Post AXcdX9WUc43YmBsWMi by fl0_id@mastodon.social
(DIR) More posts by fl0_id@mastodon.social
(DIR) Post #AXcMBgu47wPwiB5KF6 by john@sauropods.win
2023-07-12T12:09:31Z
1 likes, 1 repeats
Sometimes I wonder why academics aren't stampeding from corporate social media to Mastodon, and then I remember: these are the same people that give corporations their work for free to be sold back to them at extortionate prices, and then measure their value on how often they do that.Political geniuses they are not.#academia #politics #Mastodon
(DIR) Post #AXcPmriTBfqSpB4wj2 by danudwary@mstdn.science
2023-07-12T12:49:53Z
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@john You're not wrong. But also:- Many academics are luddites- Few are used to (or desire) centralized communications- Academic institutions are staffed by people with similar values, and will never push anything other than emails
(DIR) Post #AXcQB7PgTgT8SRrBFg by john@sauropods.win
2023-07-12T12:54:13Z
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@danudwary I’m actually talking about the academics that are on Twitter mostly. Many of them are going to Bluesky 🤪 or trying to stick it out on Twitter 🤪.
(DIR) Post #AXcQOqjHIyn8leZLRQ by aram@aoir.social
2023-07-12T12:56:44Z
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@john as an academic, it's frustrating to see so many of my colleagues choosing commercial alternatives over this place. But I'd say that as a profession, we're still overrepresented here relative to everyone else.
(DIR) Post #AXcQfj5mx6JS0N95kW by john@sauropods.win
2023-07-12T12:59:48Z
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@aram yes, academics are over represented on Mastodon. But personally, I’ve found artists more receptive than academics. Techies are the most over represented group because they understand what is going on.
(DIR) Post #AXcQjc2x5eF3JMfjHs by danudwary@mstdn.science
2023-07-12T13:00:23Z
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@john Yeah, understood. I'm only a reformed academic, and it is frustrating. What's worse, if Threads works out its algorithm, it's probably going to win science Twitter. 😩 I'm on bsky now too, and it's not very useful for science, for certain, though it is fun in that old Twitter nonsense way. I don't mind fragmenting my social media, but ymmv.bsky: funmasto: sciencetwitter: angry yelling (i need that too!)threads: dunno
(DIR) Post #AXcR8trTzWkHnrMi6S by john@sauropods.win
2023-07-12T13:04:57Z
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@danudwary personally, I can’t keep up with more than one social media presence with any consistency. Mastodon is it for me.If Threads wins there is the consolation prize that we can federate if we choose. Some sort of bridge might be possible with Bluesky, but Twitter’s a lost cause.
(DIR) Post #AXcRMO2N6uBz9itD8q by danudwary@mstdn.science
2023-07-12T13:07:32Z
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@john I can only speak for my own experience, but I've been on mastodon for a while now, but still checked Twitter daily. Since I got on Bluesky, I'm all Masto and bsky, and don't feel that obsessive need to "keep up" on Twitter. It's weird.
(DIR) Post #AXcbiCjSp0N80T5Up6 by DrKevGuitar@mastodon.social
2023-07-12T15:03:18Z
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@john I agree. Academia is an ‘excellent’ example of a large and organised group of people go could easily and quickly act together to change an abusive system, but who refuse to do so.Having said that compared to Spoutible, which is the other place that I currently frequent, Mastadon is undoubtedly the white academic space.
(DIR) Post #AXcdX9WUc43YmBsWMi by fl0_id@mastodon.social
2023-07-12T15:23:57Z
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@john and they are often captive in an even weirder amalgam of capitalism, clout chasing and ideally also pursuit of knowledge
(DIR) Post #AXcezx95oKaOjyEKX2 by sidereal@kolektiva.social
2023-07-12T15:40:19Z
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@john the main reason I’ve never gone to grad school is my BA is in economics and all of my professors were broke. At this point I’d literally rather become a monk than go to grad school, at least they get housing and food in the deal
(DIR) Post #AXdVv7o62X7TvdzZsu by KanaMauna@sauropods.win
2023-07-13T01:33:13Z
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@john I can only speak from my experience working in US government bodies but:* Procurement rules drive everything* Procurement is heavily tilted towards big corporate industry standards. * We are generally forbidden from using free software, unless it came from the big corporations above (after vetting by procurement).* Agencies hate spending limited funds on staff and servers. Using Twitter, Facebook, etc., takes care of that problem.
(DIR) Post #AXeN2PBL8Mg5PiDkJs by esdalmaijer@mastodon.online
2023-07-13T11:28:27Z
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@john While I genuinely share your frustration, I think it’s also important to consider they’re all just human. Twitter was only great because of the community on there, and Mastodon simply doesn’t have that same community (yet?). There are also weird interactions with other platforms: when I deleted my Twitter, all my papers’ Altmetric scores suddenly sunk because people’s retweets of mine were now gone and Altmetric noticed. What if your CV needs that?
(DIR) Post #AXeOyCyklKCIJhSZxw by john@sauropods.win
2023-07-13T11:50:09Z
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@esdalmaijer I’m not particularly frustrated, because I’m not an academic. It was an observation from the outside. Academics seem to be particularly atomised, and unable to take collective action over stuff they largely control, despite their often strong leftist rhetoric. They’re being collectively eaten alive by metrics like impact factors and whatever this altmetric thing is.
(DIR) Post #AXeecJB6dDmMRHoiZs by esdalmaijer@mastodon.online
2023-07-13T14:45:08Z
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@john As an inside observer, I agree. The system is inherently conservative (in the literal sense) because you don’t want to rock the boat on the loooong road to an established position, and when you’re finally there the system-as-is works for you.On top of that, many academics are also somewhat conservative in the political sense because most of them come from relatively wealthy backgrounds. Less affluent people are filtered out through years of precarious and low-pay contracts.