Another reason to love Linux

[gaines_wright]

  From a recent interview with Linus Torvalds, for whom the Linux OS is named:

"Linux Journal: If you had to fix one thing about the networked world, what would it be?
Linus: Nothing technical. But, I absolutely detest modern "social media" -- Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. It's a disease. It seems to encourage bad behavior..."

 Amen!

"Add in anonymity, and it's just disgusting. When you don't even put your real name on your garbage (or the garbage you share or like), it really doesn't help. I'm actually one of those people who thinks that anonymity is overrated....." 

  One of the things I've always disliked about this forum is its social media aspects:  The ranking system, new poster, freshman, etc.  All these kudos  ( likes ) flying around.

  Here I was merrily interneting along, and then I upgraded to gen5, and immediately started having data usage problems, and I posted here about it.  Been here off and on ever since.  If it's a desease, I guess I've caught it.  :>)>  

   If anybody interested, here's a link to some more of the interview:

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/04/03/1829244/linus-torvalds-on-social-media-its-a-disease-it-see...

[MarkJFine]

"...It seems to encourage bad behavior..."

Not certain 'encourage' is the correct term, but it certainly does provide an environment where people feel freer to say and 'do' things that they would normally never do in public. In my opinion it's more dangerous in that it tends to accelerate a breakdown in societal courtesy because it masquerades as a convenient form of communication.

It's also nothing really new. Usenet's been dealing with it for decades, as did Fido did before that. It's just that it's become so widely proliferated on a device that people now always have on them and can't seem to just put away that makes it worse.

[maratsade]

Don't get the kudo phobia. It's just a shortcut for saying, "I agree," or "I like what you say," or "way to go," or many other things. Not everything about social media is wrong -- most of the ills of social media come from ill-mannered users. Ill-mannered people exist in real life too; they are rude and discorteous in public, without hiding their identities. Blaming the medium seems a bit shortsighted.

[MarkJFine]

I know many people simply use likes/favs/kudos as 'read' flags and/or an acknowledgement that they saw it. I can see how some can misinterpret that especially if taken literally.

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What bothers me are those that use it as an ego boost and exploit others for the sake of getting large counts of likes or RTs. For example: It's obvious what they're doing when used as 'voting' for one thing or another (Fav for this, RT for the other; as in player comparisons (another thing I sincerely dislike)). Twitter introduced a voting capability years ago, so the practice is completely transparent but it hasn't stopped them.

There are other annoyances I see on Twitter all the time that are even more heinous.

[GabeU]

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@MarkJFine wrote:

Segue...

What bothers me are those that use it as an ego boost and exploit others for the sake of getting large counts of likes or RTs.  

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Those "like farming" posts are extremely annoying (as well as possibly dangerous), and though I have a relatively small Friends list on Facebook due to only "friending" people I know personally, or know well through other means, I still see shares of these posts on my News Feed.  It's ludicrous.

I actually prefer the rank and kudo system here as opposed to the old support community, as I think the ranking, more than anything, implies trustworthiness.  And being that rank is more or less earned instead of being bestowed like the Champion status, there're a lot fewer "shill" accusations.  With that said, one flaw I do see here is people being able to choose their own replies as solutions, even if one of their replies truly is the solution.  It's a way to artificially inflate rank, and that trustworthiness along with it.  

[C0RR0SIVE]

Ehh, BBS/Forums have been around a long time, that was the "Social Media" before the likes of FB, Myspace, and god knows what else came along with the creation of smartphones.

I would gladly go back to old school forums, but even those had likes/dislikes if it was coded in back in the late 90's and early 00's.

[gaines_wright]

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@C0RR0SIVE wrote:

Ehh, BBS/Forums have been around a long time, that was the "Social Media" before the likes of FB, Myspace, and god knows what else came along with the creation of smartphones.

I would gladly go back to old school forums, but even those had likes/dislikes if it was coded in back in the late 90's and early 00's.

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  I think the biggest reason I've stayed here for so long is that it reminds me of my old BBS days.  Back then I only hung around a couple of boards, the main one being a 'C' programming forum on which nobody used handles.  I must of stopped following BBSs before the social aspects became popular.  I kind of agree with Linus, except I would say it encourages childish behavior rather than just bad behavior.

  To show what an old curmudgeon I am, I don't even have a smartphone.  People seem amazed when they ask for my cell phone number and I tell them I don't have one.   A little white lie, actually I have an old flip phone in my pocket which is turned off except on those rare occasions when I need to make a call.