tracking one's own activity. However, I would agree that it is probably not worth making the topics/comments display different.

    This is basically tracking one's own activity. However, I would agree that it is probably not worth making the topics/comments display different.

    1 vote

  9. Comment on A page has been added to view the posts you've voted on (up to 30 days old) in ~tildes.official

    MetArtScroll
    Link
    Thanks a lot! Since the voting timestamps are recorded, can there be an option on that page to show these timestamps?

    Thanks a lot!

    Since the voting timestamps are recorded, can there be an option on that page to show these timestamps?

  10. Comment on The voting on topics and comments now ends when they're 30 days old and all individual vote records are deleted, retaining only the count in ~tildes.official

    MetArtScroll
    Link Parent
    Which seems to support my point that there is no need to record vote timestamps. By Tildes' ideology, if certain private data are not absolutely necessary, then they should rather not be recorded....

    I don’t think you can infer intent (malicious or otherwise) from the recording of a vote timestamp.

    Which seems to support my point that there is no need to record vote timestamps. By Tildes' ideology, if certain private data are not absolutely necessary, then they should rather not be recorded.

    However, I agree that the issue is minor. If Tildes is not going to pass its data to other entities, then the worst thing is that someone would be able to infer the most recent 30 days' activity patterns.

    1 vote

  11. Comment on The voting on topics and comments now ends when they're 30 days old and all individual vote records are deleted, retaining only the count in ~tildes.official

    MetArtScroll
    Link Parent
    Yes, but this looks like that infamous “to protect from bad behaviour, we will track everything everyone does” approach. I believe the administration benefits are more than outweighed by the...

    Yes, but this looks like that infamous “to protect from bad behaviour, we will track everything everyone does” approach. I believe the administration benefits are more than outweighed by the privacy costs.

    1 vote

  12. Comment on The voting on topics and comments now ends when they're 30 days old and all individual vote records are deleted, retaining only the count in ~tildes.official

    MetArtScroll
    Link Parent
    Thanks a lot for this change, but I have a question. Is there a reason for saving the vote time on Tildes at all? For the fact of voting, the IDs should suffice.

    Thanks a lot for this change, but I have a question.

    It's not a huge chunk of the data overall, since each individual row is very small (just a user ID, post ID, and time).

    Is there a reason for saving the vote time on Tildes at all? For the fact of voting, the IDs should suffice.

    1 vote

  13. Comment on Donation goal met! in ~tildes

    MetArtScroll
    Link Parent
    A.S. Congratulations! I have a small cosmetic idea: when the goal is met, change the progress bar colour to the Exemplary one.

    A.S. Congratulations!

    I have a small cosmetic idea: when the goal is met, change the progress bar colour to the Exemplary one.

    19 votes

  14. Comment on Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales has quietly launched a Facebook rival social network named WT:Social in ~tech

    MetArtScroll
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    It looks very interesting, but to which extent is it anonymous? The registration form has First Name and Last Name, and while one can apparently fill in anything, why didn't they make it just...

    It looks very interesting, but to which extent is it anonymous? The registration form has First Name and Last Name, and while one can apparently fill in anything, why didn't they make it just Username?

    8 votes

  15. Comment on A nice ~test post, because we haven't had one in a while in ~test

    MetArtScroll
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    Sometimes the true motivation beyond certain actions might be really surprising.

    Sometimes the true motivation beyond certain actions might be really surprising.

    1 vote

  16. Comment on Australia's Idiotic War On Porn Returns, This Time Using Facial Recognition in ~tech

    MetArtScroll
    Link Parent
    By Hanlon's razor it is the latter, but the former cannot be completely ruled out.

    By Hanlon's razor it is the latter, but the former cannot be completely ruled out.

  20. Comment on Do Nazis deserve electricity? in ~talk

    MetArtScroll
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    What makes them approach the status of public infrastructure is their market power. In addition to this slippery slope, there is another slippery slope dimension: if racists, then what about...

    I'm thinking a lot these days about the "slippery slope". Mastodon, Twitter, Facebook, Github/lab, etc ... these are all business(-like) entities, privately controlled, which are nonetheless approaching the status of public infrastructure ... at least, sort of.

    What makes them approach the status of public infrastructure is their market power.

    …do racists, white supremacists, get Internet? Electricity? Hospital/Ambulance service? Where is that line?

    In addition to this slippery slope, there is another slippery slope dimension: if racists, then what about sexual offenders? … those with low credit scores? …

    For these reasons, I oppose the idea.

    7 votes