Ben Werdmuller

Announcing the Science Eye

Here I am debating social media content policies; meanwhile very impressive people I used to work with are building this.  #Technology [Link]

Club Q shooting reshapes Trans Day of Remembrance for Colorado Springs community

“That the shooting took place on the evening before TDOR, a day honoring trans homicide victims, makes the tragedy even more painful, multiple advocacy groups said. They said the shooting is part of a bigger landscape of growing political attacks and harmful rhetoric aimed at trans people.”  #Society [Link]

Moderation on Mastodon: there's a lot of work to do

I’ve realized that I need to temper my enthusiasm for Mastodon. I worked on open source social networking platforms for a full decade of my life, and I’m very emotionally attached to this moment. I really want the fediverse to work. I come by it honestly: I do

Stephen Diehl: Crypto is the ‘commoditisation of populist anger, gambling and crime’

“In my most empathetic reading of crypto investors, look at this country — how many young people feel that they have a chance of getting on the housing ladder? A lot of them feel that they need to invest in higher-risk assets because they need higher returns.”  #Crypto [Link]

We Joined Mastodon. Here’s What We Learned About Privacy and Security

“If you’ve been considering signing up for Mastodon, here are some things we have been thinking about as we take the leap.”  #Technology [Link]

Online mobs are now coming for student journalists

“Targeted online harassment has become a pervasive threat to newsrooms across the country. A 2019 survey by the Committee to Protect Journalists found that 85 percent of respondents believed their career had become less safe in the past five years and more than 70 percent said they experienced safety issues

I told my team to pause our $750K/month Twitter ads budget last week

“I’ve seen a lot of technical and ideological takes on Elon Twitter but wanted to share the marketing perspective. For background I’m a director at a medium sized b2b tech company (not in finserv anymore) running a team that deploys about $80M in ad spend/year.”  #Twitter [Link]

How Stochastic Terrorism Uses Disgust to Incite Violence

“Dehumanizing and vilifying a person or group of people can provoke what scholars and law enforcement officials call stochastic terrorism, in which ideologically driven hate speech increases the likelihood that people will violently and unpredictably attack the targets of vicious claims.”  #Society [Link]

Slocan Statement

“The following is intended as a starting point, a first draft towards establishing a shared charter that would serve to protect, support, and enrich the nascent Fediverse.” A necessary, characteristically thoughtful start from Blaine Cook.  #Technology [Link]

Tweet you again someday

I’ve locked down my Twitter account and removed syndication to the platform. I won’t be posting there regularly. A lot would need to change for me to meaningfully return. You can still find me in plenty of places, which are listed on my homepage. I’m actively posting

COP27: Sharp rise in fossil fuel industry delegates at climate summit

“Campaign group Global Witness found more than 600 people at the talks in Egypt are linked to fossil fuels. That's more than the combined delegations from the 10 most climate-impacted countries.”  #Climate [Link]

A guide to potential liability pitfalls for people running a Mastodon instance

“This is not about just creating a Mastodon account: it's for people who are running a Mastodon server. If you just made an account on someone else's server, you can safely ignore this.” This is actually great advice for anyone running an online community, on Mastodon