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This is more semi-meta, so do what you will with that, but I want to explicitly tie together two conversational threads from yesterday:

1. I think the structure of Mastodon really amps rumors and misinfo because the mechanisms we use elsewhere to pass around and find corrections (visible replies, quote-posts, search) don't work here.

2. Instance admin politics are rarely discussed in a public, easily re-findable place—that, too, fuels the rumor-mill, as we saw re: Meta meeting discussions.

Erin Kissane

3. Whenever someone talks about structural problems like ^^^ there is a common response, which I'll paraphrase as "people are going to be weird and abusive no matter what, and [tech/design/policy] can't change that."

Yes, people are going to be weird jerks sometimes, but systems and structures are *by far* our best levers for changing behavior, and I think it's bizarre that this gets trotted out even by people who believe that, for instance, anti-viral features (systems!) are very successful.

4. The fediverse, with all its flaws, has really given me hope that we're on the verge of much better systems built from much better structures. I really believe we can make all of these things work better, and I think starting with human behavior and desires is how we get there.

I wrote a lot about that—mostly in less Masto-specific ways—in yesterday's post about all the ways our networks can be more alive, and help us be more alive.

erinkissane.com/qualities-of-l

@kissane it does require ultimately for some person, some governing body, moderator, ombudsman, referee, adjudicator, marshal, court, council to be responsible. And we've been told that everything can be driverless. And everything can't.

@artlung Have we? I feel like fedi's fairly clear that there are people in charge of each instance, and people in charge of e.g. Masto's codebase, but I may be misreading your point.

What I'm personally hoping to see is more horizontal self-organization across those small-scale nodes.

@kissane "What I'm personally hoping to see is more horizontal self-organization across those small-scale nodes."

Yes!

@artlung

@kissane agree 100%! My contention about driverless ness is a zeitgeist of hype that tells us cars will drive themselves and “AI” will make art sans human intervention and social networks will self organize if we merely “flag” posts. The result has been chaos at Twitter and an Instagram where people beg for help from moribund support. Fediverse is an incredible contrast of involved instance moderators!

@artlung Ahhhh yes, the literal kind! I get you now.

@kissane Yeah, as someone who used to moderate a really rowdy mailing list full of messy writers? *Absolutely*. Changing the structure -- physical and social -- 100% improved its culture. It's just iterating smarter design and persistence.

@kissane Edwards’ Law ("You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem") has devolved into a thought-terminating cliche by this point. All of gamification and “nudge theory” have debunked it.

@ratkins To be fair, I am not sad about seeing the replication crisis drag Nudge Theory into hell, but yeah—I think it's super easy to underestimate how much of what we call "technology solutions" are in fact mostly sociological.

@kissane I mean, ask @codinghorror . He’s made a successful business out of building technology that manipulates people into being nice to each other.

@ratkins @kissane manipulate is a strong word! I use the words "just-in-time nudge people to be the best versions of themselves online"

@kissane
It's really tragic to see the same "open source doesn't understand design" still causing problems after 20+ years

@kissane 100% It's always people and the environment we're in working (or not working) together. Architecture is not neutral.