Two weeks after workers at the company announced a union drive, Grindr management has issued a return-to-office policy that workers say is retaliatory....
The longlist has been announced! It features work from four continents, four Irish writers, four debut novelists – and ten authors who are recognised by the Booker Prize for the first time...
This is a clickbait headline. I think we should try to avoid these here. At the very least give the main points of the article to avoid giving unnecessary traffic to potentially meaningless articles.
For everyone’s benefit, and for the help of discussion (which is what we want here) here are the main six points from the article:
Let’s look at everything Mastodon gets wrong.
1) Terrible name
Mastodon implies large, slow, frozen, and dead for thousands of years. The logo is cute, but the service right now stinks almost as badly as a thawing woolly mammoth.
2) There is no single Mastodon
In trying to satisfy a spike of new users, Mastodon broke the cardinal rule of social media: it separated them into silos and made it hard if not impossible for them to all socialize. This unfortunate design makes Mastodon feel more like a bunch of chat rooms rather than a cohesive, growing social network. The Federated Timeline helps, but it’s not the default view.
And I get that having a decentralized social media platform, Mastodon creator Eugen Rochko’s big idea, helps create safe zones from groups and topics, but it’s really a terrible approach that will lead to a stagnant growth and way more opinion bubbles, which is the last thing we need.
3) Toots
In trying to be the anti-twitter, Mastodon’s Rochko chose the dumbest and most ridiculous post name possible: Toots. This too-cute take-off on Tweets literally hurts me every time I say and do it on Mastodon.
4) Handles are meaningless
User handles do show up in Toots (blech!) but not in the URLs for users’ Mastodon homepages. Giving users numbers (mine is 995) instead of identifiable website addresses makes Mastodon feel amateurish.
5) Where is everyone?
If you can’t find people by name, then how can you follow them on Mastodon? Someone in one local Mastodon timeline may not appear in another (Sorry, Mr. Shatner). To see everyone (at least I think you see everyone), you have to troll the Federated timeline, open a Toot (blech!) and add them there. Twitter and other social networks already have this stuff figured out. Why is Mastodon better? It’s not!
6) Apps feel like a science project
I started using Mastodon in Safari. It was not a good experience. At least there’s an app…or apps.
There is no one app called Mastodon. Instead, you can find a Github list of apps for the open-source project. Apps like the iOS-based Amaroq let you log into any of the many Mastodon “instances” by typing in the name. Nope, there’s no list of instances because I don’t think anyone knows just how many Mastodon instances are out there.
What About Men? by Caitlin Moran review – bantz gone badA tendentious take on masculinity that takes unoriginal thoughts and confirms them in the echo chamber of TwitterStuart Jeffries Wed 12 Jul 2023 09.00 BST...
Spider-Man posters, wood fires, food rations and car-shaped beds – what children’s bedrooms look like around the world ( www.theguardian.com )
James Mollison’s second volume of Where Children Sleep has been published. This article features edited extracts from it.
Forget ‘quiet quitting’ — ‘loud laborers’ are killing workplace morale. Here’s how to spot them ( www.cnbc.com )
Archived version: archive.ph/Feh55...
‘Times change’: what authors think about rewriting older books ( www.theguardian.com )
Archived version: archive.ph/kBVee...
Jacqueline Wilson says rewriting children’s books can be justified ( www.theguardian.com )
Archived version: archive.ph/WYdpt...
Tech workers react to UPS drivers landing a $170,000-a-year package with a mixture of anger and admiration ( www.businessinsider.com )
Some tech workers questioned whether UPS drivers deserved high pay — others jumped in to note the importance of the jobs and harsh working conditions.
Tech workers react to UPS drivers landing a $170,000 a year package with a mixture of anger and admiration ( www.businessinsider.com )
cross-posted from: lemmy.world/post/2936916...
Squabbles, another recent reddit alternative, seems to be taking the doomed "free speech" path ( i.imgur.com )
Grindr Tells Unionizing Workers: Move Across The Country or Be Fired ( www.vice.com )
Two weeks after workers at the company announced a union drive, Grindr management has issued a return-to-office policy that workers say is retaliatory....
‘I wanted to be No 1. But a certain JK Rowling came along’: Jacqueline Wilson on rivalry, censorship – and love ( www.theguardian.com )
Archived version: archive.ph/HSmIX...
All I want is a job with a decent number of hours – why is that so hard to find? - Sharron Spice, The Guardian ( www.theguardian.com )
Archived version: archive.ph/ZfHr3...
‘What we publish will stay with you’: inside a small but mighty literary hit factory ( www.theguardian.com )
Archived version: archive.ph/eK1Rx...
Douglas's Squirrel ( yiffit.net )
‘I can’t stress how much BookTok sells’: teen literary influencers swaying publishers ( www.theguardian.com )
Archived version: archive.ph/Uz7ql...
Mr Spock belting out showtunes? How Star Trek became a fizzy, frantic romp ( www.theguardian.com )
Archived version: archive.li/FbJx6...
Many people feel they work in pointless, meaningless jobs, research confirms
The theory that many people feel the work they do is pointless because their jobs are “bullshit” has been confirmed by a new study....
The Booker Prize 2023 longlist ( thebookerprizes.com )
The longlist has been announced! It features work from four continents, four Irish writers, four debut novelists – and ten authors who are recognised by the Booker Prize for the first time...
‘It’s exciting, it’s powerful’: how translated fiction captured a new generation of readers ( www.theguardian.com )
Six reasons Mastodon won't survive ( mashable.com )
The hot new thing in social media has some big problems.
How the 'lazy girl job' took over work ( www.bbc.com )
This article is quite light on details. Is this anything new, or just people looking for easy, flexible jobs with a different name?
Why is technology not making us more productive? ( www.bbc.com )
Got tipping rage? This barista reveals what it's like to be behind the tip screen ( www.npr.org )
Excerpt from the article:...
The Crisis Over American Manhood Is Really Code for Something Else ( www.politico.com )
A long read, but definitely a worthwhile one.
Book review: What About Men? by Caitlin Moran (Stuart Jeffries, The Guardian) ( www.theguardian.com )
What About Men? by Caitlin Moran review – bantz gone badA tendentious take on masculinity that takes unoriginal thoughts and confirms them in the echo chamber of TwitterStuart Jeffries Wed 12 Jul 2023 09.00 BST...