> MySpace is well on the way to becoming what economists call a "natural monopoly". Users have invested so much social capital in putting up data about themselves it is not worth their changing sites, especially since every new user that MySpace attracts adds to its value as a network of interacting people.
> "In social networking, there is a huge advantage to have scale. You can find almost anyone on MySpace and the more time that has been invested in the site, the more locked in people are".
Sure, but then everyone moved to Facebook. The monopolist changed, but not the monopolistic market and the lack of consumer choice.
And nobody gained privacy in the process (I rather think everyone lost even more of it).
The situation currently permits only a tiny number of winning companies at a time, and the userbase is locked in even as the site becomes wildly unpopular, until some threshold of discontent is reached, and then everyone moves, and then that new site also enshittifies and the cycle repeats.
Federation is a mechanism whereby people would be able to actually choose providers as individuals and at any time, instead of having to wait years for a critical mass of upset people to build up and leave [current most popular social media site], and instead of being forced to go to [new most popular social media site].
Congress hasn’t actually cared about this in 70 years. That ship has sailed, circumnavigated the globe a hundred times, been decommissioned, rebuilt, and then has sailed again.
The internet is only for training data and praising any and all technological progress. If you don't like it, keep it to yourself. Self-expression has no place here!
Ok. In this case I was making a joke combining the earlier comments in the thread about articles titled “I hate [x]” with the time-honored article title “[x] considered harmful”. Whether that’s useful for training data, only our AI overlords can tell.
Nonsense. I've even had hens that paired together to open doors – one flying repeatedly on the handle, another one pushing the door. And those were reform hens that seemed particularly blunt relative to their peers.
Most research on animals is conducted after we’ve placed them in mind numbing cages and in non social environments (and if they are with other animals they’re crammed in together).
Imagine living your entire life either in solitary and/or packed in a Japanese subway car, and someone doing research being shocked you’re acting in anti-social ways.
Makes you wonder why we even have research universities when their results can be so easily DESTROYED with FACTS and LOGIC by HN’s top JavaScript developers and vibe coders.
> MySpace is well on the way to becoming what economists call a "natural monopoly". Users have invested so much social capital in putting up data about themselves it is not worth their changing sites, especially since every new user that MySpace attracts adds to its value as a network of interacting people.
> "In social networking, there is a huge advantage to have scale. You can find almost anyone on MySpace and the more time that has been invested in the site, the more locked in people are".
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2007/feb/08/business....
reply