I agree with that completely...except I think that articulates only half of the problem. The other part is a profit model that sells human attention. The supply is finite but elastic enough that you can design for a maladaptive increase.
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And the easiest way to do that isn't even obviously manipulative: it's just privileging amplification over attenuation. Even limited to a network of alters like facebook, the system tends towards waves of seizures.
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All the biggest networks play the balancing act well, where they increase the attentional costs in a way compensated for the dopamine hits. I don't see how you beat that with a *free* network.
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Even if you had graph portability, you have to retain the users using your service. Metcalfe = Network x DAU. If you increase inhibitory power, you can't sell as many ads and, as a consequence, resources for competition.
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And, if it's a pay-for-usage service, you have the graph bootstrapping problems plus the wallet barrier of entry. Like, in that ecosystem, I think challenging them is like waiting for the moment all the oxygen molecules happen to bounce into the corner of the room.
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💥 (wannabe) Ƀreaker of (the Bad) Loops 💫 Retweeted Sar Haribhakti
(Also, this part:)https://twitter.com/sarthakgh/status/1103720764966985728 …
💥 (wannabe) Ƀreaker of (the Bad) Loops 💫 added,
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Right. Which (semi-relatedly) explains why Mastodon will fail. It's sorted on something close to class boundaries, such that it's pretty homogeneous. And participating in multiple instances is taxing. And fundamentally, it's a less-slick twitter with a different license.
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Meanwhile, twitter is just the Frankenstein of an IR system, a MMORPGs, and Netflix. Hard to compete against directly, and I'm very actively trying to remind myself that so I don't make such a mistake.
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Replying to @generativist @Aelkus
Re: mastodon, the “local main street” vibe of small instances is an antidote. It really is new and different, I think, because it is decoupled from capitalist incentives. It’s just hard to find the right mix of people and interests to compete with the dopamine hose of twitter.
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Yea, exactly. Like, I really liked mastodon a few times for that reason, beyond just the novelty high. It's just desperately hard to sustain. So, again, it's cool and it nibbles at the edges, but I don't think it will ever be a twitter competitor.
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