Bard spotting on Bluesky 23 September 2024

eva (@eva.computer):

real question:

why are you not allowed to tell people keep yourself safe on social media?

i feel like this is one of the few universally enforced things across basically every platform so there must be some reason

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

in short: aiding, abetting, commanding, counselling, inducing, or procuring homicide is a crime; actionable threats or extortion over interstate comms are a crime; can be an element of a civil tort

See also www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/...

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:jagldyome3h27twtp46nxen7/bafkreibttflgrh3dhiorjrw56j53lgoarrcsufidvsvvzrnfgwu5dfitzy@jpeg

18 U.S. Code § 875 - Interstate communications

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

Can be Tortious Interference With Business Relationships, between host platform & person told to kill themselves; that varies by jurisdiction.

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

When Reddit set up proper blocking, one of the ringleaders of a long running harassment & manipulation group that had plagued the site for over a decade,

Went on an extended "we are fricked" villain monologue. Full meltdown.

The group left reddit shortly after & moved offsite.

Anna Phylaxis (@quatoria.bsky.social):

Some of us not only like fighting, we got way too good at it on twitter, and we intentionally learned to step the heck back, because it turns out that getting good at fighting, and liking fighting, and fighting all the time are AWFUL FOR YR MENTAL HEALTH.

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

If bigots hate blocking so badly that it ruins their whole year, even their whole decade, there is probably a reason you should use it

Cassandra Miller (@tiptransformed.bsky.social):

True.

Erin Kissane (@kissane.bsky.social):

it's not that livejournal was all that great, it's just that LJ was the only network that clearly worked backward from actual social patterns field-tested in, like, the molten social heck of middle school, and designed software around that

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

I miss having a selection of usericons to apply to a post or comment.

I guess I could recreate that with the attached picture feature

Cassandra Miller (@tiptransformed.bsky.social):

I kind of miss the non-micro aspect of the blogging. It's something no other site has really been able to replicate.

Except Dreamwidth, but no one uses it. 😉

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

They gave G*merGate a chance, and look what happened.

Just choke off their oxygen of amplification.

Don't dunk, don't debate, or try to negotiate.

Block them.

If you can articulate a reason why they're antisocial, put them on a blocklist for that antisocial behaviour.

They must fix their hearts

Faine Greenwood (@faineg.bsky.social):

"Yes, he's said awful stuff but you just need to give him a chance" is dangerous and irresponsible social advice offline: it is just as dangerous and irresponsible online.

rahaeli (@rahaeli.bsky.social):

OKAY, HERE WE GO. I am going to be, for once, actually asking you all a question, with an actual question mark and all, but there are some Rules to this audience participation exercise.

1. Go to synecdochic.dreamwidth.org/profile and scroll down to the "Connect" section.

Captcha Check

rahaeli (@rahaeli.bsky.social):

2. See that thing under "Interests"? Those are, essentially, topic keywords you can list in your profile. You can click on them to find other people who have also listed that thing. You can have a bunch of them; I forget what the exact number is, but it's like 150 at least.

rahaeli (@rahaeli.bsky.social):

3. It doesn't mean "stuff I post about": plenty of people list stuff they never post about. It's more for, here are these things that are important to me / that I am into, I am listing them so other people who are into them can find me. We list the popular ones! www.dreamwidth.org/interests?vi...

Captcha Check

rahaeli (@rahaeli.bsky.social):

4. Interests were an important person-discovery mechanism on LJ back in the day (also the proximate cause of Strikethrough, sigh, but that's another rant). They don't serve as well for that on DW, because "interest" isn't intuitive to people anymore.

rahaeli (@rahaeli.bsky.social):

(The prompts at account creation also try to steer people to suggestions for interests they can list by prompting people with some topics to avoid Blank Box Syndrome, but the prompt is a little weird and leads to people filling them out weirdly, but that's a separate issue.)

rahaeli (@rahaeli.bsky.social):

SHOW MORE

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

I am laying in bed, it is 0200, there are 14 ice packs on my body in the process of absorbing heat. It is just beyond the autumnal equinox and it is 80°F outside

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

Komm Süßer Kalt

Kiraculous the Cyborg🏳️⚧️ (@kiraculous.net):

accidentally dutch ovened myself, i should be charged with a war crime for a chemical attack

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

Heeheehee

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

You goof

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

The belief that vicious racism must be accepted, that transgender people are _Entartete_, has a precedent in "political belief", and we defeated it in 1945, and then spent decades documenting and prosecuting the crimes that "political belief" brought about.

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

Everyone has a line beyond which a belief is no longer acceptable, no longer a political belief, but is simply institutionalised and mass-enacted sociopathy.

Some people, for whatever reason, keep trying to move that line for society back over to "gas chambers"

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

Many people are unable to recognise Nazism with the name & serial numbers filed off. Those people are dangerous.

Many people can recognise it, but find utility in pretending they can't. Those people are not to be tolerated.

They cannot be told apart from the outside.

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

You - Edo - are either the kind that doesn't recognise Nazism with the serial numbers & name filed off, or you're the kind who does recognise, & finds some utility in pretending you can't.

That's not anyone else's failing.

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

Thanks for the admission. We need deliberate no further .

Edith Laurie Charles (@edithcharles.bsky.social):

Commander Data is very inspiring to me as a woman because he taught me you can still be frickable even while your foundation is hideously caked.

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

🧙‍♀️me 💭"mmmm, Data ☺️"

Darbyscastle (@darbyscastle.bsky.social):

I'm not surprised if it's true.. This is Briebart, Gaetz.. It's amazing only 2 Trump supporters tried.. but when we police them you holler Deep State.. so, which is it..

Matt Gaetz: There are 'at least 5' known 'assassination teams' targeting Trump www.rawstory.com/matt-gaetz-a...

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ul5etilu6cjfmuy3uigz5dfp/bafkreiax4xieuxqdi2thcavgqdfbt5sbwxr4bu3kapbysaipntrqsksmi4@jpeg

Matt Gaetz: There are 'at least 5' known 'assassination teams' targeting Trump

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

If they were known, they'd be in handcuffs right now. FBI & SS don't do Limited Hangouts with potus assassination attempts

Darbyscastle (@darbyscastle.bsky.social):

True..

A.R. Moxon (@juliusgoat.bsky.social):

"What you mouth-breathing rubes don't realize is that we're all in bed with our subjects either literally or metaphorically, and journ*lism's capture by money and power is both broader and deeper than you small-minded moralists imagine, you fools, you absolute dipshits." is quite a take.

Marisa Kabas (@marisakabas.bsky.social):

what the frick is this

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

"Everyone does it!"

six hundred lawyers rise at once, fingers raised in objection

🦉 (@smallmutuals.bsky.social):

I read it as: "How am I gonna get laid if you shut this shit down? We should in fact be encouraging more of this."

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

I'm reminded this morning that Hitler's leadership of the NSDAP spanned

Twenty Five Years

We have been only 8 years afflicted by MAGA

Flames🏳️⚧️ (@flameswarriors.bsky.social):

TBf hitler was in his 30s when he took control of it.

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

For at least a decade now, "echo chamber" has been a dogwhistle, a flag planted stating "This space is insufficiently About Me / My Politics".

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

"This platform / community / site is an Echo Chamber."

"You all are not being exposed to a sufficiently diverse selection of opinions and politics"

• "Which opinions do you believe we lack? Which politics?"

"Oh, you know the ones"

Every. Fricking. Time.

ryan cooper (@ryanlcooper.com):

quite striking how much behavior among Objective Profit Focused Businesses is driven by fads and groupthink

Josh Sternberg (@joshsternberg.bsky.social):

Anti-theft deterrent also means anti-sales. Nice job, eggheads.

"Upon discovering that an item they want to buy is in a locked case, less than one in three shoppers (32%) get a store employee to unlock the case."

www.retailbrew.com/stories/2024...

Concepts of a Plan for "Himbo Heist" (@legalminimum.bsky.social):

I often wonder how much this is related to pay-on-scan inventory methods.

Dio (@dungeongilgameshi.bsky.social):

Can you explain your thinking?

Concepts of a Plan for "Himbo Heist" (@legalminimum.bsky.social):

It's tough in 300-character increments but I'll try.

At stores like Walmart and Target, the retailer doesn't take title to the inventory while it's on the shelf. Instead it's managed by a process called pay-on-scan.

Concepts of a Plan for "Himbo Heist" (@legalminimum.bsky.social):

The instant the product is sold to the customer, the retailer takes title to it and transfers that title to the customer. But while it's sitting on shelf at the retailer, the retailer doesn't hold title. Title is held by the manufacturer.

Concepts of a Plan for "Himbo Heist" (@legalminimum.bsky.social):

Now think how returns work in that context. I put 100 items on the shelf at Target (for example). 10 of them get stolen. 90 of them get sold. Target owes me the purchase price for how many? All 100? 90/100?

Concepts of a Plan for "Himbo Heist" (@legalminimum.bsky.social):

SHOW MORE

Coach Walz Finstock (@coachfinstock.bsky.social):

Welcome new Bluesky users!

Serenity Now! (@cpo10za.bsky.social):

Near-100% chance that this is driven by the fact that a shitload of users have blocked him, & he's still mad that he can't see what they're saying about him (without going through back-door stuff via Twitter engineers).

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

It's more,

Ensuring that when @ NeoNazi1488 wants to, @ NeoNazi1488 can QT their target, @ their target, and direct their flying goonsquads at their targets, leaving the target only one choice, go private

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

Even then, the target still gets notifications for all the Kay Y Ess posts @ NeoNazi1488 tags them in

End result

Nazis / terrorists win, running even bluechecks off the site

toast harmonics (@toasty.cx):

I'm so glad this happened after I got permanuked cuz I had so many people blocked, this'd have been a disaster

Coach Walz Finstock (@coachfinstock.bsky.social):

Welcome new Bluesky users!

toast harmonics (@toasty.cx):

also isn't that how reddit blocks work, or used to work?

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

Prior to ~2021, reddit's Block only made it to the blocker didn't see the blocked user's posts and content and etc.

Blocked person was still free to follow blocker around the site, harass them, libel them, harass people they talked with, incite harassment of them, etc

toast harmonics (@toasty.cx):

God these people are SO fricking incompetent

the Mountain Goats (@themountaingoats.bsky.social):

if they unseat Ted Cruz I will play a free solo show in Austin and the set list will include Golden Boy, Riches & Wonders, Comandante and whatever other oldschool bangers ppl want

the high pony of a Type-A b-word (@combledore.bsky.social):

Texas will break your heart every time, but I keep hoping

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

/r/FrickTedCruz

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

Particularly Relevant To Today's News Cycle

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

To contextualise this:

In the "bad old days" of Reddit, before they banned hate groups in 2020, academic studies found that just ~2% of users and groups on the site accounted for > 85% of toxic interactions

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

Relevant to New People - Welcome!

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

Newskies Guide to BlueSky:

Never look at the numbers.

Follow people who make you smile, laugh, think, grow.

Block the jerks.

This is Social Media — Not Anti-Social Media.

"Please?", "Yes.", "No.", and "I'm Sorry" are complete sentences. Don't be afraid to use them.

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

Relevant to yesterday's Main Character, sucks that she'll never read it

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

Here's a really good place to remind mainstream journ*lists that the denizens of /r/The_Donald and its satellite ecosystem of violent extremist subreddits were constantly calling for the deaths of anyone who disagreed with them, including politicians & journ*lists — sometimes with tactical planning

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

Relevant to today's social media feature news cycle

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

When Reddit made changes to how comment notifications worked so that any of them held back by AutoModerator failed to send push notifications to people's devices? So they never saw the hateful rants?

Hateful rants dropped thirtyfold. Overnight. Because no access to victims.

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

ALWAYS RELEVANT

THIS RIGHT HERE IS MY TEDX TALK IN A NUTSHELL

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

Deplatforming works;

Social media rules prohibiting hate speech and harassment (and enforcement of those) work.

The vast majority of hate speech on social media is astroturfed.

It was and is done to trick politicians and electorates into supporting oppression.

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

Peering into the near future (which is also a year ago)

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

I like to think of it as "Someone was informed by someone's attorneys that Germany's government is inquiring into why a social media platform is potentially promoting a Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremist group to Germans & why it's on app stores there"

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

It'll be outbid in a flash. A list of suckers so 419-hooked they stick with Infowars? Gold, Jerry!

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

The scene in Pratchett's _Making Money_ where Pucci Lavish just starts talking during the clerk's trial

Marisa Kabas (@marisakabas.bsky.social):

what the frick is this

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

Relevant to this election cycle

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

Stochastic terroristic violence is about motivating people to be angry enough to do things just on the other side of what they're comfortable with, and over time that line moves of its own accord without direct instructions, putting the onus on the State to prove a connection

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

Relevant to Yesterday's Main Character

Ms. Penny Oaken (@skywitches.net):

I am certain you do not wish to argue that several years ago you assaulted me at Tanglewood Forest. Several of your fellow company members have chased me and thwapped me with Amtgard -legal boffer weapons on Company Road while I was making announcements on behalf of Kingdom Officers.