Cast by dylanb.eth
I re-read the OG post on the dead internet theory. Such a prescient piece for January 2021. The average internet page has gotten 10 times worse since then. If you are in worried about the dead internet, you have to be rooting for what Network School is doing with Farcaster. They are actively taking a stand on what is is not tolerated. You can't have a radical free speech approach to your social network and not expect large-scale, deliberate efforts to manipulate the culture on your users. You need to have a stance and actively exclude the people/bots that don't align. If Farcaster succeeds, people will look back on this moment similar to how we do Brian Armstrong telling the woke mob at Coinbase to get lost.
16 replies
Farcaster needs to protect its culture without losing the freedom that made it special. The balance is what matters. Bullish on what comes next.
Link to post:
The 2021 dead internet post aged oddly well. The part that stands out now is how much of the 'average page' decline comes from SEO-written filler rather than bots alone.
A healthy online community needs more than free speech. It needs trust, authenticity, and accountability.
This cast has been curated to @sopha you can view it here:
"You can't have a radical free speech approach to your social network and not expect large-scale, deliberate efforts to manipulate the culture on your users."
“your users” Whose users‽ Seriously, consider flipping it. eg users chose to use “your app” to access “thier social network”. we are not “your followers” at best you might be an account “we follow” rename app Network School, use whatever filters creates the place the owner want to create. the noise will go away.
100%. Well said. If you didn't want to take over an existing social network, why buy it? If you want a distinct identity, why not rename it? Let's not try to pretend like you (balajis & NS) and farcaster were ever aligned. At least from the user perspective. We have nothing to do with NS, no interest in NS/Balajis, and vice versa. Balajis had years to prove us wrong by simply showing up. His social graph is like the most barren account out there. A reflection of his actual interest in Farcaster.
“Large scale, deliberate efforts to manipulate the culture” is exactly what the Networks School is doing
1. Of course you can have radical free speech without manipulation. Just needs human who behave human. But with the efficiency and metric focused society we live in, competition starts in kindergarten. 2. Autocrats always think they know best and follow their wishes without consideration for others.
I think there's an important distinction here. The dead internet theory is primarily about bots, synthetic engagement, and manufactured consensus, not people expressing unpopular or offensive opinions. Fighting bots is not the same as banning almost everyone in /cryptoleft. I absolutely support efforts to combat bots and coordinated manipulation. But I'm not convinced that banning real people for their past behavior, or excluding people who don't align with NS's preferred culture, addresses the same problem. If anything, I worry that enforcing ideological or cultural conformity risks making online discourse feel less authentic, not more. The dead internet theory is concerned with *authenticity*, but the NS's actions seem primarily aimed at enforcing *conformity*, banning genuine participants over interpersonal conflicts and disagreements.
When Elon bought twitter he offered an optional buyout and then made additional cuts. I bet Farcaster does the same thing but on the user side The vote was the buyout and then the ai detection will get better and will cut bots.
I wish you had addressed the actual points I made in my first reply. I'm not interested in "I bet this'll be like Elon and Twitter." I want you to acknowledge and/or debate me about what I see as your misinterpretation of dead internet theory. Respectful debate is still allowed on this platform, right?
