all non-moderated discourse trends to the lowest-common-denominator of etiquette over time
it's just an entropy thing. Maintaining etiquette in discourse requires continual energy injection, just as ~maintaining order w atoms
Conversation
a key takeaway of this I think is that etiquette is easily maintainable w/i small groups w barriers to entry (whether through security or obscurity), but quickly decays when those groups scale without concomitant intervention (~fb laddering from college friends to everybody)
2
1
4
you can resist the trend by allowing users to peer-moderate (e.g. reddit downvotes, twitter likes). This ~works but usu ends up in tyranny of the majority, rather than ~true etiquette (ill-defined but real). Minority rights require active protection and the mob won't do it
1
3
this problem is just as evident in the media/political world as it is online, I think. Etiquette was easy to maintain when they were only a handful of anchors/~voices in the nation (papers, stations). Impossible with the flood gates open
1
2
if true, suggests that there was less etiquette early on in the nation's history when the newspaper industry was more fragmented. Not sure how to verify.. loosely matches with what I recall from history books
1
2
reflecting further, I'm a little surprised a well-maintained mastodon w clear cut rules hasn't blown up yet. Lives somewhere between a forum & discord; feels like the ideal balance to me but.. maybe am missing something about the ux as I haven't spent a ton of time on it myself
1
2
perhaps the size of these is ultimately limited as the expenses grow linearly while the benefits (for the owner/moderator) sublinearly
1
1
you get this experience to an extent in well-maintained subreddits & discords, so we know there's extant demand. It just hasn't blown up in the twitter-format yet
1
1
perhaps it just needs to be hosted by the right [benevolent] entity, e.g. a collison or stripe atlas perhaps (depends on the founding subject / ethos). Investing into moderation could be considered public-commons-building, which is imo one of the best
2
1
iirc played around with a mastodon instance for awhile.. what was/is your main takeaway from the experience?
1
1
It's still around. manages it now. I'm sort of a cheerleader on the side. refactorcamp.org
It's a good way to create small, intimate communities with a twitter-like feel.

