Would you consume your own content?

Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 80 points –

..and do you think that you posting it has a positive, neutral or negative effect on the world?

By content I mean what ever you're posting online. The pictures you post on Instagram/Pixelfed or messages you're writing on Lemmy, YouTube comment section, Facebook and so on.

If you look back at what you have posted in the past year for example, do you consider it to be the kind of content that you would gladly consume if it was coming from someone else? If not, then why are you posting it in the first place?

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My comments are pure Internet gold. I'm actually only here to read my own comments. It helps me remember how brilliant and humble I am.

My posts help people discover the game MineTest Luanti. It's pretty great, and it's free.

You actually did reminde me to try minetest again right now! I tried it last like a decade ago and been meaning to try again

What made me think about this is my girlfriend, who is quite vocal about the harms social media can have on the mental health of young girls, especially when influencers post heavily edited photos of themselves and their lives, which for the most part are fake.

However, she's active on social media as well, and being quite an attractive woman, she seems oblivious to what I consider a factual statement: her own content is also causing the same kind of concerns for other women who are not as genetically blessed as she is. What she's posting is not fake, but it is heavily curated nonetheless. She obviously knows this herself, but do her followers?

I don't personally follow her social media, but I'd be willing to bet she hasn't posted about being sick for a week and not taking a shower for four days. I don't mean that as a criticism per se, but I think it highlights how little we think about the effect our own content has on others while still being quick to judge others for what they post.

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Arguably, if you’re producing your own content then you’re consuming it too. It takes a lot of watch and/or listen multiple times to produce a final product which means you’re more than consuming it.

I lose count of how many times I replay a given animation shot before I consider it final. Probably 300 or 400

I occasionally go through my old comments to see how things got received, see if I could improve my wording, things like that. General communications skill polishing. It's not consuming as much as critically reviewing, but whatever.

Since I'm adding engagement on lemmy, and I do put some effort in to be amusing or informative or whatever (usually anyway), yes I do feel like I am helping. If I was on reddit or something, not so much.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has ever done that! Haha

Sure. Heck, occasionally I do actually do that, like if I post a piece of information that I've looked up and then refer back to it later.

Yes, and I often reread my own comments and feel a deep sense of satisfaction.

You're not alone in that.

I also reread your comments sometimes with a deep sense is satisfaction.

(I'm kidding. Although I did check your comment history to make sure you weren't a monster before even making that joke.)

My toxic trait is never posting anything I wouldn't want read aloud in front of my grandmother.

I don't post almost anything online. I mostly just comment. But even the comments I make I sometimes consume as content - I really like comming back and rereading them to enjoy how good and smart I've been.

My 'content ' is almost entirely dumb comments that are often barely related to the post. Definitely not adding to the world, but hopefully no one takes it seriously enough for it to have any negative impact other than just wasted space.

hopefully no one takes it seriously enough for it to have any negative impact

There is always one, and their goal always seems to be to frustrate you into engaging with them

Lemmy has actually made me more thoughtful about this. Like a lot of people here, I was previously on reddit, where most interactions were pretty toxic. Now I do try to think about how my contributions make the platform better or more useful for others.

I was a "top 1% poster" on reddit (according to them), but it was mostly garbage and reposts and "zingers" so even though it got a lot of updoots, it was not really helpful to people. There were some communities that were exceptions, where I put a lot of effort, research, etc., but they were more niche.

If it's any consolation, reddit sort of trains you to post things like that because that's what the masses like and recognize the most.

I don't consciously "produce" any "content", and calling it "consuming" seems gross and shallow.

It's the bland, neutral and "scientific" way of describing an activity. We're all effectively content creators here where as lurkers only consume.

I already do that for nostalgia and memories, I like going through my camera roll every so often despite the fact I don't take many pictures.

Yes. If I can enjoy other people's corny jokes and snarky comments, I would probably like my own too.

I am vegan (pull out the pitchforks) and am pretty vocal about it on here and used to be on the other website. I wouldn't say I'm an activist per se, but every comment and post I make about the subject whenever it's brought up makes me feel like I'm making a difference. If the comment resonates with someone reading and leads to fewer animals and animal-derived products being consumed, I'm happy. So yea, for sure.

Same goes for the two communities I created and mod (c/sekiro and c/bloodborne if anyone's curious). A bot has recently helped me fill the communities with content since engagement isn't super high from community members themselves. Before the bot, I tried to make daily posts in both communities, thinking it's content that I enjoy so others would likely too. Since they're still quite niche and don't have a massive following, I think it's definitely a good start for people interested in the games

Cool post btw. I think it's easy to lose oneself in the daily monotomy that is life and work and stuff, so reminding oneself that participating in communities such as Lemmy is making a difference in one shape or form

I have made YouTube videos in the past when I was too young to be allowed on the site, looking back at them, it's safe to say that I'm glad I deleted them when I had the chance (even from the device that recorded them) because I've never cringed this hard at my own stuff before.

Maybe I could do it again once I'm good enough at video editing and humor.

Depends on the content. I'd play games I make. But I wouldn't read my own stories outside of proofreading. What would be the point? I already know the story because I wrote it!

As for my SM posts: Same as the writing. But if someone else was posting what I post, then yeah. I would follow that person because we are practically the same person.

Do repos on GitHub and assorted messages on text-based communication platforms count as content? Because if that's the case, then all the time, because I generally write stuff down in case I proceed to forget exactly what that function did or why I calculated this bypass coefficient like this or why for the love of fuck does vivado keep reverting to incremental synthesis and how did I fix it last time aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

As for if my random technical nonsense has any bearing on the world, not really, outside of maaaybe the demoscene if the SID stuff works out, and the few people who like reading my ramblings for some reason.

what's incremental synthesis ?

Aa far as I'm aware, incremental synthesis is vivado trying to build a new FPGA bitstream by modifying a snapshot of the previous build, to ostensibly save time. Because the SID FPGA implementation is a relatively small part of the MEGA65 core, it really likes to forget to add any changes I make, especially related to timing optimization (it took me so long to figure out it had re-enabled itself, after disabling it my total negative slack was cut in half due to it finally registering all the pipelining and other optimization). I've also had vivado outright lock up with some cases.

Just joking, I love that you explained further but to be honest I still have no idea what is going on, haha. The bit about "modifying a snapshot of the previous build" sounds like the idea behind binary diffing?

Ok, I looked up Vivado and now I have a better idea. A field very alien to me but fascinating to hear about

FPGAs are good fun, and some of the stuff I'm working on in particular gets even crazier. My current project is emulating a partially analog soundchip (the 6581 and 8580 SIDs) with 32 bit integers, because FPGAs can't do analog. The best part is, it actually (mostly) works. Still have coefficient issues with the RC circuits, and the Rf1 and Rf2 voltage-controlled resistor coefficient tables need to be recalculated, but it's already looking pretty good.

Good fun lol

Are you trying to replicate functionality from older hardware ?

Correct. Goal is to emulate the SIDs, and the filters are analog, so analog simulation is required.

I post videos of an incredibly niche hobby. I cut my videos to what I think is interesting and I will go back and watch them, but not many other people make videos like mine so I don't watch many others. Getting video is difficult so a lot doesn't turn out well. It's also much more fun in person.

Yes, I would, and I do. I've made videos etc that I've enjoyed making and enjoyed watching, same with pictures etc.

Sarcastic comments? Yeah I like seeing those actually, somehow unsarcasticaly

Lol, I only comment on lemmy. No insta, tiktok, Facebook, LinkedIn, pixelfed, YouTube or anything.

I also read my own comments so I really do consume my own content and circlejerk my own opinion.

There is content I'd "create" which is shitpost reposting and I'd gladly consume it. The more the better.

Yeah why not. My entire feed would be full of shower thoughts, fangirling over things, existential crises, mh, and tons of infodumps. I would love that but at the same time that would make me go senile.

I publish my music online. Since I make that kind of music because I like that genre, then I’m pretty optimistic I will like it if it wasn’t me who made it. As for comments on lemmy, reddit, etc., no so much; but I have given advice from time to time that people appreciated based on their replies. Usually it’s about music, cooking, and movies.

As an amateur photographer I feel the same way. If I didn't like my photos I wouldn't publish them.

I do. I post generated pictures in the community that is set aside for them. I post the ones I enjoyed, so I've already consumed the content.

Often times I'll add to the traffic of the site in comments.

Nah. I am wayyy too stupid. I would just start and then leave.

I only post links on the one place I mod on lemmy that interests me. Occasional links elsewhere if theyre relevant.

My commentary I just post. If folks like it, great, if they hate it, great. There's no karma here so idgaf.

There’s no karma here so idgaf.

What does karma have to do with it? Worthless internet points shouldn't affect the way you communicate if you're an honest person. You make it sound like you used to either self-censor when you know your views to be unpopular or alternatively say things you don't actually believe in just for the upvotes.

Karma matters early on posting on reddit cuz many subreddits blocked negative karma posters via automod. Later it became more granular with subreddit specific karma. After several years there I had 6 digit karma spread across all my regular haunts which granted me a degree of freedom to get downvoted wherever cuz I had stockpiles to dip into.

On lemmy that doesn't apply.

The first thing you learn when you start using Reddit is that karma matters. Lots of communities have a minimum. There are communities dedicated to building karma. There are secret clubs for high karma earners.

It is the great unspoken secret that everyone knows.

The first thing you’ll learn when you start using Reddit is that karma matters.

To an extent, but not really that great of one. Once you're past like... a hundred, you're fine basically everywhere of note.

Lots of communities have a minimum.

Basically every community of note that I modded did. Kept out a lot of shitters. Sure some regular folks might've gotten hit in the crossfire but omelettes, eggs, and nothing better from the admin side to stop the previously mentioned shitters.

There are communities dedicated to building karma.

We'd ban people who used those ngl, cuz guess who else used those subs?

There are secret clubs for high karma earners.

They aren't as interesting as you might think. Source: Was in several. Lot of similar names shooting the shit. Secret mod subs were like that too tbh.

All true.

Why don't communities on Lemmy require "karma" minimums? Because admins remove bots and trolls. If reddit were not a completely toxic site, they could have done so as well.

Reddit uses karma as an underlying status symbol and reinforces it because it is driven by profit and "engagement." It's the same with likes on Meta platforms, subscribers/followers on other platforms… the gamification of social interaction. It's one part of social media that causes the kinds of harms we've been talking about here.

Why don’t communities on Lemmy require “karma” minimums? Because admins remove bots and trolls. If reddit were not a completely toxic site, they could have done so as well.

  1. From a technical standpoint: There's no karma, just tracking amounts of posts/comments.
  2. There's no automod to enforce it (Well maybe idk, not integrated I know that much.).
  3. There's also the fact that the entirety of of the lemmy fediverse probably gets less posts overall each day then r/funny gets in just spam. It's really easy to manually boop 5-10 spammers in a given day. 5-10,000 though? Not happening. Top that off with even a small percentage who might be trying to dodge technical hurdles put in their way? Lot harder.

Generally yes. If I didn't want it, I wouldn't post it.

Should not it be "I would not have posted it?"

I am confused because my english isn't good

Nope, those mean different things!

If I didn't like it, I wouldn't post it

Means (or implies)...

"I didn't like it, so I won't post it", but it's phrased as a conditional statement.

It also means that it's hypothetical -- nothing was posted!

But...

If I didn't like it, I wouldn't have posted it

Means (or implies)...

"I like it, so I posted it", again phrased as a conditional statement.

It also means that the thing actually happened (because the commenter liked it).

So they have similar, but different meanings. The key difference is whether the commenter is saying they have already posted something or not. One is hypothetical, and the other is more of a reflection of something that did happen.

Also, I think this part of your comment is incorrect.

Should not it be

This should be...

Shouldn't it be

(This is what people say probably 99% of the time)

Or

Should it not be

(This is less common and more formal)

And yes, I know that it looks like the "not" should be directly after the "should" because of "shouldn't", but it doesn't happen that way. I think this happens when forming a question with conditional verbs (should/would/could), but I have no idea why.

As I'm sure you know, English is crazy. Sorry about that. Hope this helps!

Thank you very much for the in depth explanation.