Remember when the Internet seemed just wonderful?

When people thought it would usher in an era of world peace and understanding?

Stephen Fry explained this brilliantly 6 years ago

In 2024 thoughtful young US vlogger Joel reacts to what he said.

Great listening to Joel from Maryland at any time! Just 20 years old. I have followed his vlogs for a few years now, from when he was still in high school.

Speaking of the good side of the Internet I spoke of the E M Forster tag “only connect” in a 2022 post about some of the Russian and Ukrainian vlogs I had been following:

I discern it also in vloggers like Joel in Maryland USA who reaches out with eyes open and willingness to find the good in people and the world. It is encouraging that there are in the world young people like Joel and Zack and Nik and Niki and Natasha and Roman and Anna from Ukraine and Pavlo from Ukraine and Konstantin (not quite as young) and Daniil and Artyom and Denis in Vladivostok and so on. And only through technology have I found them — and in some cases have they found one another.

I recall conversations with my boss Dick Stratford in the 1990s about the wonders of the “world-wide web” and similar conversations equally hopeful in The Albury with the late Dowager Empress of Hong Kong. I did not enter this magic kingdom until late 1999! And I too was wonderstruck, and by 2000 had even become a blogger! Though I called it a diary, and what I was doing I called “journalling”, using the term I learned in the 70s through Bob Walshe in the English Teachers Writing Group.

And now? Well, there’s social media — and despite the past couple of days I still like Facebook, even if the crass treatment I copped there in those two days, and described in the last two posts, still rankles.

Fact is Facebook has in many ways been a wonderful means of renewing otherwise lost links, being exposed to great conversations, and so much more…

But there is also:

Stephen Fry again

Meanwhile I have reviewed the way I use Facebook

It could be the Dumbbot yesterday was reacting to the number of posts I was sharing, not the content of the one it removed. Still dumb, of course. However, I trimmed yesterday’s output and much that was on my FB feed or would have been later that day ended up on Mastodon, where humans, not AI and algorithms still rule. It is even possible on Mastodon to put your case to actual human beings,in the event of a troubling post being flagged. I have not had to resort to that, but I have seen it done with other users of Mastodon.

Yes, that is always annoying! But do go to YouTube and watch it.

I announced the changes on FB in a pinned post yesterday:

Yes, using that link on the phone version of my Facebook I can go straight to my Mastodon which renders well. There you can scroll down all the posts I have made there.

Obviously you can in a similar way get from the link to my Mastodon that sits in the Intro box on the top left of the laptop view. So it is easy to find the posts which may not be on Facebook any more. That will include quite a few of the vlogs I have normally featured on Facebook, such as Joel or Roman the Russian.

So, please follow me over to Mastodon, but of course much will also be shared on posts here in the blog. I am due for another vlog catch-up soon.

The Facebook Dumbbot Struck Again!

I was not planning to post on this again but at 8.45 am today….

I had just finished my morning shares to Facebook — Loon Pond had just posted so I, as I have done for years and years every day on Facebook, shared “Dorothy Parker’s” latest press round-up… This one….

Here is the link to that.

Within seconds this garbage hit my feed

So I followed instructions…

And they gave the game away. No rational sentient being with an ounce of intelligence or ability even to read was involved in this high-handed decision.

And you want a review? Well, get you, peasant! This is all we offer. Pathetic or what?

THE BOT HATH SPOKEN! LONG LIVE THE BOT!

For the record, on the earlier occasions the autocensor has struck the response “in a few days” has been —

No doubt that will be the case this time…

Perhaps I should just stop sharing anything on Facebook!

Once upon a time, but within the current year, another bot from FB — let’s call it The Lovebot — would now and again say….

Thankyou for making Facebook a safe place!

Reason? The responsible way I upheld community standards. And I admit I was chuffed, as if an actual human had said that to me! Of course it was as ersatz as the Destructor Bot that visited this morning,

The Humans of Mastodon

Visit me there — or here of course. My Facebooking from this day on will be much more constrained.

There is no longer an effective way to challenge FB when it removes a post

But lunch was good, if not footy tipping…

Yes, another AI generated post dump

This is the offending post:

1,919,061 views Premiered Jun 7, 2024. It does include these words in the description on YouTube:

The first single from Marcin’s upcoming debut album, featuring Tim Henson of Polyphia. Stream the single and pre-order the debut album “Dragon in Harmony” on CD & Vinyl: https://marcin.lnk.to/dragoninharmonyAY Tabs, merch and tour tickets available on https://marcinofficial.com

That presumably is what led to the post’s removal. The relevant section of Community Standards bangs on and on but I guess this was the issue.

Policy rationale

We work hard to limit the spread of spam because we do not want to allow content that is designed to deceive, or that attempts to mislead users, to increase viewership. This content creates a negative user experience, detracts from people’s ability to engage authentically in online communities and can threaten the security, stability and usability of our services. We also aim to prevent people from abusing our platform, products or features to artificially increase viewership or distribute content en masse for commercial gain.

No doubt on YouTube Marcin was hoping for commercial gain, but obviously none of that was due to come to me! So what is their problem? I doubt the friends and relations felt they were being got at — all 228 of them — who are the only people who can read my posts, if they bother — and they don’t always. So this looks like a really sledgehammer approach that clearly no actual living person was involved in. I vented, on Facebook of course, to as many of the 228 who just may have noticed:

I think it may be because the particular video did have a link to somewhere you could get the music? Maybe? But still say 1) Meta is just too big to allow proper person-to-person interaction about things like this, only offering a very short multiple choice menu of “reasons” you might dispute the ruling, none of which are relevant in this case — there is NO scope to write your reason in your own words, and 2) another example of AI being utterly crass.

One nice thing about Mastodon is that if something like this arises there you can actually communicate with a human and make your case.

I make a point of keeping everything I post or share within a reasonable interpretation of the Community Standards.

It may be that my FB will forego all posts except maybe pics of what I have for lunch. Will that work? After all, even Wordle might be spam!

And yes this is about to become tomorrow’s blog post — or part of it — so that it is seen by more than just the friends and relations I confine my FB posts to.

I failed to mention that perhaps half a dozen, maybe more, of my friends on Facebook are actually dead now…. So that reduces the number being “spammed”…

I did have a good lunch

Faithfully letting the world know both on Mastodon and Facebook. On Facebook alone I announced what was to come:

Preparing Sunday lunch. Veg on, kangaroo burger smeared with olive oil ready for grilling. The oil helps keep it moist as the burger is virtually fat free. Onion gravy powder waiting for boiling veg water to be added. For dessert Wicked Sister Creme Caramel selected.

Extremely wanky, sorry to say, episode of Compass on ABC now….

The results lived up to my expectations, and they were shared on FB, Mastodon and now here. I am sure the world is all the better for it! I know I am.

Consistency and colour just right! The roo burger.

Wicked Sister Creme Caramel after gravity has done its work….

Footy tipping, alas…. Bunnies were great though!

I will wait a while before I have a go at Round 17!