Path: ...!eternal-september.org!feeder2.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: Wolfgang Agnes <wagnes@jemoni.to>
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Netnews: The Origin Story
Date: Thu, 07 Nov 2024 13:12:41 -0300
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Rich <rich@example.invalid> writes:

> D <nospam@example.net> wrote:
>> 
>> On Wed, 6 Nov 2024, Rich wrote:
>> 
>>> D <nospam@example.net> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> On Wed, 6 Nov 2024, Rich wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> D <nospam@example.net> wrote:
>>>>>> This is the truth!  As a thought experiment I sometimes think 
>>>>>> about how I would be able to handle usenet if it had 10x the nr 
>>>>>> of posts, and I don't think I would.
>>>>>
>>>>> Been there, seen that....  Circa 1995 (I forget which groups now) 
>>>>> the text posting volume was so great in the few groups I was 
>>>>> following that it was not possible to keep up.  I was always 
>>>>> behind, and falling further behind each day.  Eventually the fall 
>>>>> behind problem reached a point where I decided to just drop out.  
>>>>> So I disappeared for a good ten years or so.  Of course, when I 
>>>>> did return again, Usenet was a shadow of its former self as far as 
>>>>> text posting rates go.
>>>>>
>>>>>> It would have to be either a laser focus on a very small nr of 
>>>>>> groups, or aggressive filtering of the subject lines.
>>>>>
>>>>> One did have to do both, and even so, the volume was impossible to 
>>>>> keep up with if the group was at all active.
>>>>
>>>> This is an interesting problem. How is it solved in modern social media?
>>>
>>> If by "modern social media" you mean the likes of FB and its ilk, 
>>> presumably by having "the algorithm" showing you stuff, and then you 
>>> just doom scroll through the algorithm driven feed.  And if stuff 
>>> does not get put on your feed, you are unaware of its existance.
>>>
>> 
>> Ah, so probably just setting some keywords in my client and filter based 
>> on those. Not a very satisfactory solution.
>
> Except with "modern social media" you (the user) don't get to "just 
> set[ting] some keywords" for the "algorithm".  The "algorithm" does it 
> all for you by magic.  Which, unfortunately, leaves you at the mercy of 
> the allmighty "algorithm" as to what you see, and provides a great 
> opportunity for the "algorithm" to bias your world view into whatever 
> its creators want your world view to be by selective showing or 
> omission of various posts to your feed.

In other words, it's unacceptable---period.