What Bulletin Board Systems got right and social media gets wrong
1002 sats \ 5 comments \ @k00b 11 Sep 2022 bitcoin
I've been attempting to research social network history (among other things) to get a grip on all real world "trials" beyond the social networks currently running. Beyond the obvious problems with their ad driven business models, The Modem World ends with a decent synopsis of the differences:
[...] unlike the sysops who enabled the flourishing of early online communities, the volunteer moderators on today's platforms do not own the infrastructures they oversee. The do not share the profits generated by their labor. The cannot alter the underlying software or implement new technical interventions or social reforms. Instead of growing in social status, the role of the sysop seems to have been curtailed by the providers of platforms. If there is a future after Facebook, it will be led by the revival of the sysop, a reclamation of the social and economic value of community maintenance and moderation.
Next stop USENET newsgroups.
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0 sats \ 4 replies \ @mrbrownstone 11 Sep 2022
So the answer is... what? Moderators are more communistic?
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101 sats \ 2 replies \ @k00b OP 11 Sep 2022
I’m not sure what you mean. “Moderators” used to get paid, have more customization options, and weren’t dependent on a platform. Seems less communistic rather than more
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @mrbrownstone 11 Sep 2022
OK, got it.
Still is that the entire difference? I was expecting much more.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @k00b OP 11 Sep 2022
Definitely not, but these are some of the most important and relevant differences.
Others: they were geographically focused due to using telephone networks which has pros/cons, they would onboard new people via a voice phone call (something I kind want a modern version of), and when switching between BBSs you’d basically have a new identity because they were independent.
It’s the subject of a whole book so there’s a lot of interesting anecdotes. One of the most popular BBSs, The WELL, was entirely financially supported by a Grateful Dead sub-community hosted on it. Most of the other users didn’t even know that sub-community existed.
There were other traits of their communities that emerged but they are consistent with the online communities that followed: people who might not otherwise meet or find certain information (due to stigma or whatever), did.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @nout 11 Sep 2022
I'm interested in what is your definition of "communism"?
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