Happy 2023 everyone...

As my resolution for this year, I am freeing myself of the shackles of Social Media. I have already deleted all of my Meta/FB accounts and removed the apps from my phone, and done the same with SnapChat. I got rid of all my Twitter accounts a couple of months ago.

So now, if anyone needs to contact me they have 5 options remaining:

E-Mail
Discord
BBS
Phone
In Person

Who else will accept the challenge and lose the chains and free yourself from the shackles of Social Media?

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/09/29 (Windows/64)
* Origin: Legends of Yesteryear (furmenservices.net:23322) (21:4/102)

So now, if anyone needs to contact me they have 5 options remaining:

E-Mail
Discord
BBS
Phone
In Person

I see _two_ options that I'd probably want to get rid of, as means of contact.

On the other hand, I guess I do use WhatsApp and other messaging stuff on my phone, so maybe that'd count.

Still, I'm imagining you did that in a vague order of preference, with BBS only being lower because the hassle of sending a netmail is _way_ higher than using Discord or e-mail.

Who else will accept the challenge and lose the chains and free yourself from the shackles of Social Media?

Congrats!

I try to limit my time spent on Facebook, with the continual problem of that being where the people are.

But what I think I'd _like_ to do, is go back to some form of blogging (possibly password restricted, as I'd prefer to avoid putting too much into search engines), and offer an RSS feed for people.

But I think, in order to do that, I'd have to offer an easy-to-use RSS feed website for people that know me, as I'm quite sure that I'm nowhere near interesting enough for people to do anything but a lazy checkin.

On the other hand, I did have a time when I sent a lot of messages to people, in a variety of formats, and that's a solid way of actually connecting with people. But it's not the most obvious way to share random fun photos or, "hey, I did a thing!" updates.

...not that I really _post_ on Facebook. I mostly just respond to posts with fact checks, ruining the fun on things like the connection between traditional witch costumes and alewives. (as in, there aren't any, but it's kinda-sorta like it that the connection seems fun.).

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Storm BBS (21:2/108)

Hi Geri,

happy new year for you. I had this descission a view month ago.
Mail, BBS, Phone... Thats all.

Postiv:
My Battery in my phone lasts longer :)
More Time for things ive got no time before.
The thing, always have to look on my phone for new messages or notifications.

The first days, it was a strange feeling, but now, i love it.

Writing and reading inside my BBS is so nice. Slow down and have a coffee :)

Cheers
Goose

... Anything is possible if you don't know what you're talking about

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Goosenet BBS (21:1/177)

Hello Adept!

** On Thursday 19.01.23 - 10:50, Adept wrote to Geri Atricks:

But what I think I'd _like_ to do, is go back to some form of blogging..

But I think, in order to do that, I'd have to offer an easy-to-use RSS
feed website for people that know me, as I'm quite sure that I'm nowhere near interesting enough for people to do anything but a lazy checkin.

Easy. Just brand it as "the I'm nowhere near interesting
enough blog" ..and you will be famous.

On the other hand, I did have a time when I sent a lot of messages to people, in a variety of formats, and that's a solid way of actually connecting with people. But it's not the most obvious way to share random fun photos or, "hey, I did a thing!" updates.

The options out there are so many, it's hard to steer people to
use just one. Although FB does seem to be on most people's
lips.

--- OpenXP 5.0.51
* Origin: (} Pointy McPointFace (21:4/106.21)

Easy. Just brand it as "the I'm nowhere near interesting
enough blog" ..and you will be famous.

And every post is a humblebrag!

But nice reverse psychology.

Though I'd hate to be _actually_ famous.

The options out there are so many, it's hard to steer people to
use just one. Although FB does seem to be on most people's
lips.

Yeah. It makes me sad that RSS isn't more of a thing. What other method works across sites, tells you when there's something new, and gives you a clear end point to be done with things?

But those benefits are probably exactly why it isn't more of a thing.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Storm BBS (21:2/108)

Re: New Years Resolution
By: Geri Atricks to All on Mon Jan 02 2023 02:00 pm

Who else will accept the challenge and lose the chains and free yourself from

the shackles of Social Media?

For that to be a challenge, one needs to be a Social Media prisoner first XD

--
gopher://gopher.richardfalken.com/1/richardfalken
--- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
* Origin: Palantir * palantirbbs.ddns.net * Pensacola, FL * (21:2/138)

Re: New Years Resolution
By: Ogg to Adept on Thu Jan 19 2023 07:12 am

On the other hand, I did have a time when I sent a lot of messages to people, in a variety of formats, and that's a solid way of actually connecting with people. But it's not the most obvious way to share rando fun photos or, "hey, I did a thing!" updates.

The options out there are so many, it's hard to steer people to
use just one. Although FB does seem to be on most people's
lips.

I don't know how effective spamming messages is for connecting with people. Most youngsters nowadays receive so many messages everywhere that they have trained themselves to skip most stuff they receive. You can't blame them. Heck, even Signal Messenger has a "stories" subsystem now.

Facebook is nearly a goner here. My generation used Tuenti instead, which hit much harder because it was invite only - read: your friends were in, but not your parents. Facebook had its day after Tuenti was bought and the new managers crashed it, but nowadays everybody is using mobile messengers for doing what they used to do in Facebook. Many of the remaining users have become upset by Facebooks moderation policies, which has not improved things.


--
gopher://gopher.richardfalken.com/1/richardfalken
--- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
* Origin: Palantir * palantirbbs.ddns.net * Pensacola, FL * (21:2/138)

I see _two_ options that I'd probably want to get rid of, as means of contact.

E-Mail
Discord
BBS
Phone
In Person

On the other hand, I guess I do use WhatsApp and other messaging stuff
on my phone, so maybe that'd count.

Still, I'm imagining you did that in a vague order of preference, with
BBS only being lower because the hassle of sending a netmail is _way_ higher than using Discord or e-mail.

Nah, just the order in which I thought of them.

I got rid of WhatsApp just as soon as I was out the job that required I have it for work as it is a Meta owned app, and I want nothing to do with Zuckerberg!

But what I think I'd _like_ to do, is go back to some form of blogging (possibly password restricted, as I'd prefer to avoid putting too much into search engines), and offer an RSS feed for people.

Oh yeah, I still have my Live Journal, and a blogspace and another one that I can't remember the name of at the moment.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Windows/64)
* Origin: Legends of Yesteryear (furmenservices.net:23322) (21:4/102)

Yeah. It makes me sad that RSS isn't more of a thing. What other method works across sites, tells you when there's something new, and gives you
a clear end point to be done with things?

I've tried setting up RSS feeds many times and have never had any luck in getting them to work right.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Windows/64)
* Origin: Legends of Yesteryear (furmenservices.net:23322) (21:4/102)

Facebook is nearly a goner here. My generation used Tuenti instead,
which hit much harder because it was invite only - read: your friends
were in, but not your parents. Facebook had its day after Tuenti was bought and the new managers crashed it, but nowadays everybody is using mobile messengers for doing what they used to do in Facebook. Many of
the remaining users have become upset by Facebooks moderation policies, which has not improved things.

Never heard of Tuenti. Used to be big on MySpace until they sold out to the music industry and made it not worth being on anymore.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Windows/64)
* Origin: Legends of Yesteryear (furmenservices.net:23322) (21:4/102)

Hello Adept!

Yeah. It makes me sad that RSS isn't more of a thing. What
other method works across sites, tells you when there's
something new, and gives you a clear end point to be done
with things?

But those benefits are probably exactly why it isn't more
of a thing.

I too find RSS a better solution to be informed of new
postings. I love it when the whole article is available that
way, and not just a preamble. But.. the problem with RSS is
that it can't deliver ads. :/


--- OpenXP 5.0.51
* Origin: (} Pointy McPointFace (21:4/106.21)

As my resolution for this year, I am freeing myself of the shackles of Social Media. I have already deleted all of my Meta/FB accounts and removed the apps from my phone, and done the same with SnapChat. I got
rid of all my Twitter accounts a couple of months ago.

So now, if anyone needs to contact me they have 5 options remaining:

E-Mail
Discord
BBS
Phone
In Person

I mostly did thus too. However, I use twitter and reddit and discord. All of which do not require or advertise my personsl life like FaceBook does.

Man, I hate Facebook and left it 7 years ago.

... ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Clutch BBS * telnet://bbs.clutchbbs.com (21:1/199)

Who else will accept the challenge and lose the chains and free yourself from the shackles of Social Media?

Not me! I need memes in my life.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: m O N T E R E Y b B S . c O M (21:4/173)

Facebook is nearly a goner here.

You have data?

<snip> Many of
the remaining users have become upset by Facebooks moderation policies, which has not improved things.

How do you know this? Have you taken an opinion poll?

The overwhelming majority of Facebook users are not impacted by any moderation policies whatsoever. Statistically about 0.1% of Facebook users will have a post taken down, and if you consider that the bulk of /those/ moderation cases are due to people and bots spamming, the number is even smaller.

Think you're really just projecting here as you're not a fan of Facebook. More power to you. But misinformation is dumb. ;)

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: m O N T E R E Y b B S . c O M (21:4/173)

Never heard of Tuenti. Used to be big on MySpace until they sold out to the music industry and made it not worth being on anymore.

Who was that guy that owned Myspace back in the day? He did it right. Make a boatload of money and get out before your platform inevitably becomes lame, stay out of the spotlight and live a good life hehe

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: m O N T E R E Y b B S . c O M (21:4/173)

Re: Re: New Years Resolution
By: Geri Atricks to Arelor on Thu Jan 19 2023 12:54 pm

Never heard of Tuenti. Used to be big on MySpace until they sold out to the

Tuenti was a Spanish thing. They had the interface translated to English but I never found a foreigner in it.

I guess something similar happened with MySpace. People keep talking about it but I don't know anybody who was a user in person in Spain.


--
gopher://gopher.richardfalken.com/1/richardfalken
--- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
* Origin: Palantir * palantirbbs.ddns.net * Pensacola, FL * (21:2/138)

Re: Re: New Years Resolution
By: esc to Arelor on Fri Jan 20 2023 01:00 am

Facebook is nearly a goner here.

You have data?

<snip> Many of
the remaining users have become upset by Facebooks moderation policies, which has not improved things.

How do you know this? Have you taken an opinion poll?

The overwhelming majority of Facebook users are not impacted by any moderati
bots spamming, the number is even smaller.

Think you're really just projecting here as you're not a fan of Facebook. Mo

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: m O N T E R E Y b B S . c O M (21:4/173)

Most people I know who used to be on Facebook has either disabled their account (since they don't make it easy to just delete it) or, if not, no longer interacts with it.

RRobotic moderation is also regarded as a problem around here. You don't have to be a victim to recognize it is badly managed.

These are no hard statistics, but when you visit a forum thread in which they talk about things that were part of people's lives and have disappeared during the 2020-2022 period, and so many people jokes "Facebook", you should suspect something is going on.

--
gopher://gopher.richardfalken.com/1/richardfalken
--- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
* Origin: Palantir * palantirbbs.ddns.net * Pensacola, FL * (21:2/138)

Most people I know who used to be on Facebook has either disabled their account (since they don't make it easy to just delete it) or, if not, no longer interacts with it.

That's hardly data, friend. ;)

RRobotic moderation is also regarded as a problem around here. You don't have to be a victim to recognize it is badly managed.

Also not a super easy problem to solve. And a constant WIP. And unless I'm a victim of it, I have no way of knowing whether or not it's badly managed. This is traditional FUD.

These are no hard statistics, but when you visit a forum thread in which they talk about things that were part of people's lives and have disappeared during the 2020-2022 period, and so many people jokes "Facebook", you should suspect something is going on.

But there /are/ hard statistics. Posts taken down for calls to violence, human trafficking, sex trafficking, spam, misinformation, are not secret information. These details are published in various places.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: m O N T E R E Y b B S . c O M (21:4/173)

I've tried setting up RSS feeds many times and have never had any luck in getting them to work right.

That's certainly a count against it.

And do you mean on the reading side or the publishing side?

On the publishing side, I've generally just stuck to software that already included it. E.g., Mediawiki, Wordpress, likely any other blogging software. Because I imagine there are a lot of ways to get it wrong if you're rolling your own.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Storm BBS (21:2/108)

I too find RSS a better solution to be informed of new
postings. I love it when the whole article is available that
way, and not just a preamble. But.. the problem with RSS is
that it can't deliver ads. :/

Well, personalized ads, anyway -- no reason they couldn't have the occasional article that's an advertisement, or articles that are reviews with affiliate links.

But, yeah, RSS solves a lot of problems, but not, "and big corporations love it".

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Storm BBS (21:2/108)

The overwhelming majority of Facebook users are not impacted by any moderation policies whatsoever. Statistically about 0.1% of Facebook
users will have a post taken down, and if you consider that the bulk of /those/ moderation cases are due to people and bots spamming, the number is even smaller.

Do the overwhelming majority of Facebook users even _post_ anything?

I still use Facebook, but I posted five things last year. I have not had a post removed, but about as controversial I get is talking about Public Domain Day and complaining about how these things should have been in public domain decades ago.

But I have had a variety of friends end up in Facebook jail, oftentimes for things that _should_ have been fine. And, yeah, a couple of over-the-top political things, but also things like, "he showed a nipple, but I guess wasn't masculine enough for the censors to be okay with it".

Or a sex worker (as in, one engaging in completely-legal behavior) explaining an online interaction with a guy who popped up and demanded she doing something for him, for free.

Or, in other words, something _directly_ related to her life that made her day worse, that illustrated some of the challenges she faces, and how terrible some people can be, but because she said, "I charge $x for sex chat" in the conversation she had with the guy, it landed her in Facebook jail.

I won't dive into goodness or badness of this (that's definitely political, whereas the rest of this has been personal anecdotes), beyond saying that, legally, Facebook can do what they want, and it's kind of interesting that the US law that made that true came about because of discussions in the CompuServe/Prodigy/BBSs era in the early 1990s.

But, yeah, those were anecdotes. It seems like it'd be a significantly-larger portion of the highly active userbase, but I don't have numbers of how many people have gotten temp bans. And I'm sure that my bubble is not a representative sample of Facebook users.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Storm BBS (21:2/108)

Re: Re: New Years Resolution
By: esc to Arelor on Fri Jan 20 2023 10:48 am

RRobotic moderation is also regarded as a problem around here. You don' have to be a victim to recognize it is badly managed.

Also not a super easy problem to solve. And a constant WIP. And unless I'm a

Well, if one posted something about an HP Black cartridge leaking inside his printer because he was a bad fit, he would get a hate speech warning automatically in SPain because the robot found "HP" and Black in the same sentence (HP standing for SOB in Spanish). If you visited some museum and posted something about guillotines you would get a similar one. That rubbed people the wrong way.

What is hard data is that Facebook as a product has started losing steam in Europe. It made it in the headlines when it lost users in two consecutive periods in a row. It is officially acknowleged they are utterly failing in attracting demographics younger than 30 years old.

It reminds me of Games Workshop. Games Workshop started turning profits from side-projects rather than their flagship product at some point until it made more sense for them to outright cancel their flagship product.

--
gopher://gopher.richardfalken.com/1/richardfalken
--- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
* Origin: Palantir * palantirbbs.ddns.net * Pensacola, FL * (21:2/138)

Re: Re: New Years Resolution
By: esc to Arelor on Fri Jan 20 2023 01:00:31

Facebook is nearly a goner here.

The overwhelming majority of Facebook users are not impacted by any moderation policies whatsoever. Statistically
about
0.1% of Facebook users will have a post taken down, and if you consider that the bulk of /those/ moderation cases
are
due to people and bots spamming, the number is even smaller.

Think you're really just projecting here as you're not a fan of Facebook. More power to you. But misinformation is
dumb. ;)

Stop kidding yourself. Last time I looked, I had 4.8K followers on Spacebook. Half of them have had comments removed because of their so-called Community Standards rules. Who's standards exactly? Some twit with no life accomplishments, living in their parent's basement? Pffft...

.

Mick Manning
Bad Poetry Blues (badpoet.synchro.net:2300) gopher://centralontarioremote.com:70
--- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
* Origin: Bad Poetry Blues = badpoet.synchro.net:2300 (21:1/159)

esc wrote (2023-01-20):

Never heard of Tuenti. Used to be big on MySpace until they sold
out to the music industry and made it not worth being on anymore.

Who was that guy that owned Myspace back in the day? He did it right.
Make a boatload of money and get out before your platform inevitably becomes lame, stay out of the spotlight and live a good life hehe

Tom?

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8a/Tom_Anderson.jpg/220px-Tom_Anderson.jpg

⁂

---
* Origin: War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength. (21:3/102)

Think you're really just projecting here as you're not a fan of Faceboo More power to you. But misinformation is
dumb. ;)

Stop kidding yourself. Last time I looked, I had 4.8K followers on Spacebook. Half of them have had comments removed because of their so-called Community Standards rules. Who's standards exactly? Some twit with no life accomplishments, living in their parent's basement? Pffft...

Ponder, for something that's meant to be social, I do not use it for that at all. Followers, what are they? I appear to have the massive 5 at the moment. I don't even use it to talk to family... just poke around in the retro computer stuff from time to time.

I have to say in relation to this, I've never come across anyone complaining about comments being censored so much as the gebrochener arsch search/notification engine refuses to load messages that they report.

ST

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Storm BBS (21:2/108)

Re: Re: New Years Resolution
By: Adept to esc on Sat Jan 21 2023 12:28 pm

Do the overwhelming majority of Facebook users even _post_ anything?

I still use Facebook, but I posted five things last year. I have not had a

I'm not sure if it's the overwhelming majority, but my Facebook feed tends to be full of my friends' posts (and maybe a couple ads and recommended posts from companies I follow here and there). So, I'd say yes, people do seem to make a lot of posts. That's one of the reasons I use Facebook, to see what my friends & family are up to.

Nightfox
--- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
* Origin: Digital Distortion: digdist.synchro.net (21:1/137)

Re: Re: New Years Resolution
By: Mickey to esc on Sat Jan 21 2023 10:19 am

Stop kidding yourself. Last time I looked, I had 4.8K followers on Spacebook. Half of them have had comments removed because of their so-called Community Standards rules. Who's standards exactly? Some twit

What is "Spacebook"?

Nightfox
--- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
* Origin: Digital Distortion: digdist.synchro.net (21:1/137)

On 21 Jan 2023 at 05:04p, Nightfox pondered and said...

Do the overwhelming majority of Facebook users even _post_ anything?

I still use Facebook, but I posted five things last year. I have not

I'm not sure if it's the overwhelming majority, but my Facebook feed
tends to be full of my friends' posts (and maybe a couple ads and recommended posts from companies I follow here and there). So, I'd say yes, people do seem to make a lot of posts. That's one of the reasons I use Facebook, to see what my friends & family are up to.

I'm on FB but don't post to it these days, I do need it for work related purposes so retain an account for now. I mostly see a dozen or so active 'friends' who post their entire life up there.

I don't spend much time on the platform asides work stuff compared to some I think who must live their whole lives on the platform it seems.

Kerr Avon [Blake's 7] 'I'm not expendable, I'm not stupid and I'm not going' avon[at]bbs.nz | bbs.nz | fsxnet.nz

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)

Adept wrote to Geri Atricks <=-

But what I think I'd _like_ to do, is go back to some form of blogging (possibly password restricted, as I'd prefer to avoid putting too much into search engines), and offer an RSS feed for people.

Most reputable search crawlers respect a robots.txt file, don't they?

But I think, in order to do that, I'd have to offer an easy-to-use RSS feed website for people that know me, as I'm quite sure that I'm
nowhere near interesting enough for people to do anything but a lazy checkin.

I just loaded up an RSS reader in Feed.ly, after my daily blog reading
tapered off in the age of Big Social, it's crept up again. I think any
CMS with an RSS feed and a robots.txt file would be a good start.

I also like syndicating content from *my* site on other social
networks, so you ultimately own the content and the distribution.




... Discover the recipes you are using and abandon them
--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
* Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)

Geri Atricks wrote to Adept <=-

Oh yeah, I still have my Live Journal, and a blogspace and another one that I can't remember the name of at the moment.

I had a photo blog, then later a journal on LJ -- it's still there. I
spoke with my 13-year old daughter and suggested she try LJ as a place
for long-form writing and journalism. She's a great writer and needs
more than 280 characters, a tiny text box and emojis.

I was older, but I remember reading the teen angst on LJ during the
2000s. Entertaining.



... Discover the recipes you are using and abandon them
--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
* Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)

I just loaded up an RSS reader in Feed.ly, after my daily blog reading tapered off in the age of Big Social, it's crept up again. I think any
CMS with an RSS feed and a robots.txt file would be a good start.

I also like syndicating content from *my* site on other social
networks, so you ultimately own the content and the distribution.

... Discover the recipes you are using and abandon them
--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
* Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)

I've been using RSS for a number of years. For the last couple of years, I've used Feedbro which is an addon for the Firefox browser. The only thing I don't like about it is I can't mass mark articles as read. What I do like is that I can sync my laptop with my desktop with additions/deletions.

ogg
Sysop, Altair IV BBS
altairiv.ddns.net:2323

... Why do we tell actors to "break a leg?" Because every play has a cast

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Windows/64)
* Origin: Altair IV BBS (21:2/147)

BY: Adept(21:2/108)

`
|11A|09> |10But I have had a variety of friends end up in Facebook jail, oftentimes|07
|11A|09> |10for things that _should_ have been fine. And, yeah, a couple of|07 |11A|09> |10over-the-top political things, but also things like, "he showed a|07
The AI does not understand context. If you use the word lynch, they are thinking you are going to lynch someone. But I said the media has a bias where if their favorite person does crappy things they will ignore them, but if their unfavorite person does crappy things that their favorite person did, they will be lynched and that got me a FB strike.

Meta needs to go under.


--- WWIV 5.8.0.3662
* Origin: inland utopia * california * iutopia.duckdns.org:2023 (21:4/108)

Re: Re: Facebook
By: Avon to Nightfox on Sun Jan 22 2023 14:28:13

On 21 Jan 2023 at 05:04p, Nightfox pondered and said...

I still use Facebook, but I posted five things last year. I have not

I'm on FB but don't post to it these days, I do need it for work related purposes so retain an account for now. I mostly see a dozen or so active

I use it mostly for gig related info. Most of my connections on Facebook are musicians and music fans, and I follow a few music related groups. It is still useful for this. You just can't write anything such as 'We killed that gig we did' or they'll delete it for violence. I have close to 5k connections so I can the news out, so to speak. If I only had 5 friends, I think I would delete the app. :-)

.

Mick Manning
Bad Poetry Blues (badpoet.synchro.net:2300) gopher://centralontarioremote.com:70
--- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
* Origin: Bad Poetry Blues = badpoet.synchro.net:2300 (21:1/159)

I'm not sure if it's the overwhelming majority, but my Facebook feed
tends to be full of my friends' posts (and maybe a couple ads and recommended posts from companies I follow here and there). So, I'd say yes, people do seem to make a lot of posts. That's one of the reasons I use Facebook, to see what my friends & family are up to.

Huh. Nice!

From my experience, there are people who constantly post memes, political things, or other low-effort content, and that's much of my feed.

Reminds me that I'm a bit sad that I can't tweak the algorithms myself, because I'd select _for_ posts that come without links or photos.

But I digress. I've unfollowed a variety of friends who post like that, but oftentimes I do still want to hear what that friend is up to, and the low-effort content posts are the price of admission.

And I've also generally unfollowed people that posted political stuff that I'd engage with. Because I struggle with letting inaccurate things go, and pretty much every political meme ever is inaccurate or unfair, somehow. So, better to avoid the temptation entirely.

Which, incidentally, is why it's nicer here. Political/religious discussions get shot down, and almost all of the content is new text written specifically for here.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Storm BBS (21:2/108)

But what I think I'd _like_ to do, is go back to some form of bloggin (possibly password restricted, as I'd prefer to avoid putting too muc into search engines), and offer an RSS feed for people.

Most reputable search crawlers respect a robots.txt file, don't they?

Good point. Probably also a good idea.

I'd possibly still end up with the password, but it'd have to be for different reasons.

I also like syndicating content from *my* site on other social
networks, so you ultimately own the content and the distribution.

That's one of the bigger things that appeals to me. If you post on Facebook, it's a struggle to get it off Facebook, and if instead you want to move to TikTok, you have to start over.

And that's only scratching at the surface of the problems brought about because of other people having other priorities when it comes to your content.

I just loaded up an RSS reader in Feed.ly, after my daily blog reading tapered off in the age of Big Social, it's crept up again. I think any
CMS with an RSS feed and a robots.txt file would be a good start.

Interesting. I've wondered what people who do RSS reading have done.

For me, while my instance is currently broken, I've used Tiny Tiny RSS, because it's a self-hosted option. Yeah, me breaking it is a problem, but at least its being up or down is mostly because of whatever I do.

tt-rss.org, for those wondering.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Storm BBS (21:2/108)

I too find RSS a better solution to be informed of new
postings. I love it when the whole article is available that
way, and not just a preamble. But.. the problem with RSS is
that it can't deliver ads. :/

That's not a problem, it's a major bonus!!!

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Windows/64)
* Origin: Legends of Yesteryear (furmenservices.net:23322) (21:4/102)

I've tried setting up RSS feeds many times and have never had any luc getting them to work right.

And do you mean on the reading side or the publishing side?

Both, I even tried setting it up on my BBS one time to allow an RSS feed of the message bases. For some reason the message bases kept getting scrambled. And before you ask, the RSS option was built into the BBS server.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Windows/64)
* Origin: Legends of Yesteryear (furmenservices.net:23322) (21:4/102)

Geri Atricks wrote to Adept <=-

Both, I even tried setting it up on my BBS one time to allow an RSS
feed of the message bases. For some reason the message bases kept
getting scrambled. And before you ask, the RSS option was built into
the BBS server.

At one point, Facebook allowed RSS feeds in their pages. I set up a BBS
page in Facebook and exported the system news message base to Facebook.
It worked well for a while, then Facebook turned the feature off.

Shame, it was a nice way to let people know if the BBS was going to be
down and keep information in sync on the BBS and off.



... Once the search has begun, something will be found
--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
* Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)

At one point, Facebook allowed RSS feeds in their pages. I set up a BBS page in Facebook and exported the system news message base to Facebook.
It worked well for a while, then Facebook turned the feature off.

I read a recent article (from Wired, I think) that talked about the normal progression of a website.

First, they build something users like
Second, they build something businesses like
Third, they build something that maximizes their profit
Fourth, they die.

General idea is the first stage is needed because without users, there is no site.

But once they're in the ecosystem, you can make them _just_ angry enough that there aren't better options that'd cause them to leave.

But you need buy-in from people who sell things / give you money for ads, etc.

So then they prioritize businesses, selling off data about the users, having paid placement, etc.

Once they're in, businesses have to sell through that place or else they won't sell, users have to go to those businesses there, because they're not selling at other places.

So then the company can make things _just_ good enough that people and companies don't leave, but since it's a captive market, they can make it pretty terrible, and extract as much money as possible.

Then eventually it collapses, because, yeah, it's awful.

But the idea works for Facebook, Google, Amazon, dating sites (though there the "prioritized businesses" are probably paying customers), and likely anything else that's gotten big enough.

Shame, it was a nice way to let people know if the BBS was going to be down and keep information in sync on the BBS and off.

...and, yeah, things like this just don't work for Facebook. They probably want you creating all your content in house for them, rather than having an easy way to create it somewhere else and repost to Facebook.

But when they were competing with other sites in that space, more reason to try out features that make life easier for businesses.

Still, nice if we could make RSS work on our own, without getting into those ecosystems. I imagine most of us who like being in the sysop role really would prefer to have full control over our data.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Storm BBS (21:2/108)

Hello Adept!

Shame, it was a nice way to let people know if the BBS
was going to be down and keep information in sync on the
BBS and off.

[...]

Still, nice if we could make RSS work on our own, without
getting into those ecosystems. I imagine most of us who
like being in the sysop role really would prefer to have
full control over our data.

It would be easy enough to build a BBS status-site using
Wordpress.

[1] WP can be configured to auto-post via email.
[2] Users can simply check the RSS feed for updates.



--- OpenXP 5.0.57
* Origin: (} Pointy McPointFace (21:4/106.21)

It would be easy enough to build a BBS status-site using
Wordpress.

[1] WP can be configured to auto-post via email.
[2] Users can simply check the RSS feed for updates.

That seems like a solid idea.

Though seems to depend on people actually using RSS feed readers.

That said, that immediately made me think of the idea of having a website that aggregates BBSs that are posting these things, and creates a table of BBS statuses, that seems like it might be neat.

Though still not sure on actual use case, other than, "someone tries to call a BBS they'd expect to work. It doesn't, so they check the BBS status list."

Regardless, it does seem like there might be something there that doesn't take a _huge_ amount of work to get going.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Storm BBS (21:2/108)

Hello Adept!

** On Thursday 09.02.23 - 11:58, Adept wrote to Ogg:

It would be easy enough to build a BBS status-site using
Wordpress.

[1] WP can be configured to auto-post via email.
[2] Users can simply check the RSS feed for updates.

That seems like a solid idea.

Though seems to depend on people actually using RSS feed readers.

It's usually a simple solution to get there: <sitename>/rss or <sitename>/feed. Or.. a newer browser would probably need a
plugin like Feedbro or something. Anyway.. the rss result is
direct, fast, efficient and no ads.

That said, that immediately made me think of the idea of
having a website that aggregates BBSs that are posting
these things, and creates a table of BBS statuses, that
seems like it might be neat.

With an appropriate plugin, a site can be built that aggregates
the posts at other sites.

Or.. even a visual matrix of UP (green) or DOWN (red) bbses,
where a visitor can hover over the appropriate status symbol to
get a brief info-bubble. Even a S)earch for a particular bbs
right on that WP site could pull up the latest post.

Initially, I thought why can't FTN itself be used for the DOWN
status annoucements. But with a system down, there is no way to
post onto the network. Duh! So.. email seems to be the best
tool to send SOMETHING so that it posts on a website. It's fast
and simple.

Though still not sure on actual use case, other than,
"someone tries to call a BBS they'd expect to work. It
doesn't, so they check the BBS status list."

That's the very idea. If a sysop needs to announce their bbs
DOWN, one simple email to the WP site generates the post for
anyone interested.

Regardless, it does seem like there might be something
there that doesn't take a _huge_ amount of work to get
going.

The aggregate part might require constant fiddling as more
bbses climb onto the idea. But each BBS/sysop could have their
own minimalist WP site (no user registrations) and just email a
message to that site.




--- OpenXP 5.0.57
* Origin: (} Pointy McPointFace (21:4/106.21)