william ⁂ maggos

Advocate for #DemocracyOfReach

respect people's attention.

it's all we have and it makes us who we are.

location: Chicagoland
messaging: wjmaggos:matrix.org
site/purpose: https://democracyofreach.org

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npub1hmqpppze78n5s8du8r3zyvzn6lydah0mk2ccxpwjc7u2y38atdnqxtrlex

NIP-05 Address

[email protected]

Profile Code

nprofile1qqstasqss3vlre6grk7r3c3zxpfa0jx7mham9vvrqhfv0w9zgn74kesprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0d4hhxarj9ecxjmntqyqq2r76nn

Publishing to

relay.momostr.pink

Author Public Key

npub1hmqpppze78n5s8du8r3zyvzn6lydah0mk2ccxpwjc7u2y38atdnqxtrlex

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Last Notes

2026-05-22 17:45:31 UTC

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Frightened Rabbit deserved so much more.
The Cure blew me away live.

2026-05-21 13:36:08 UTC

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journalists (but many others too) want a network with huge democratic reach where everyone they care about can talk to each other. open networks facilitate this if we work to let people only see what they want (no ads, corp algos, mod for unwanted mentions) and no node can block user visibility for much of the network
[see Link re bluesky. ATproto will always have this big node power problem imo]

2026-05-16 20:21:21 UTC

#Twitter did not make it possible for #Trump to win, but #Facebook did. With ads and algos and massive participation from naturally conservative audiences and a shunning of it by respected journalists and the left. Early Twitter without ads or algos made it possible for lots of ideas to gain traction that corporate media ignored, like the Arab Spring. Preventing the sharing of info and organizing by those hurt by the wealthy, and fostering political division among them, is why #Elon bought it.

2026-05-15 01:52:56 UTC

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cool, got a link?
here I'd just like to be able to link to the episode itself on their website and tag the creator and not have a pcast link, but yea my big dream is running podcasts off AP.

2026-05-15 01:39:11 UTC

A great episode but I wish #PocketCasts provided a better link. That would require most podcasts had their own website tho. And if I may be so bold, that the podcasters had a fedi account. It could be the same thing... [@Castopod](https://podlibre.social/@Castopod ) ?
https://pca.st/episode/9868d7de-3985-4bd4-a1fc-27bc9abab433

2026-05-10 18:21:23 UTC

How Memes Are Orchestrated by the Man (2013)
via @npub1tlw…nzdv
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/03/how-memes-are-orchestrated-by-the-man/274466/

2026-05-10 10:07:39 UTC

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you are extrapolating from my argument that it's best if the public collectively decides how info, ideas and art spreads instead of fewer people with more money dominating that process, to claim I'm arguing for human value being based on followers and that I'm against other forms of fighting for change and that I want to force people to interact etc. I'm not saying any of that.

2026-05-10 03:13:08 UTC

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and maybe you don't share some of that stuff. but some stuff, you do. and some of that, your followers think is worth sharing with their followers. and we are hopefully less misled by a few people with access to the mass media version of bullhorns but moreso by the wisdom of crowds. Or those who have a social media version of a bullhorn in the form of lots of followers who they had to earn, not achieve reach by buying ads or a media outlet.
bad attention stewards will lack followers.

2026-05-10 03:00:16 UTC

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who decides it's the wrong things? the people should get to decide imo. and we won't all see everything but hopefully the best stuff can bubble up. isn't this how the world figured out fire etc, just more slowly?

2026-05-09 13:28:42 UTC

When you maximize the ability of humans to determine what info, ideas and art gets the most attention, I think you better society as fast as possible. I trust us collectively to properly manage the selfish incentives when the power is properly distributed. Fully connected while not allowing anyone to be harassed into silence, must be our goal.
#ActivityPub #SocialWeb #DemocracyOfReach

2026-05-04 15:56:28 UTC

People and organizations have deeply held values but the space where those entities argue for their viewpoints cannot if we want everyone to feel they are being treated fairly. It can also not allow people or organizations to be harassed into leaving or directly silenced.
The conflict is in how we think of something like an open social media network or university. Is it a node or the underlying web of connections? A speaker or where the dialogue happens?
#SocialWeb #FreeSpeech

2026-05-03 14:29:44 UTC

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I guess you don't have any intolerant family members. also isn't it tolerating intolerance to allow them to walk among us? why do you draw the line at using fedi and not the web? why not consider people who drive or eat meat as intolerable? or those who pay taxes to a government at war?
we all suck and get better through dialogue.

2026-04-25 17:03:35 UTC

He loves to say he has all the cards and the other guy has none. At this point, I think the game is uno. #DadJokes

2026-04-20 23:50:02 UTC

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but this capability is really important. revolutionary even. it can prevent wars when the govt and big money thinks an invasion is a good idea and is even willing to lie to make that happen. evidence and arguments they don't like but the public collectively finds important and trustworthy should get the most attention instead.
and because of this, I think the decentralization difference matters. a few app views can be squeezed in a way thousands of servers cannot.

2026-04-20 19:39:28 UTC

Fedi is frustrating because we're so awesome for the one thing almost nobody seems to care about here. Uncontrollable virality based purely on human agency.
Obviously there's no corporate ads or algos. But you can also find your people and hang out with them without being bothered using so many other technologies. Currently even bluesky has a ban hammer that will affect your reach on almost the entire ATmosphere.
We're using a hammer to dig ditches.
#SocialWeb #DemocracyOfReach

2026-04-20 19:14:54 UTC

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and people can use alternatives to google...
my concern is not just about having options but how everybody using the same thing has societal effects.
people don't have to use Amazon but if that's good enough, they will. and society gets impacted.
so I see bluesky going in that direction and I can't see that happening based on AP. so I argue for helping people understand the difference and focusing on the awesome things AP could enable that's less likely under AT.
see @npub156x…ju5t

2026-04-19 17:24:56 UTC

Lots of rich people freely give and maybe they care about having their name on something good. But why can't we harness this money and interest to fight the venture capitalists with the development of new protocols and FOSS? Get there first and make the open systems so good that the bad guys can't sneak in with fantastic promises only to enshittify later? Basically what #ActivityPub tried to do without big money. Are grants just always so much smaller than investments? Is it a PR war?
#bluesky

2026-04-17 23:19:52 UTC

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don't we do this with HTTP?

2026-04-17 23:11:10 UTC

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I don't understand. there's more agency in AP than AT if we're talking about no gatekeepers, but less if we're talking about potential audience.

2026-04-17 23:03:40 UTC

@npub1ety…5krm
https://stream.ryno.cc/oo
dead for me

2026-04-17 19:51:22 UTC

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yea but it's bigger than a brand of rechargeable tools. imo AT means less independence for creators, while AP means the experience is less smooth. AT means waiting for the monetization shoe to drop while AP means making it a lot harder to build and grow.

2026-04-17 19:37:49 UTC

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lots of telling people how to use tech is overblown imo, but I don't think people are wrong re the negative social implications of big tech, like using X or substack. or the YouTube algo. I think Trump won mostly thanks to boomers and Facebook algo.
I'm glad you're trying to give people a way out but I think the business model will account for that. imo VC history shows they will "go evil" and I can't see how it's wrong to try to convince people to just build here instead.

2026-04-17 19:00:20 UTC

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capitalism does this automatically. afaict you're trying to bend that curve for what you see as a humanitarian purpose.

2026-04-17 18:54:02 UTC

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but we're all in the "small digital business ecosystem" support business, right?
#CraftBeerCapitalism

2026-04-17 18:28:25 UTC

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my buddy started a taco joint. small but growing. then taco bell got bought by a nazi and decided the packaging would have fascist shit on it. my buddy's business spiked, but then Chipotle showed up. funded by VC, they undercut my neighbor on cost. they rolled out more products faster and grew like crazy. I told him that if he could just hold on, VCs eventually demand a return and their prices would go up. while Chipotle employees were nice, I screamed they were cheating.

2026-04-17 17:02:40 UTC

Longform could be so much better and indy if everybody worked together. Fuck #substack.
Publish anywhere as #APnative so that it auto shares on fedi, not just a post linking to it. When we bookmark it, it shows up in a queue in our chosen reader app. Then we scroll or use TTS to have it read to us while we do other stuff etc. The creator and time spent is reported to our bank and used monthly to divide up and distribute an amount we choose. And we can boost the article.
#DemocracyOfReach

2026-04-17 15:08:07 UTC

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true but he wouldn't even have needed a party if NYC had FFV (vote for whoever in the election that replaces the primary and then use RCV among the top five vote getters in the general). getting there will be difficult if it requires getting party aligned officials to vote for it, but more likely via referendum.

2026-04-16 19:08:55 UTC

So true. I'm partial to the Enlightenment but Jesus also made the point that human life shouldn't just be ruled by the law of the jungle. What the administration argues for, that those with more force should be able to exert their will. That has really been US foreign policy under a cloak of democracy promotion PR since WW2. Trump is just more forthright about it.
#DaPope is at least a vocal symbol that lots of people think that attitude is abhorrent.

2026-04-16 06:11:14 UTC

I need pictures of #boardgames in progress posted here using that hashtag regularly.

2026-04-15 20:18:01 UTC

I deactivated the #bluesky account I was using to ask people to federate here. : (

2026-04-15 15:26:07 UTC

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"because you have an invalid view of what a bigot is, and what they do"
we're done for now.

2026-04-15 14:59:24 UTC

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many share your more closed vision of fedi. imo those places are also needed but this tech allows more than that. as long as we work to prevent the harassment that drives people to not participate, just like IRL, we can have work go worldwide viral among people who would vehemently disagree on lots of other issues. that's not possible if we screen for bigotry. people in different countries might agree on ending war but disagree on so much else. see MTG on Epstein.

2026-04-15 14:22:22 UTC

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@npub15pc…wrfk
I brought up Mr Davis and Mrs Phelps only to refute your argument that bigots can't change. Then I also tried to point out that not all bigots are harassers. I also argued that you too have views that others on the left wish they could never stumble upon here.
Somehow you turned all that into me believing this place is for therapy for bigots. I do not.
I believe this place can realize a marketplace of ideas vision but to do so, it must be as inclusive as possible.

2026-04-14 18:42:40 UTC

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imo it's an attention layer for the open web. nothing else can do that democratically.
done for today with you calling me a therapist for bigots.

2026-04-14 18:17:58 UTC

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what is the point of fedi?

2026-04-14 17:51:43 UTC

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if they wouldn't harass people here, absolutely.
I think there's a ton of Fox News viewers who would never ever tag a minority with mean shit, but go on and on about minorities ruining the country. I want them to follow their nephew here and see their nephew's minority friend being awesome.
people always get better the less we live in bubbles.

2026-04-14 17:42:09 UTC

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I wish there was a "we love Fox news" boomer server. not 4chan people but I really like the flag people. I'd hope you join me in advocating it not be blocked.

2026-04-14 17:21:59 UTC

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do you ever tell people not to post the die slur shit cause you can see here that myself and some others are vocal about the excessive censorship? and it's not without cost.

2026-04-14 17:15:14 UTC

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cause we shouldn't defederate a server for hosting this. like we wouldn't demand browsers be unable to visit a blog that posted this.

2026-04-14 15:47:18 UTC

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but imo there's a lot of people who would never reply "die slur" but also never push back on others who do that. they either support that secretly or are cowards. a big fedi requires those people to speak up. we can either have censorship by blocking or harassing till people leave etc. both are a problem.

2026-04-14 15:38:31 UTC

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is it bigoted to advocate for lesser evil candidates?

2026-04-14 15:32:37 UTC

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if they harass, get rid of them. we agree. but you're saying if you see them say something nice about Putin etc where nobody is tagged (or maybe you goaded them into the conversation), they gotta go too. I disagree with that.

2026-04-14 15:28:49 UTC

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so don't follow them. you're not going to see their posts based on who you follow. my question is why do we have to block servers cause people like your "family" is on there? why do we have to make sure someone on your server can't see what they post?
not federating means deciding for many others who can communicate, when having no algos does so much of this work. we browse freely and avoid shitty sites without our browser having such limits. decentralization works.

2026-04-14 15:10:49 UTC

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not all the people that you call bigots because of their opinions or posting what you consider misinfo, would intentionally bother people if given the chance. the former should be welcome here, the latter should not be.
it's hard for me to believe everyone doesn't have experience with people like this, who believe stuff that seems crazy/evil but also would never intentionally bother others. who would go out of their way to help a stranger. but they are anti trans etc.

2026-04-14 14:49:12 UTC

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how does them posting here pollute anything if you never get tagged (we should moderate hard for unwanted tagging and block servers that allow their users to do that) or the people you follow never boost it? the magic of no algos. the web is full of hateful websites we'll never see etc.
my family members should be able to be here, seeing the lefty stuff I boost that might change their opinions over time. not stuck in places with algos that reinforce misinfo and hate etc.

2026-04-14 14:33:16 UTC

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that's not my goal. it's a place where we can all talk to whoever we want and avoid who we want. you seem to think you know who should be let in and who shouldn't. haven't I seen many here don't like you supporting voting for Dems cause the party isn't left enough?

2026-04-14 14:12:37 UTC

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except "bad people" do change and I have had information shared with me by them that corrected my misunderstandings. doesn't your electoral strategy involve voting in the general for people we may find repugnant but still better than the other person who would otherwise win?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daryl_Davis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megan_Phelps-Roper

2026-04-14 13:52:25 UTC

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the fedi should be as open as the internet and as protective as email with spam blocking software. this best balances interactions we each decide we want with helping everyone avoid those they don't want. my community includes my family members who have opinions I hate. your prescription is a very small fedi that feeds groupthink. see how Dems and the further left vehemently disagree re Gaza and so many other issues.

2026-04-14 13:40:21 UTC

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we strongly disagree re doing this but we both know this. probably not worth debating it again.

2026-04-14 13:18:21 UTC

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no perfect answer but imo "connections" is not enough. this is what most of the fedi gets wrong re refusing to federate with servers with users with bad opinions. moderate unwanted tagging harshly like we do spam, but allow chosen connections like we do browsing.
more meaningful concerns are funding and promotion. Substack both has a financial relationship and chooses to spread the ideas of shitty people. avoiding paying taxes for wars would be nice.

2026-04-12 04:26:59 UTC

#VictorOrban is a very bad man cause he doesn't like democracy but #Hungary still has possibly legit elections while they don't in Saudi Arabia and other countries whose dictatorships we never complain about. Why?
I hope he loses but please consider that the constant talk about certain countries but not others might come down to whether they serve our interests, not how democratic they are, no matter how often they claim this is the reason.

2026-04-11 16:51:17 UTC

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2026-04-11 15:31:00 UTC

@npub1sg6…ak6d
my family is from the town of Kastri. my grandparents (both my Dad's parents, my Mom Swedish/British) came over before WW1. but when we visited, they said their problem was with the communists after WW2. possibly killing family members. Is there a good way to think about all this? thanks.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Kynouria

2026-04-10 20:18:06 UTC

#Trump still says he actually won in 2020. I don't believe he's going to give up on #Iran. Or if forced to, it will break him. Pastor Peale, the author of "The Power of Positive Thinking" officiated his first wedding. It doesn't make sense but to some degree, he believes his own bullshit.
https://cdn.masto.host/liberalcity/media_attachments/files/116/382/250/098/756/344/original/67d8ac2055df2310.jpg

2026-04-03 14:00:58 UTC

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I recommend everybody read Tribe by Sebastian Junger. It talks about how humans need purpose with others more than anything else. That we look back on times when we struggled together for a higher collective goal as the most rewarding times in our lives.
That's what building the fedi is today. #SocialWeb

2026-03-31 16:37:29 UTC

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I subscribe to Radio Bsots and don't think he referenced it since it died (September 2025, wow longer ago than I thought).
The files have always lived here:
https://archive.org/details/CultureWarRadio
#ccmusic was a big part of it but I tried to focus on news on bridging our divides.
again, it was rare that I played a track by an artist not originally played by Ryno or Macedonia (after I went legit anyway).

2026-03-31 14:19:17 UTC

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imo they post more misinfo than others but that's not a reason to defederate anyone. just don't follow them or reply with corrections. obv don't boost it.
it would be like trying to get browsers to not show certain sites re J6 and fighting over that forever.

2026-03-30 14:03:59 UTC

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I think it's naive to think that the VCs aren't planning for monetization where despite how they squeeze their users for profit and credible exit is possible, most users feel stuck anyway.
I think the parallel is with Google. The BS app view vs Google search and email. Main portals. A world of open protocols and people could leave, but they mostly don't. And @npub1fdr…lvhs says they are one of the best examples of enshittification.

2026-03-30 02:30:45 UTC

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does Montreal count? otherwise never AFAIK.

2026-03-29 19:34:43 UTC

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the podcast is dead. I hope to get more rolling with https://democracyofreach.org soon.
for the music, see @npub1ety…5krm. most of what I played, he pointed me towards.

2026-03-29 15:55:22 UTC

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is there a detailed explainer on tags here and maybe search on the fedi too? it's the one argument I think the other place can make but I'm sure we can be better at it too.

2026-03-27 19:24:02 UTC

I wonder if the fedi struggles because it's too good to be believed.
"You're saying you're just trying to free us from advertising and corporate control? No strings? Bullshit. Everybody's got an angle."
#SocialWeb

2026-03-25 15:48:07 UTC

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don't you know you're not allowed to talk about stuff by she-who-must-not-be-named here?

2026-03-25 13:50:25 UTC

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maybe you're not completely serious, but this kind of thing is an issue here. I know many don't care about growth but that's obviously deterred when potential newbies expect their ability to federate requires quite close agreement on politics etc. imagine trying to get people to move from AOL to the web if browsing was so tightly controlled. of course unwanted tagging should be policed harshly, but that's like email spam. rarely stumbling on stuff you don't like is life on the web.

2026-03-23 18:04:03 UTC

Why wasn't #TSA masked? Because while they often annoy people like cops do, they are not instructed to do monstrous shit regularly that invites backlash. It has never been about the protestors getting crazy, but them responding appropriately to humans getting fucked with. #ICE

2026-03-20 13:10:08 UTC

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imo we should think of social media (the social news feed ala bluesky and mastodon etc) as totally public like blogs you can boost. that's different than messaging and groups that need privacy, what I call social networking.
I think bluesky's goal is to be the Google/Gmail of all of social media. "it's open so you could use other services but we make it easy and provide a better experience." the way the app view works makes that possible unlike how AP works. enshittify.

2026-03-20 12:44:58 UTC

AFAIK Link is a #blacksky user who is banned by #bluesky and thus non-existent to anyone using their by-far-the-most-popular app view on the #ATproto #ATmosphere. Rudy referred to this on the new [@rabble.nz](https://bsky.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/rabble.nz ) podcast. This is similar to being on another fedi server but blocked by mastodon dot social, except that @npub163h…mv0n is a much smaller percentage of the #SocialWeb and working to push users to other servers. The concern is how big VC influences such goals.
https://bsky.app/profile/rude1.blacksky.team/post/3mhgrd3zcj22g

2026-03-20 06:32:11 UTC

We were being told to stop criticizing #bluesky and what their VC funding might mean, at the same time that their team knew that they had secretly taken much more than before from the same kinds of sources we were concerned about.
And of course this meant they could build on #ATproto much faster than anyone could with #ActivityPub, because our side refuses to believe we are somehow uniquely immune to the enshittification process that comes with that money.
The #SocialWeb is tired of your BS.

2026-03-18 18:42:58 UTC

https://pca.st/episode/db2465e1-cad9-4a7d-9e83-da3aca12a631

2026-03-06 14:51:33 UTC

One's ratio of boosts to posts is a good proxy for their character.
#SocialWeb

2026-03-04 14:21:34 UTC

It's funny when you consider all the shit the US constantly does to other countries that we try to hide and say doesn't amount to war etc, and then how we try to claim that what #Iran has been doing is so very bad. We're so much worse.

2026-02-27 19:51:40 UTC

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I was initially thinking of being able to use the arrow keys to pull up the video info and QR code so that they could stay off screen most of the time. maybe also the status bar for each clip.
but big picture I'd like an app that did #owncast and #peertube and I guess mostly just copied what we get via the YT television interface. lots of stuff.
I'd lay off on chat (and emojis I think) since most don't have a keyboard on their remote [this reminds of my boxee, it did]

2026-02-27 19:21:06 UTC

@npub166d…xj3f
is it possible to make anything happen during a live stream on the Roku #owncast app based on remote interactions?
cc @npub12ct…wxsf

2026-02-25 21:37:27 UTC

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that's nice to say but it's not true. there is an idea that people have about the fedi just like they had one about the internet in the 90s (perhaps why I brought it up). norms get established and our growth depends on the brand that creates.
our current brand is very HOA and progressive. you know that. it depresses adoption while some love it. no nice conservative thinks they'd be welcome setting up a server. views on trans or ICE might be called hate and get them defederated.

2026-02-25 21:21:49 UTC

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I'm asking what problems that you listed above, does my more limited approach fail to deal with? afaict we are only arguing over the hate speech. that wasn't in what you brought up.
and I can't bring any pressure. I can only argue in a public forum for a different approach. just as Evan is arguing for that list being taken as a default block list, I'm agreeing but saying nobody should be on there for that which is not pushed on others.
yes block bad taggers but not bad posters.

2026-02-25 20:58:43 UTC

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how does what I want conflict with that?
if a number of users on a server are intentionally pushing any kind of junk at people that they do not want (either obviously or after being told), tell the admin and if they do nothing to stop it or prevent it in the future, defederate them. put them on the default fedi block list. that covers the abuse, malware, illegal stuff.
my dispute is on hate speech that is not pushed. it's unnecessary and such disputes will keep many off the fedi.

2026-02-25 20:05:33 UTC

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I imagine a 90s world with a diversity of browsers that all made their own choices re what sites to render and many fewer people leaving AOL.

2026-02-25 14:46:53 UTC

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I disagree. The only servers that should be blocked are those that fail to address their users who engage in unwanted tagging. That's harassment/abuse. It drives away users. I could support a list of servers somehow so verified.
But to go further than this is a kind of censorship of content allowed elsewhere on the web. Stuff we basically never stumble on while browsing. Without algos here, it will never be forced on us.
I can easily see posts critical of Israel called antisemitic.

2026-02-21 19:21:16 UTC

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sure except that they have so much say re what happens next re AT. there should be different speakers over time.

2026-02-21 18:43:56 UTC

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so then they have to continue.
I haven't heard or watched any, just read. that doesn't allow for people to be challenged and flesh out the disagreements very well ime.
I'd love a link.

2026-02-21 18:40:27 UTC

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I've been asking for an ongoing public conversation re AT vs AP with experts forever. a couple hours on a podcast, every so many months maybe. we've had some writings but then people dismiss the other side. people believe or focus on what they want to.

2026-02-21 18:31:22 UTC

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I believe he addressed these concerns under the sections titled "The Flywheel" and "The Gmail Problem". new apps still end up giving more users to bluesky. and the protocol is designed in such a way that centralization is encouraged.
under "The Chokepoints", he acknowledges you're correct ala blacksky. but that's a huge ask. but they're not fully independent yet and it's hard to believe most would ever be happy with the alts' functionality if bluesky went full adversary re them.

2026-02-21 16:45:53 UTC

Great article but I don't think we'll have a moment where #bluesky is sold or most people agree that they've gone evil. That's why just having an exit isn't enough. For that to work, most of the people you want to connect to have to agree quickly. Or when many start to leave, the original network can't turn off federation and lock-in the majority who haven't left yet.
The good people at BS could end this fear by making clear their monetization plans today.
https://kevinak.se/blog/be-wary-of-bluesky

2026-02-16 19:13:57 UTC

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I agree that effects are more relevant. it would be nice to know the likely effects of all possible policy choices but that's probably impossible, so I'd favor those most likely to happen, which usually comes down to popularity. but maybe reporting on an option that the reporter thinks is great could make it more popular. IDK.

2026-02-15 20:08:24 UTC

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I need to know more. is there a podcatcher that lets me plug in a fedi account that is actually an #APnative podcast feed?

2026-02-15 19:46:47 UTC

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but could a podcast use #ActivityPub instead of RSS to enable boosting of the episodes themselves and replies directly attached? imagine the possibilities of a podcatcher fully decentralized social graph enabled.

2026-02-15 17:45:20 UTC

Apple News and Google News should both be considered major competitors in the social media ecosystem. The format that most call microblogging might better be thought of as a social news feed. #ActivityPub being an evolution of RSS with boosts, favorites and replies. Articles and blogs but also audio and video.
#SocialWeb

2026-02-15 05:21:31 UTC

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Netflix and Spotify and Substack are easier than if you were turning on and off a Patreon subscription for each show, musician and blog. The idea is easier than all of them. One donation bucket in your bank account that gets divvied up and automatically goes everywhere, even if you only listened to one song by an artist once. I think people would slowly support that model over everything else if they understood the potential.
but sure...

2026-02-15 02:14:26 UTC

@npub1ggu…kcqc
at the intermission for Hamnet at Shakes. know anything about it?

2026-02-14 21:24:08 UTC

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"gotta go" not as intentionally removed but in the context of what we've been talking about. If we can build the ecosystem I want, creators put the work on their sites and people pay them directly. the gatekeepers of Netflix etc taking money to negotiate access to video are no longer needed. same with people like Patreon who we kinda pay for work often freely available, cause it hasn't been convenient to pay creators directly.

2026-02-14 19:33:03 UTC

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just unnecessary.

2026-02-14 18:13:14 UTC

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Patreon is not a middleman like an executive at YouTube or Netflix is. They don't determine whether you can reach an audience or have any say over your work. They can't change an algo so that you're not recommended or searching doesn't surface your work. They can't squeeze creators to influence public consciousness.
Patreon is the closest to what I'm advocating but they've gotta go too. The payments don't need to be mapped to donors.

2026-02-14 17:29:21 UTC

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didn't you just say things like patreon exist?

2026-02-14 17:08:48 UTC

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https://liberal.city/@wjmaggos/115367999097359699

2026-02-14 16:37:48 UTC

We need rich people to fund technology that will liberate us from the power they hold over us. Mostly by making it so that wealth can't be used to buy attention. [By displacing the traditional mass media structure that meant owning certain companies ensured a huge audience. And replacing the advertising model in most situations with something better for creators and the public.] Obviously that's a difficult sell.
#SocialWeb #DemocracyOfReach #capitalism

2026-02-12 19:15:08 UTC

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I assume you'd never host a Nazi band on bandwagon.fm but someday a Nazi might run their band site on bandwagon server software. this distinction is vital and what substack needs to understand about decentralization. but even some here don't seem to get that or care.

2026-02-09 00:20:18 UTC

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good thing he can edit it unlike on bluesky:)

2026-02-08 03:23:08 UTC

Why did #bugonia get nominated? #Oscars

2026-02-04 16:59:34 UTC

Mike Masnick of #bluesky blocked me. He told me before to be nicer about them. I boost him a lot (sent the link to his paper to a lot of people) but I am also critical cause I really care about the potential of decentralized social media. I don't think I am abusive but I guess that's not for me to judge. Couldn't he have just muted my account?

2026-02-01 23:24:11 UTC

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yes but I like #matrix...
it's complicated. I'd love the simplicity of one ID but I also think social media (public) and social networking (close community) need to be somewhat separate. old school twitter was a great example of the former vs the latter encompassing how we connect with family, friends and interest groups on Facebook. I'd argue phone calls and texting is social networking too.
anyway, the distinction matters for moderation. basically everybody vs just people I trust.