Jack Dorsey has long articulated the goal of promoting “healthy conversation” on Twitter. I assume this means sterile conversation where no “marginalized” group will ever be offended by anything. I can see this in my own feed with an increasing number of tweets being “unavailable” and reports from my followers that my handle no longer auto-populates. There is also a nifty little bit of throttling that has gone on on my account which impairs my ability to grow and maintain followers and has decreased the number of interactions I get.
And I really don’t think I go out of my way to offend people. I do my best not to swear, use offensive language and even scrubbed my timeline of offensive language from years ago. It is now possible to report years old tweets and get an account locked. I have been locked for old retweets where I took Breitbart’s advice and retweeted the hate I received. That is correct. My account was locked for things other users said in the old quote tweet format. I counter Sally Kohn’s ideas. I do not insult her looks.
However, I am probably often guilty of “wrong-think” according to the Twitter overlords. And Jack wants to keep me “safe” from people who think like me. you know, people who think being a woman requires two X chromosomes and that we might want to control who enters our country at the border. What a hero.
Now the people responsible for implementing the policy and technology to promote healthy conversation will be speaking at the Code Conference this evening June 10, 2019 at 5:45. According to Vox, Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s policy and legal chief and Kayvon Beykpour, the product lead will be talking about implementing Jack’s vision. If Gadde’s appearance on Joe Rogan is any indication, she is unable to explain high profile decisions the platform has already made, so this should be great. If you are interested in hearing what the future looks like you may see the videos here later this evening.
For me, this debate has become pedantic and boring. The company has a transparently left leaning bias and has bent to the woke mob believing words typed on a screen are violence of some sort. Why Twitter ever let themselves be bullied into policing the content of speech beyond what is illegal and public doxing, I will never know. Adults have a block and mute button that are completely functional. Seems like that should be sufficient.
Twitter has needlessly complicated their business model for no apparent reason. They can’t even figure out out to verify that I am who I say I am and regularly publish content. Some real geniuses here folks. I envision Twitter in 5 years as a dozen miserable feminist tweeting about their cats. Job well done folks.
So I am searching for alternatives to engage in conversation with other adults. Here is my assessment of where I have landed so far:
- Parler – Promising platform that is very “Twitter-Like”. Verification is easy if you are comfortable with it and I like know I am talking to real people. My follower count is growing steadily and interaction is easy. Downside is fast growth has cause some technical glitches, but I am willing to wait it out. Definitely leans right and may become somewhat of an echo chamber.
- CloutHub – Aesthetically, this is my favorite platform. Posts look really sharp and interaction is easy. It is probably a little more analogous to Facebook. There are features in development that sound really interesting such as Groups, a Newsroom and a Library.
- Minds –Â Run on blockchain technology, it probably provides the most user privacy. You own your data and if marketing comes on to the platform, I believe it will be permission marketing that you agree to view. For content issues they have implemented a jury system where users adjudicate the content.
- IDW Community – If you like heterodox opinions, this is a great site. I am a big fan of this group of commentators and many IDW fans are beginning to content there. It is built largely on groups around certain personalities or topics and focused on rational discussions among adults.
Facebook has already reverted to a place almost exclusively for communicating with family and friends. They company deemphasizes political and issues content after the problems they encountered in the 2016 election. Twitter is going to turn into something, and who knows what that is going to look like. It seems like the perfect time for the free market to go to work and provide alternatives to the legacy platforms. Keep your eyes open. Someone is going to step into the video space too.
We are currently forming the American Conservative Movement. If you are interested in learning more, we will be sending out information in a few weeks.
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One Sick Day Proves We Need More Voices in Truthful Media
On October 19, I was sick. It crossed my mind that I had finally gotten the ‘rona, but my wife’s cream of chicken soup and a few extra hours of sleep into mid-afternoon had be back up and running after a sleepless night before.
When I finally stumbled over to my computer in the evening, I was met with a deluge of concern from readers. They asked what had happened as only one article had been posted that day. Generally, we post between 10-20 daily between all of the sites, not included curated and aggregated content. Seeing that we’d only posted my super-early morning article before taking the rest of the day off had readers assuming the worst.
We have a wonderful and talented group of writers who volunteer their time for the sites and their readers. Sharing their amazing perspectives has always been a blessing to us because we cannot afford to hire anyone at this time. But having great writers is meaningless if we don’t have great editors, or at least one additional. My wife helps me read and edit stories from time to time, but I’m a one-man show when it comes to getting the stories posted.
Whenever I highlight our desperate need for donations, I note that we do not receive money from Google ads even though most in conservative media are beholden. I often ambiguously note that the money donated will help us grow. Today, I’m highlighting a specific need. We must get an editor to help take some of the load and to expand on our mission of spreading the truth to the world. One sick day proved that.
The great news is that there is no shortage of people who CAN help. I am emailed variations of resumes every week by people who are much smarter than I am. As much as I’d love to hire some of them, we simply cannot. That takes money and as blessed as we’ve been to receive donations and collect ad money (though not from Google or Facebook), we have still fallen short.
Those who have the means, PLEASE consider donating. We have the standard Giving Fuel option and people can donate through PayPal. We are also diving into what we believe is extremely disruptive technology at LetsGo.finance, the world’s first major donation portal for crypto. I’ll be talking a lot more about them in the near future. Those who prefer Bitcoin can send to my address here: 3A1ELVhGgrwrypwTJhPwnaTVGmuqyQrMB8
We can get the voices out there and we’re willing to shine a spotlight on new talent. We just need the resources to make it happen. If you can help, we would be extremely grateful.
Thank you and God bless!
JD Rucker
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JD Rucker – EIC
@jdrucker
