My cousin alluded to my penchant for social media when asked the question “Where’s Waldo of Cyberspace”. I have some answers. Let’s start at the beginning when I worked at Digital Equipment Corporation.

VAXnotes – An Online Forum

In the early 1990s the clever folks at Digital Equipment Corporation developed an online notes conference that had three goals.

• Community of Purpose
• Community of Practice
• Community of Interest

These forums were developed as a way for us to collaborate in our work. However the Community of Interest goal captured the most interest. Topics exploded from everything from UFO’s to Beermaking. Included was something called SOAPBOX which was a place to rant. However it was a lot more polite and civilized than the hellscape that is Twitter. It was moderated and had rules. Some of the current social sites should follow this example

Soapbox Conference Policy

Nov 17, 1994

(1) SOAPBOX is a general discussion conference. The ideal of Soapbox
is a clash of ideas in a free and open forum. All Digital employees
are welcome to participate to communicate matters of opinions and
common interests.

Responsibility

(1) The author of a note is fully responsible for its content.

(2) The moderators are responsible for reviewing the contents of
SOAPBOX to insure that material posted in it meets the letter and
spirit of Digital Personnel Policies, as described in policy 6.54.
This is the one and only responsibility assumed by the moderators.
The participants are expected to have read and understood the
applicable policies.

(1) Soapbox may not be used for purposes that are contrary to Digital
Company philosphy or policy, for purposes that interfere or compete
with the Company’s business activities, or for purposes of individual
financial gain.

Examples of misuse include, but are not limited to, transmitting sexual
or ethnic jokes or slurs, soliciting other employees, developing chain
letters, making defamatory statements, disclosing private facts about any
individual or organization, inappropriate disclosure of Company Proprietary
or Confidential Information, permitting unauthorized access, etc.

(2) SOAPBOX may not be used to harass or abuse others.  Harassment
occurs when someone takes offense with some statement, asks for it
to stop, and the act is not stopped.  Offensive statements are not
statements that one may disagree with but statements with the intent
of provoking anger, persistent insulting language, or ridicule.

(3) SOAPBOX must not be used to discuss matters that could provide the
basis for a legal action against a corporation or person, other than
a public figure, or that could affect the outcome of a pending legal
action.  SOAPBOX must not be used to advocate or organize criminal
behavior, or compromise the personal integrity of Digital employees.

Discussion of public facts in legal cases regarding public figures who
are not Digital employees is permitted.

(4) Digital policy is clear that neither obscenity nor "fighting words"
are permitted in SOAPBOX. This includes, but is not limited to,
vulgar terms for private body parts, sexual activities, excrement,
excertory functions, and ancestry.  Substitution of one or more letters
in a recognizable obscenity by a non-alphabetic character will not
be allowed.

Terms such as PO'd, BS, SOB, and FUBAR, that are derived from
obscenities but have passed into the general vocabulary, as well as
comic-book oaths composed solely of non-alphabetic characters, will be
allowed in general discussion (but not as a characterization of a Digital
employee or employees, whether explicitly named or not).

Within this overriding context, otherwise inappropriate language will
be allowed on a case-by-case basis in accurate quotation of public
(non-Dec) figures where the quotation is directly relevant to the sense
of the posting.  In such case, the words must be properly spelled and
not "masked" using non-alphabetic characters.

At the discretion of the moderators (or after complaint), such notes
may be returned with the instructions that they be reposted with
objectionable words replaced by a neutral term such as "barnyard epithet."

(5) Notes which, in the judgment of the moderators, are disruptive of
the conference or the purpose of the conference are prohibited.  This
includes, but is not limited to, cryptic, encoded, null, or
incomprehensible notes; notes intended to "test the limits;" or
notes that appear to be feuds between participants.

(6) Notes which contain detailed discussion of sexual matters or
practices are prohibited.

(7) To ensure that all employees are guaranteed access to SOAPBOX,
read-only notes will only be used for administrative purposes or
as a repository for reference material.  The moderators will be
responsible for all read-only notes.

Guide to VAXnotes and other resources

Twitter

I was on Twitter for 14 years. At first it was fun, posting haiku in less than 140 characters. It turned bad when TFG was President. I liked reading the snarky remarks about this postings. But the number of Russian bots made it an uncomfortable place to be. Once Musk took over it became a hellscape. One reason I stayed was to read Pearls from Myrna, but found out that she had started to use Mastodon. I followed her there.

Mastodon

Mastodon is a decentralized open-source social media application. Instances of the application run on various servers in what they call the Federation. However these instances can communication with each other. I signed up for a similar decentralized app called Diaspora but never got past understanding what a POD was. Mastodon is a lot easier. I signed up and found Mryna. You TOOT! instead of TWEET! and a number of Twitter refugees have signed up.

WT.Social

WT.Social and its founders are committed to creating an accurate and evidence-based platform for journalism by staff and a global community.

They intend to hold those involved to the highest ethical standards evident in examples of best practice in the media industry and online collaborative platforms.

Accuracy, a neutral point of view, clarity, sourcing, intellectual rigour and fairness are central to the vision the WT.Social founders have of an open journalism platform in which staff and community members share a common responsibility to quality and truth telling in news.

WT.Social will work against bias in what it publishes, and make its journalism open to amendment, correction, and disagreement while always striving for accuracy and impartiality. Legal compliance may require deletion of material, editing and even the restriction of user rights.

WT.Social is owned by a privately held for-profit company registered in the United Kingdom and will always strive to be transparent in its policies, staffing and decisions that affect the WT.Social platform, staff and the community.

We will deal with corrections, deletions, notice-and-takedown requirements, conflicts of interest and any issues of changes to or removal of journalistic content in a clear manner based on policies and the experience of the staff team and the expertise present in the community.

Ethics statement in the rest of the media industry we think can help guide us, include:
– The Trust Principles of Thomson Reuters
– ProPublica Code of Ethics
– WT.Social isn’t part of Wikipedia, however, the “five pillars” which underpin that project are broadly applicable to the approach WT.Social is taking

Ethics Statement

Facebook and all the others

I still use Facebook for keeping up with friends and family. They are not going to jump platforms. I’ll stay on Twitter to watch Musk flail around trying to save it. Mastodon seems to be a good alternative to Twitter. WT.Social has the greatest potential for actual social interaction. We’ll assess that after a few months. Look for me on these plaforms.

• https://www.facebook.com/PoltrackNet
• https://mastodon.world/web/@John38E
• https://wt.social/u/john-poltrack
• https://twitter.com/jpoltrack