you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

[–]JasonCarswell 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (5 children)

I read it but wanted to respond properly, not half-assed. (I can procrastinate for lame reasons sometimes.) And now it's at the top of my messages, so here we go...

Thanks for reaching out. Love the Activism sub. It's been on my wish list for way over a year. I was not a Redditor, so I learned with my intro to SaidIt. I made a few poor choices for sub titles, but soon learned to collect a bunch of stuff to share in folders. The more stuff in them made them a higher priority, practically speaking. (A recent subs wish list for you to feel free to make or be inspired by. magnora got paranoid about me hoarding subs for power and made a 40 sub rule to avoid power-mods, even though I'd done absolutely nothing to deserve this limit. Other people bitched and the number, not at any actions. All I wanted was: 1) organized specific titles to post under and 2) the opportunity to make pretty themes and banners to enliven SaidIt. I have no aspirations to "moderate" anyone.) Activism is extremely important, but I'm afraid I don't come across content much to post there.

I just made my short list of faves list (without the conspiracy / deep state / politics stuff):

I just made this list into a multisub (https://saidit.net/user/JasonCarswell/m/carswell_faves) with all of these that you can copy and modify as your own.

Also, I don't private message much. I'm not against it but I have nothing to hide generally, and if it's in the open others have a chance to learn from the discussion too.

I haven't "teamed up" with anyone regarding anything other than creating CSS themes, /s/IdeasForSaidIt, and working on the SaidIt wikis. While you are only a month here, you seem legit, keen, and eager, so I've invited you to the White Owl thingy. I have yet to fully embrace it, but I recently had an epiphany and will soon post several ideas on it.

Currently I'm building a "SaidItron" CSS theme for WikiSpooks and will apply it to a few of my other subs, but in different shades. I also will overhaul my last-year's "Ergonomix" CSS for all those subs, plus I still need to make a few banners, and then un-mod myself from those subs I was invited on just to customize. I will also help one of the 2 admins, d3rr, redo the SaidIt mobile CSS, even though I don't have a mobile phone. Maybe we can design it like the SaidIt logo I designed last year.

May 22 is WikiSpooks' 10 year birthday. We have to do something for that. And d3rr and Robin (admin of WS) and I are determined to integrate ways for the separate communities to cross over, whether it's via code or forums or projects or whatever. I have some MAJOR ideas I've been discussing with Robin that I need to refine and edit down into something presentable. Please pressure me on this, before the anniversary. I can't get caught up in code and design shit for more than another half-week and miss this opportunity.

Another project of mine is my local, regional, and national Green Party. November we had elections and I keep meaning to bring those folks to SaidIt - but I need to customize the CSS first.

Beyond Saidit and WikiSpooks is my own trinity of projects that are my life's purpose. And, as you see, I'm EASILY distracted with a focus like a laser on a disco ball. Of all the things you can do to help me most, is pressure me on these projects. I started these interrelated project subs /s/GlossedAndProfound, /s/BittersweetSeeds, /s/Trutherism101, /s/TrutherTop20s, and /s/GlossedOver. Feel free to read what's there, though I've stopped posting there for a while. I've essentially temporarily paused all of them but one, the most important, IMO, and most likely to reach the masses, BittersweetSeeds. It's a cautionary story I've been working on for almost 20 years, and after several attempts to get it out of my head into a written form, I'm finally making progress, openly on this more powerful wiki and easier platform to present on (for now) than SaidIt: https://infogalactic.com/info/Bittersweet_Seeds . All my other projects are secondary. I need to finish the first draft before September, my birthday, and I'll be pushing to complete it this summer. Sadly I've been distracted by this manufactured corona crisis. Once the first draft is complete, then I will share and ask for feedback, good, bad, and ugly to help make it better. When people actually understand the story, it's goals, and purpose, I can then invite folks to help however they like - and I can start to work on Glossed And Profound.

As I said, I need help to remain focused. Asking me about it now in then might be the kick in the pants I need. Correcting people on SaidIt can be helpful to them and the lurkers, but it's really not the best use of my time/energy. I really need to stop. Also, trying to keep up with the latest news is impossible, and there too I need to stop. Creating should be my focus. I am a professional animation director after all and haven't done it for too long (long story).

I don't know specifically what Reddit culture is like, but crossposting doesn't really require collaboration here to my knowledge. I just post where it fits best. I tried to help categorize subs into multisubs (in the wiki, abandoned) and such, but found few people interested. Tildes.com is very organized. magnora7 the other admin of SaidIt, for over a year has been talking about cross-sub where one post would be under several subs. They don't share with us what they're working on at the moment. Meanwhile they did add a new tab at the top for "Other Discussions" featuring the same linked content.

Again, thanks for reaching out. Sorry this is so long.

[–]Aureus 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (4 children)

First off, thanks for the invitation. That looks like an awesome sub and I'll enjoy contributing to it.

Because you said you really wanted pressure, here goes:

You're spreading yourself way too thin. No one man can singlehandedly run 40 subs on that many different subjects. I run two and I already feel challenged in coming up with new content.

I'm not saying you need to give up any of your interests, but you do need to focus on one thing at a time. Rather than trying to maintain several dozen subs, put your energies into just one. Alternatively, work on Bittersweet Seeds or WikiSpooks, since SaidIt has a "publish-or-perish" structure where even the best posts will vanish from sight in a day or two. Finish the content you want to finish, and then once you're sure of its quality, promote it everywhere.

All that said - you're still doing excellent work, even though it's somewhat scattered now. I wouldn't have reached out if I weren't impressed. Even if you keep doing exactly what you're doing you'll still be a big help.

Also: It's a little humorously ironic that, as a decentralization activist, your own efforts are so decentralized. It's also interesting and complementary that my personal project, /s/FoundationGuide, is about "centralizing" all useful information into a single book that will then be distributed freely.

[–]JasonCarswell 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

I appreciate the feedback. It's very welcomed. I'm not one to limit myself to a few interests. Subs on SaidIt are not what they are on Reddit. Yet. Nor will ever be without the corporatocracy recognizing SaidIt and using it in common parlance.

I didn't come here from Reddit. I like things organized and I wanted topical subs to "file" my posts under. That's why I made them. Making a CSS and neat banners is bonus. I'd hand them all over or share them or whatever if anyone asks me to. I have less than zero interest in "moderating" anyone. And as far as filling them with content - I don't actively try to fill them. I don't need to find and come up with stuff to post. I just post when I stumble upon it. Maybe it's not the Reddit way, but it's my way and I'm not on Reddit. Maybe it's not even the SaidIt way either. But I'm free to be me on SaidIt (but only up to 40 subs :P ).

Furthering on the moderation issue - I think it's lame for people to rely upon the mods to moderate. People are lazy and want the "authorities" to handle the shit. For a better stronger community on SaidIt (not just individual subs), all people need to take responsibility and co-moderate the entire site. Call out shit from others when you see it. And in extreme cases call on the admins to ban trolls. The rest should take care of itself, IMO, and seems to.

" SaidIt has a "publish-or-perish" structure where even the best posts will vanish from sight in a day or two "

Ya, this has it's pros and cons. I don't know any different. I don't feel compelled to publish or to perish. It seems to me people will explore subs as the stumble on or subscribe to them. I'm often surprised when someone comments on a post that's a year and half old. IMO, SaidIt missed a great opportunity a year or more ago to actually lay down some rules about the subs and make this place more organized, for better referencing, researching, etc. The way Tilde does.

It doesn't help that I'm manic depressive. I might post a fuck tonne for 3 days and fade way back for 3 weeks - or 3 months. And have.

This week I managed to post some stuff AND managed to finish 1 almost 2 CSS themes. When done I apply it to a couple other subs too as I designed it to be super simple for anyone to customize. Finishing should be simple enough with focus.

I also have to focus on the May 22 birthday of WikiSpooks so I might pull back for a couple weeks. Thereafter, if I were smart I'd stay back and work on Bittersweet Seeds before September.

You made me laugh out loud at your profound insight into my decentralized decentralization thing. Sooo good.

There's a difference between "centralizing" and "aggregating" / "filtering" / "selecting" - in my mind if not on paper. SaidIt is a "centralizing" hub of information. Their stated goal is to eventually federate and decentralize and NotABug is helping them with that code. Hopefully, eventually SaidIt will be a hive mind of a hub that is distributed wide and far, potentially sharing the same aggregated content, but not all necessarily all sharing the same subs.

[–]Aureus 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

I didn't come here from Reddit. I like things organized and I wanted topical subs to "file" my posts under.

This actually makes a lot of sense. I can see now why you run subs like that. In fact one of my biggest gripes with the Reddit post system is how quickly subreddits move, meaning valuable content gets buried by new posts in a day or two. Only posting the highest-quality content makes sense, although it does mean subs are a bit more like static pages of a website.

I often find myself longing for the old-school forum structure, where thread prominence was determined by activity rather than just newness and "upvotes". Truly contributive threads could stick around for years as long as they were active.

There's a difference between "centralizing" and "aggregating" / "filtering" / "selecting" - in my mind if not on paper. SaidIt is a "centralizing" hub of information.

I'm curious to know how you define the difference. These terms can get tricky though. In a neutral sense, "centralization" can simply mean putting things in a central place where they are more easily accessible (something I'd support). But in a negative sense, "centralization" can mean making members dependent on a system that's faulty or leaves them powerless (something I'd be against).

In addition, even though I like the term "decentralization", I feel like it falls short of describing the concept it represents. "Decentralization" seems to suggest a breaking down rather than a building up... it's petty, but I feel a term like "micro-centralization", "re-centralization", or "centralization for the people" would do a better job of describing it as an affirmative act. Not that I'm asking you to use any of those made-up terms, lol.

Also, feel free to let me know (or just take your time to respond) if I'm distracting you. I can take a really long time to write a comment sometimes as well, and it can eat into my time, so I completely understand where you're coming from.

[–]JasonCarswell 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

ProTip: Mulitsubs - just view your favourite subs in one list.

https://saidit.net/s/SaidIt/wiki/multisubs

After magnora7 had a meltdown and threatened to ban me I abandoned all my SaidIt projects for about half a year, and now it's coming on a year for some, including this project to categorize and multisub all the SaidIt subs for people convenience, at least as a starting point, from which they could copy and customize their own.

IMO, SaidIt has a golden opportunity to NOT be like Reddit and people should embrace trying new alternatives, even if they fail and return to the norms.

I agree with the old-forum idea too.

Centralized power is the enemy, because power corrupts absolutely. Aside from that meltdown for whatever reasons, I have yet to see any proof that SaidIt is compromised. Even still it does concern me that it's not a decentralized platform and the public has no easy backup, like WikiSpooks offers. There is no shortage of shit out there, and us SaidIt worker ants collect all the good stuff and bring it here - filtering the good from bad and aggregating. Call it centralizing or collecting or selecting or whatever if you want, and while information is power in a way, it's not raw power like authority or money. Information can battle information and while there may be winners and losers, there's also diverse views at odds that can still be perfectly valid yet contradictory. Authority cannot co-exist with other authority or it becomes a tribal war by economic, military, or other means like spy craft, psyops, propaganda, and 5th generation warfare.

I agree that our words like "decentralize" are limited. I'd prefer "distributed" but that has too many other connotations too.

I make no promises for prompt replies. Sometimes I do and sometimes not. The weekend is slow and instead of dueling wits in discussions I'd been doing other stuff - so my messages are still backed up, but not continuing to pile higher. In short, I welcome the dialogue. In the future I may be busy, but not distracted or annoyed - unless you say absurd things.

[–]JasonCarswell 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)