Follow Slashdot stories on Twitter

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Social Networks Your Rights Online

Wikipedia Co-Founder Calls For a Social Media Strike July 4-5 (larrysanger.org) 138

Wikpedia co-founder Larry Sanger is also Slashdot reader #936,381.

He has an announcement: "Humanity has been contemptuously used by vast digital empires," says my new Declaration of Digital Independence, which you can sign. So I'm calling a massive social media strike for July 4-5 to raise awareness of the possibility of decentralizing social media, which is wildly popular whenever proposed.

Read the FAQ use the resources to learn and spread the word far and wide. Look for lots of news about this soon. And get ready! Maybe we can make a long-held geek dream finally come true.

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Wikipedia Co-Founder Calls For a Social Media Strike July 4-5

Comments Filter:
  • But ah needs muh social medias!
  • I will spend July 4 and 5 not using Facebook or Twitter or Google+. And the 6th, and the 7th, and for that matter the 1st, and...so on.

    'Yelling at cloud' aside, I hope this will encourage some people who are current users to try going without; I've seen lots of people report (on other social media sites...) that leaving Facebook and Instagram behind was good for their mental wellness.
    • Yeah, somebody is angling for a couple vacation days it sounds like.

    • What about /.? :P Also, G+ is dead. Where have U been? :P

  • There are already scores of other social media platforms, start using one - why wait for July 4th!! Strike out and explore the broader world.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Due to popular demand and my need for more fentanyl.
    I'll be giving my services for reduced rates until Monday

    Full service knobbers ==9 bucks
    ANY thing else including my
    SPECIAL EXOTIC services we can talk
    About privately.... APK

    P.s.=>if you can show me you have a host file++ engine running on your computer I'll throw in a few wet wipes and a voucher for a free penicillin shot at the clinic of your choice

  • Every time you go there the beg banners will be up...

    I have them all blocked but there will be new ones.

  • I already posted my position before, but Wikipedia can decide if you are famous, important or even just worthy of interest. They have an article on Billie Eilish but not Clarence Phelps who actually contributed to science instead of being a character created to promote music. I know of at least two notable companies that Wikipedia dosen't have articles on, but I don't want to go through the increasingly complicated hoops that Wikipedia imposes only to get called "conflict of interest" and reverted/blocked e
  • by mykepredko ( 40154 ) on Sunday June 30, 2019 @12:59PM (#58850602) Homepage

    One of the things that I've never liked about Wikipedia is how centralized it is along with the ability for different groups to slant the information their way.

    I know that Sanger has replied to this concern in the past saying that Wikipedia is self-correcting, but I would think that the same could be said about Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      Wikipedia has shown not to be self-correcting and has turned into another source of misleading articles that are often populated with an extreme leftist slant. The moderators or writers on there quickly revert any edits that don't fit with their left opinions,and repeated attempts to correct an article will quickly cause the article to be locked form editing.
      Wikipedia is becoming like Google search and Youtube-they will show you their truth, but not your truth or someone else's truth.

      • they will show you their truth, but not your truth or someone else's truth.

        If you believe there are opposing versions of the truth, you might want to brush up on the definition of the word.

        Facts and truth aren't partisan. "Alternate facts" is just a euphemism for a lie.

        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          by OYAHHH ( 322809 )

          Can you even read? There are zillions of instances of social media platforms denying the actual truth and de-platforming you if you don't tow that line.

            oogoliegoogolie is speaking the truth and you can't even recognize it..

          • They remove content they don't want on their service, which as a private business, is their right. If you're going to argue that everyone should have equal rights to utilize someone else's property for their message, then I want to put my "Any Democrat 2020" sign in your front yard.

      • by epine ( 68316 )

        Wikipedia has shown not to be self-correcting and has turned into another source of misleading articles that are often populated with an extreme leftist slant.

        Really? What articles are you talking about? Articles with a few sentences here and there that you would rather trim, but really don't amount to much in the bigger scheme of things?

        And what is your definition of self-correcting, anyway? And do you know anyone in your entire life who attains that standard? (Apart from Jesus, if he ever existed as he is

        • And the content is technically sophisticated, including on news events. While journalists write ill considered fluff, Wikipedia editors do a very good job of boiling it down to the important facts.

          Sure, there is an issue with fascist editors that only delete other people's work. And I don't contribute much these days because of them.

          But by and large the system works pretty well.

      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        It's not yet another leftist conspiracy, it's just that Wikipedia is a crap MMORPG that most people can't be bothered to play any more. The few players left camp in their territory, not fixing any glaring grammatical errors but making sure that n00bs don't change anything either.

    • by Livius ( 318358 )

      While Wikipedia is vastly better than something like Twitter, it does sometimes have a bit of the same virtual reality atmosphere that regular social media has, with some of the same abuses.

    • by koavf ( 1099649 )
      "One of the things that I've never liked about Wikipedia is how centralized it is along with the ability for different groups to slant the information their way." How so?
  • I thought this was alreayd a thing - Mastodon is a decentralised social media platform that you can host your own server and link with others. I assume its designed ot spread control, but I also assume it would be best used with servers dedicated to particular areas of interest.

    but of course, "social media" is a term that refers to twitter and facbook these days, not so much social as big business corporate mind control for profit. That's why servers like mastodon will never take off.

  • If anyone should have learned anything from the latest Project Veritas reports big tech is far too eager to use their power to exert control over discourse in modern society. To quote a Google executive: they need to 'prevent another "Trump situation" from happening.' We've already seen examples of why the entire bulk of the corporate media has used their own platforms to use social outrage and financial deplatforming to stomp out competition.

    Sadly no. Much like any service having more options is always

    • When will ya'll admit what you really want is to put your alt-right B.S. in front of those of us on the left who aren't interested in seeing it?

      Nobody is stopping you from using Gab, getting your news from Breitbart, or going totally off-the-rails KKK on Stormfront. Most people just don't want this shit showing up on our Facebook feed, sorry.

      Look at it this way: Is there anything I could really say to convince you to shift your political views further to the left? I'd assume, no. So why would you assume

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      What we learned from the latest Project Veritas report is that James O'Keeffe is still up to his old tricks.

      Show us the original, unedited footage, James.

  • I'm not sure what the point of this is, or about the timing.
    Won't people er outside on the 4th, at the beach or lake cottage setting off fireworks?

    Surely if you want to have as big a commercial impact as possible you would time tour strike for Prime Day on the 15th

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • by DNS-and-BIND ( 461968 ) on Sunday June 30, 2019 @01:56PM (#58850864) Homepage
    Centralization is how Big Tech keeps a lid on populism and other destructive ideologies. A decentralized social media would enable an uncurated experience. Everyone would be free to speak their minds, with no restrictions. This negative outcome must be avoided, otherwise we'll get more Trump and more Brexit and more Yellow Vests and all the rest.
  • With all due respect to the co-founder of Wikipedia (to which I offer annual donations), social media is not something you should petition a strike against. What people do on social media is their own and private business. Petitioning an Earth Day was definitely an admirable thing because it raises awareness about energy conservation and other environmental aspects. But what the fuck is the advantage when people do not use social media? What kind of benefit does it bring to anyone/anything at all?

    And the
  • How COULD I _possibly_ reduce my use of social media? Since I use almost none now?

    Fakebook? Never.
    Twitter? Seldom.
    Reddit? Never.
    Here? Every couple of days, I suppose.

    What else is there?

  • I second that; July 4th to July 5th, 2099.

  • stop the white supremacists if we don't meticulously police every single communications forum on the planet?!

  • Nice thought, but the smartphone zombies won't go on strike. Zombies never strike. You'd better call for a drug strike among addicts.
  • Who's going to pay for all the millennial PTSD rehab??? I suspect it won't be an issue though since none of them will be able to put down their phones.

  • Millennials against social networking is like junkies against dope. They wont be able to do it. They don't know how to sit still for 5 minutes without getting nervous and pulling their phones out.
    • Sounds about right. When the 30+ y.o. Millennials start what I've taken to calling "phone time," unless they immediately show you something, I'm pretty sure they mean "you're less entertaining than this ad for Walmart I have to sit through to use my favorite time-sink game."
  • I will continue to not use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchap, Reddit or anything else.

    and since I will be at my lake house, I shall also avoid checking /.

Ignorance is bliss. -- Thomas Gray Fortune updates the great quotes, #42: BLISS is ignorance.

Working...