A long time ago, in the land before Facebook, I ran (owned the server, etc.) a forum for the town I lived in at that time… Crothersville. We had administrators to help keep posters in line.
The only rule was that PERSONAL insults weren’t allowed. You could say whatever you wanted about a PUBLIC persona, but PERSONAL attacks were not allowed. That worked pretty well at the time, and it was fun. Then along came Facebook and Twitter and Instagram.
I’m no expert, and I “get it” that these entities are owned by someone other than the people posting there. We always said that the forum we owned was our backyard… and people were not allowed to go there and just poop. If you visited our backyard, you behaved in the manner we expected backyard visitors to behave.
But we did NOT make people believe the way we did. We allowed opinions to be shared. I guess that’s why I’m not sure I like the way social media is policing posts these days. I don’t know the answers… because people tend to believe what they read. I understand that hidden powers manipulate this fact on social media outlets.
Having said that, social media has become awfully controlled in that regard. A visit to Facebook and Twitter and you’ll find a whole lot of posts blocked. If not blocked, they are often tagged with “misinformation.” And, I’m fed “Election Updates” upon every single visit. “Election Updates” isn’t an ad paid for by anyone; it’s not a group; it’s Facebook, y’all.
This, in my opinion (and this is MY yard so I can say it), is more troublesome than who is elected President.
And finally, my office has a view!
TIL (Today I Learned): Jimmy Carter had a cat during his presidency named Misty Malarky Ying Yang. Yes, seriously…
How severe the pandemic is in the places where people I care about are located…
Daily new COVID-19 cases (7 day moving average):
Indiana-53.0 (way up); Jackson Co – 46.5 (way up); Florida 21.7 (up); Nevada – 32.7 (up)
Our president-elect is forming a COVID task force tomorrow. I’m sure all this will be fixed soon. 🙄