One Man's Notes

Post-social network community building needed

Warren Ellis

I feel like I want to see some more thought around getting the fuck off social networks but being able to maintain lines of connection between friends, comrades and fellow-travellers in addition to the Republic Of Newsletters and the Isles Of Blogging. Status pages as the signals from the Invisible Monastery, or, possibly, Hobo Code marks on the walls of the web. Planning for the oncoming dark age?

Building distributed community processes is tough, but fun. And less likely to screw up democracy.


Time to kill off follower counts on social networks:

As we increase the time we spend online, we also expose ourselves to the danger of measuring ourselves by the number of likes and follows we get. That sort of behavior is problematic in itself, but it gets worse when you consider the fact that you have little to no real control over those numbers.

Where micro.blog and @manton led the way…


There’s no place like gnome


I was baffled and slightly depressed in what I was seeing in the analytics I was looking at.

And then I realised I was looking at the wrong site’s analytics. 🤦🏼‍♂️


Looks like Instagram’s down for a good chunk of the world.

Average mental health of the population is improving slightly every second this continues…


Just topped up the bird food. Minor avian riot in progress in the back garden.


5 degrees, rainy and grey. British autumn is here at last.


Old Toys

I’m slightly concerned that I appear to have grown up in the last few years. Despite the exciting and shiny new iPad Pros released last week, I’m still more than happy with my 2 plus year old iPad Pro 9.7. It does everything I need it to. And my MacBook Pro is around five years old, and I’m not planning on replacing that either. What has happened to me? I used to be a “twitchy after two years” guy.


Build that web


I had my first proper (but quick) play with Adobe Premier Rush - and I’m tentatively impressed.


So, I wrote about the unintended consequences of partisan satire (based on the excellent WaPo story from yesterday) - and upset the partisan satirist. Surprise!


MediaGazer is really good at inflating my ego in a really unearned way, by putting me in some amazing company:


Just cleaned the en suite toilet so yes, obviously, I’m procrastinating.


Here’s a horrible insight into how digital tools and age-old psychology can turn satire into conspiracy theories. This is why the “fake news" of misinformation and disinformation is going to be so very hard to combat.


Touching. I feel very special…


Coffee date.


Stunning autumn morning in #shorehambysea


I need to have words with my teenage self about keeping negatives clean.


It’s amusing to see just how badly timed Zuckerberg’s decision to flip off a bunch of world governments was: Mark Zuckerberg to the governments of Canada, UK, Australia, Ireland and Argentina: “Go fuck yourselves” (Love the URL on that piece, too)


Only seven months between episodes…


The Ides of May

There are times when I almost feel sorry for Theresa May. She is clearly trying her best to deliver something impossible, while being shot by both sides. It’s hard not to sympathise with that.

And then I remember that she didn’t have to rush into triggering Article 50. And could have published the research into the likely effects of Brexit. She could have been honest with the public, and communicated more directly with us all the way, and possibly even given us an informed choice at the end of it.

But no, like Cameron before her, she gambled on political advantage, tried to use the referendum as a tool to strengthen her parliamentary position, and then failed in that and in her negotiations with Europe.

Like Cameron she has ridden the Brexit beast into political disaster, one by trying to end it, one by trying to deliver it.

History will not be kind to these two PMs.


Here’s my incredibly sophisticated micro casting set-up, using Wavelength on my phone…


The Toxicity At The Top Of Facebook - And How We Need To Move The Social Media Conversation Forward

Some (rambling) thoughts based on yesterday’s NYT piece on Facebook’s senior management and the appalling reaction to the revelations about the site.


There’s some new research out on smart speakers and news - and it’s a mixed bag. Use is growing fast, but people are unenthused by the current news offerings. Is there an opportunity here?


Be vewy, vewy quiet. I’m hunting typos…