The Verge: Telepath is a buzzy new social network trying to fix what’s broken on Twitter. “The app, which like Clubhouse is available only in private beta and requires an invitation to use, resembles a hybrid of Twitter and Reddit. As on Twitter, the app opens to a central scrolling feed of updates from people and topics that you follow. And as on Reddit, every post must be created within a group, which Telepath calls a ‘network.’ But what stands out about Telepath is its approach to moderation — which is both more aggressive and more constructive than any I have ever seen in a venture-backed social app at this stage of development.”
social networks
Sincerely, Ally: LinkedIn promotes a competitive, sometimes negative online culture (Daily Free Press)
The Daily Free Press: Sincerely, Ally: LinkedIn promotes a competitive, sometimes negative online culture. “For those of you unfamiliar with the website, LinkedIn launched in 2003 as an online database for job-seekers looking to discover employment opportunities and network with industry professionals. In 2016, Microsoft bought it for $26.2 billion, and there are tens of millions of recent graduates and students registered on the site. LinkedIn shares the same features of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter — timelines, chat boxes and status updates. Yet despite its large number of users, LinkedIn has somehow avoided controversy regarding the toxic online culture it perpetuates.”
Financial Express: How Google Maps is positioned to become the next big content platform
Financial Express: How Google Maps is positioned to become the next big content platform. “For long, Google Maps has been the go-to app to find one’s location, look for directions or even read reviews before visiting a place. It is an essential tool today for its more than one billion monthly active users. But have you ever wondered about its potential to become the next big content platform? Yes, it’s possible. While data about its number of active users is quite easily accessible, very few know about the over 120 million contributors whom we depend on before trying a new restaurant or visiting a place.”
The Next Web: How Slack employees use Slack
The Next Web: How Slack employees use Slack. “With Slack currently operating as a 100% remote workforce, I’m relying on communicating in channels more than ever. As people all around the world navigate the transition to fully remote work, the need to stay connected to one another is a top-of-mind concern. This article is a peek into how my team at Slack uses Slack, much of which is increasingly relevant during these unique times.”
Burnout, splinter factions and deleted posts: Unpaid online moderators struggle to manage divided communities (Washington Post)
Washington Post: Burnout, splinter factions and deleted posts: Unpaid online moderators struggle to manage divided communities. “From Facebook, Reddit and Nextdoor to homes for more niche topics like fan fiction, many online communities and groups are kept afloat by volunteer armies of moderators. The people who moderate these groups often start as founders or enthusiastic members, interested in helping shape and police the communities they’re already a part of. They are both cleaning crew and den parent. Moderators take down spam and misinformation. They mediate petty disagreements and volatile civil wars. They carefully decide between reminding people of the rules, freezing conversations, removing members or letting drama subside on its own.”
Bustle: Creators Explain Alt TikTok & How To Tell If You’re On It
Bustle: Creators Explain Alt TikTok & How To Tell If You’re On It. “When you open TikTok for the very first time, your For You page is essentially the popular kids’ table in the cafeteria. Charli D’Amelio and Emma Chamberlain are doing hand dances, Addison Rae is lip syncing, and Gabrielle Alexis is glowing up. But the more time you spend on the app and the more videos you interact with, the more lunch tables appear. If your interests skew towards the inclusive, artful, absurdist, or irreverent, you might be curious about how get on Alt Tok — aka, the arty side of the cafeteria.”
Wall Street Journal: Apps Serve Professionals Distanced Networking With Novel Twists
Wall Street Journal: Apps Serve Professionals Distanced Networking With Novel Twists. “A growing range of social networks for professionals are trying to capitalize on workers’ continued confinement to their homes—and stand out in the shadow of Microsoft Corp.’s LinkedIn—by offering more sharply defined missions, faster contacts and unusual user experiences. With in-person networking opportunities such as conferences, happy hours and industry events still on pause due to the coronavirus pandemic, the platforms hope career-minded networkers are game to try their newest ‘value proposition,’ as their executives frequently put it.”
CyberSocial: A right-wing social network reported a potential breach. Then it went dark. What happened at AllSocial?
CyberScoop: A right-wing social network reported a potential breach. Then it went dark. What happened at AllSocial?. “AllSocial was an emerging social media network that garnered more than a million users, in part by alluding to the unfounded claim that existing sites like Facebook and Twitter censor conservative political thought. AllSocial users could connect with new friends with the understanding the site would never limit how far a user’s posts would spread based on their politics, an apparent reference to allegations that Republicans repeatedly have made against Facebook and Twitter…. The site and its two mobile apps have been down for more than a month, though, after the revelation that an outsider had claimed to access AllSocial’s proprietary source code.”
Phys .org: Study suggests optimal social networks of no more than 150 people
Phys .org: Study suggests optimal social networks of no more than 150 people. “New rules of engagement on the battlefield will require a deep understanding of networks and how they operate according to new Army research. Researchers confirmed a theory that find that networks of no more than 150 are optimal for efficient information exchange.”
MIT Technology Review: It’s too late to stop QAnon with fact checks and account bans
MIT Technology Review: It’s too late to stop QAnon with fact checks and account bans. “Researchers have known for years that different platforms play different roles in coordinated campaigns. People will coordinate in a chat app, message board, or private Facebook group, target their messages (including harassment and abuse) on Twitter, and host videos about the entire thing on YouTube. In this information ecosystem, Twitter functions more like a marketing campaign for QAnon: content is created to be seen and interacted with by outsiders. Meanwhile, Facebook is a powerhouse for coordination, especially in closed groups.”
New York Times: Coronavirus Threatens the Luster of Superstar Cities
New York Times: Coronavirus Threatens the Luster of Superstar Cities. “The pandemic threatens the assets that make America’s most successful cities so dynamic — not only their bars, museums and theaters, but also their dense networks of innovative businesses and highly skilled workers, jumping among employers, bumping into one another, sharing ideas, powering innovation and lifting productivity.”
Tech Xplore: Twitter data reveals global communication network
Tech Xplore: Twitter data reveals global communication network. “Twitter mentions show distinct community structure patterns resulting from communication preferences of individuals affected by physical distance between users and commonalities, such as shared language and history. While previous investigations have identified patterns using other data, such as mobile phone usage and Facebook friend connections, research from the New England Complex Systems Institute looks at the collective effect of message transfer in the global community. The group’s results are reported in an article in the journal Chaos, by AIP Publishing.”
OneZero: What a Better Social Network Would Look Like
OneZero: What a Better Social Network Would Look Like . “Tuesday evening, New York Times writer Charlie Warzel casually tweeted a version of this question to his followers, not expecting much of a response. ‘Odd question but: what are your most far-fetched utopian ideas for fixing social media platforms?’ he asked. ‘The stuff that’s likely never ever gonna happen.’ More than 1,000 replies later, the thread was packed with provocative proposals, which together show that there is not only a tremendous appetite for change but a constellation of bright ideas for what that change could be.”
OneZero: Months Before Reddit Purge, The_Donald Users Created a New Home
OneZero: Months Before Reddit Purge, The_Donald Users Created a New Home. “Monday, Reddit banned thousands of subreddits including The_Donald, a conservative community of nearly 800,000 members accused of inciting violence, spreading white supremacist propaganda, and other repeat offenses since its creation in 2015. The takedown marked Reddit’s latest push to curb hate speech on the platform, and The_Donald was a ripe target for moderation. But while the community was purged from Reddit, its members have been relocating to an alternate website for months now, suggesting that users were expecting the ban — and serving as a reminder that ‘deplatforming’ is only so useful.”
EurekAlert: Meet the superusers who hold together health social media
EurekAlert: Meet the superusers who hold together health social media. “Online health communities help people to self-manage certain aspects of their long-term conditions better through harnessing support and knowledge held by other users in the network. They are mostly run on a voluntary basis by their users. Superusers (the 1 per cent highly active users) play a central role in these communities as a result of the characteristics of their online activity and their constant engagement.”
