November 16, 2019

"The business model of social media companies, of pure advertising, is problematic. It turns out the huge winner is low-quality content."

Said Jimmy Wales, quoted in "Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales launches Twitter and Facebook rival/Wikipedia co-founder says WT:Social is effort to combat ‘clickbait’" (Financial Times).
While Facebook and Twitter’s algorithms ensure that the posts with the most comments or likes rise to the top, WT:Social puts the newest links first. However, WT:Social hopes to add an “upvote” button that will allow users to recommend quality stories....

Several well-meaning alternatives to Facebook have come and gone over the years, from Ello to Diaspora.... But Mr Wales said he believes the time is now right for a new venue that is free from what he calls “clickbait nonsense”.

“People are feeling fed up with all the junk that’s around,” Mr Wales said. “News organisations are doing the best they can in this difficult environment but it’s actually a problem with the distribution.”
From the site:
We will empower you to make your own choices about what content you are served, and to directly edit misleading headlines, or flag problem posts.

We will foster an environment where bad actors are removed because it is right, not because it suddenly affects our bottom-line.

41 comments:

The Bergall said...

Well imagine that!

Kevin said...

While Facebook and Twitter’s algorithms ensure that the posts with the most comments or likes rise to the top, WT:Social puts the newest links first. However, WT:Social hopes to add an “upvote” button that will allow users to recommend quality stories....

Haven’t people been trained to believe quality stories are the ones they like?

tim in vermont said...

Yeah, “Don’t be evil.” We have heard that one before.

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

Hilariously, the article is behind a paywall.

Lyle Smith said...

This will fail.

Howard said...

Wait wait wait wait... I thought it was impossible to complete with Twitter and Facebook with you people bleating pleading and whining for Unka Sugar to regulate those successful free market businesses.

Bob Boyd said...

There are six syllables in the name WT:Social. If you're going to abbreviate something into a punchy, appealing acronym you need one syllable letters. You don't use a W. It doesn't work if the acronym takes just as long to enunciate as the full word. Wikitribune...WT. See what I mean? And there's 2 more syllables to go after that. Who has time for that? Stupid name. Wake up, Boomer.

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

OK, I joined, and the subreddits look like the Slate Star Codex reddit. E.G. Science and Society, ADHD Adults, Artificial Intelligence... Yeah, um...

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

Oh, now it tells me I'm number 83 thousand on a waiting list. OK... No news for me, then.

Have a nice life, WT:Social.

Bob Boyd said...

If you want your new social media platform to work you need the users to sell it for you. You need a name that, when someone hears it, they want to say it, because it sounds cool and sounds like something cool you want to know more about, something you want to be the one tell someone else about because they'll think you're cool. WT:Social? Seriously? I already lost interest before you even got to the colon.

Temujin said...

This will not turned out as planned.

Jeff Brokaw said...

Only a couple billion more users and you’re in business!

Bob Boyd said...

What's the first thing you hear from somebody telling you about WT:Social? "Duh"

Ron Winkleheimer said...

The fact that a founder of Wikipedia is involved doesn't fill me with gladness and hope. Wikipedia is all about obsessive/compulsive people getting into positions of power so that they can regulate speech. Just like social media.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Hard to beat Reddit as a form of social media. Somehow they have made the internet 'nice'.

Paco Wové said...

"bad actors are removed because it is right"

I think I found the flaw in the model.

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

Not seeing why it is better than or even different than Reddit.

Anonymous said...

We will foster an environment where bad actors are removed because it is right, not because it suddenly affects our bottom-line.

So, yet another effort in the twilight battle to purge the internet of non-woke content by creating a "safe space" that will hopefully expand and devour any heretical social media outposts.

Browndog said...

“News organisations are doing the best they can in this difficult environment...

Speechless.

Fernandinande said...

People like clickbait. That's why it works.

[Bad] algorithms ... most comments or likes rise to the top,...
WT:Social hopes to add an “upvote” button ...quality stories....


Because an "upvote" button is completely different than a "like" button.

We will foster an environment where bad actors are removed because it is right, not because it suddenly affects our bottom-line.

I'd prefer censorship based on money rather than hurt feelings.

Bob Boyd said...

We have found the bad actors and they is us.

rehajm said...

They’d kick me off if I joined. I’ll save a few steps...

rehajm said...

I’m one of those bad actors

Bob Boyd said...

If you like NPR, you're gonna love WT:Zzzzzzz....huh? Oh. Sorry. I was saying...what was I saying?

stlcdr said...

Just block all ads. Don’t put them up there, for us to have to block them. Of course, the ‘how do you pay for it’ question comes up, and then it goes back to good ads vs bad ads....

Having spent many years now streaming on demand, having to look at TV with ads, I realize how horrible the whole experience is.

The only reason social media exists is to make money off people: literally (!) none of these people pushing a better user experience are altruistic.

Bob Boyd said...

Of course, the ‘how do you pay for it’ question comes up

Hey! I gotta idea. Single payer social media! What's Warren's number? Ima call her.

rhhardin said...

Just have a censorship on or off button and let people choose individually. Like safe search on or off as it is now. Twitter and facebook could do it now.

JAORE said...

"bad actors are removed because it is right..."

Or because THEY are on the right...

SJWs never sleep.

New motto, just as neutral as Wiki.

Bob Boyd said...

Just have a censorship on or off button and let people choose individually.

That takes all the fun out of being the censor.

Meade said...

“We have found the bad actors and they is us.”

LOL

gilbar said...

"The business model of television media companies, of pure advertising, is problematic. It turns out the huge winner is low-quality content."
fify!

Temujin said...

The nobility to which all of these social media and tech company people ascribe to themselves is based on the complete, pure knowledge that they are right and good. That those who think differently are not right and good. So they must continuously work to filter out those who are not right and good. For the good of all. They do it out of the goodness of their own pure hearts.

Or, as Mel Brooks once said...

Kay said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Browndog said...

We're starting a new social media platform, because people demand more censorship. Yes, it's expensive, but we have Chinese and Qatari investors willing to step up to further free speech in America.

Bob Boyd said...

"I'm thinking about trying that new platform, you know, the one with the fucked-up name that sounds like some old boomer rambling on and on?"

"Yeah, I heard about that. Supposed to be, like, I don't know the word, like...it's like good for you or something."

"What? Like Michelle's school lunches? Yuck."

"Yeah, sorta I guess. They don't allow posts from like school shooters and Nazis and stuff."

"Here something...Doubleyou Te...Oh look a squirrel video!"

Krumhorn said...

Anybody who has been in an editing war on Wikipedia will know just how effective this project will be. Squads of SJWs will ensure that bad actors are shown the door. The polished veneer of incontestable virtue is vomit-inducing. Oops! There’s a chunk just thinking on it.

Scratch a leftie, and there’s a tyrant screaming to get out.

- Krumhorn

narciso said...

here's an example, no crimethink permitted,


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Marie_Yovanovitch

Kevin said...

Somehow they have made the internet 'nice'.

Althouse and Mead are doing a pretty good job too.

Krumhorn said...

here's an example, no crimethink permitted,


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Marie_Yovanovitch


Anyone who fails to notice the jackbooted brownshirt reality of the leftie mindset is either sympathetic because they mean oh-so well or simply not observing what is clearly on display in front of us all. Maybe some are satisfied that their eyes are lying to them when they hear the pious purring of the assumed moral superiority of the hellcat libruls, but the American left today is dangerously authoritarian. The Gramscian march through the institutions is all but complete.

- Krumhorn

rehajm said...

Prove it to yourself:

Google ‘Asian Couple’

Now ‘Black Couple’

Now Google ‘White Couple’

JamesB.BKK said...

Wikipedia launders defamation while posing as honest broker. Corrective or context-providing changes are deleted by busybody administrators. It is among the worst sites on the interwebs and inherently untrustworthy. This is rich.