Your mom is killing your chances of going viral on Facebook | The Next Web

Reposted Your mom is killing your chances of going viral on Facebook by Anouk Vleugels (The Next Web)
Unconditional love means unconditional likes. At least, that’s how it works with Chris Aldrich’s mom, who “auto-likes” everything he posts to Facebook. Family pictures? Like! A blog post titled “A New Low in Quantum Mechanics?” Like!
The Next Web has a piece on my Facebook Mom Algorithm Problem article from a few weeks back.


Continue reading Your mom is killing your chances of going viral on Facebook | The Next Web

👓 Three Strategies to Defend GOP Health Bill: Euphemisms, False Statements and Deleted Comments | Pro Publica

Read Three Strategies to Defend GOP Health Bill: Euphemisms, False Statements and Deleted Comments by Charles Ornstein (Pro Publica)
Since the passage of the American Health Care Act, Republican members of Congress have tried to swing public opinion to their side. ProPublica has been tracking what they’re saying.
We really do need more transparency in government. A bit of truth wouldn’t hurt either.

Continue reading 👓 Three Strategies to Defend GOP Health Bill: Euphemisms, False Statements and Deleted Comments | Pro Publica

👓 Where Countries Stand With Donald Trump: A Crib Sheet | The Atlantic

Read Where Countries Stand With Donald Trump: A Crib Sheet by Uri Friedman (The Atlantic)
The American president tells the man behind a brutal anti-drug campaign that he is doing a “great job.”
 

Continue reading 👓 Where Countries Stand With Donald Trump: A Crib Sheet | The Atlantic

Un-Annotated by Audrey Watters

Read Un-Annotated by Audrey Watters (Hack Education)
Why Audrey Watters has blocked annotations from News Genius and Hypothes.is from her website.
I thought Audrey Watters’ post on why (and how) she prevents others from annotating her website was so important that I needed to highlight and annotate a few sections for myself for future use on my own site cum commonplace book. Her comments about ownership, control, and even harassment are all incredibly germane to the Indieweb movement as well.

I also wanted to use this post as an experiment of sorts to see how sound her script actually is with respect to people using both of the annotation services she mentions.

The text of her post appears below in full and unaltered (as it did on 2017-05-17 aside from my obvious annotations and highlights). It (and my commentary and highlights) is (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) as she originally licensed it.


I’ve spent some time thinking about this type of blocking in the past and written about a potential solution. Kevin Marks had created a script to help prevent this type of abuse as well; his solution and some additional variants are freely available. — {cja}

I have added a script to my websites today that will block annotations – namely those from Genius and those from Hypothes.is. I have been meaning to do this for a while now, so it’s mostly a project that comes as I procrastinate doing something else rather than one that comes in response to any recent event.

I took comments off my websites in 2013 because I was sick of having to wade through threats of sexualized violence in order to host conversations on my ideas.

My blog. My rules. No comments.

The article linked at the bottom of the paragraph is a must read in my opinion and sparked some of my original thoughts last year about this same phenomenon. I suspect that Ms. Watters has been wanting to do this since this article was posted and/or she read it subsequently. — {cja}

I’ve made this position fairly well known – if you have something to say in response, go ahead and write your own blog post on your own damn site. So I find the idea that someone would use a service like Hypothes.is to annotate my work on my websites particularly frustrating. I don’t want comments – not in the margins and not at the foot of an article. Mostly, I don’t want to have to moderate them. I have neither the time nor the emotional bandwidth. And if I don’t want to moderate comments, that means I definitely do not want comments to appear here (or that appear to be here) that are outside my control or even my sight.

This isn’t simply about trolls and bigots threatening me (although yes, that is a huge part of it); it’s also about extracting value from my work and shifting it to another company which then gets to control (and even monetize) the conversation.

Does the script Audrey Watters is using really stop people from annotating her site directly?

Based on my quick test, one can still (carefully) use Hypothes.is to highlight and annotate her site, but the script at least prevents Hypothes.is from showing that annotation. When visiting her site with Hypothes.is’ Chrome browser extension on, it does show that there is one annotation on the page. It then requires some hunting to find this comment.

And this particular post is proof of the fact that it can still be annotated, but without impinging on the sovereignty of the original author or her site. — {cja}

Blocking annotation tools does not stop you from annotating my work. I’m a fan of marginalia; I am. I write all over the books I’ve bought, for example. Blocking annotations in this case merely stops you from writing in the margins here on this website.

 

Photo of all the Dr. Pepper knockoffs

Read Photo of all the Dr. Pepper knockoffs (Boing Boing)
Spotted doing the viral rounds and unattributed (though watermarked with a URL that redirects to Elbe Spurling's website) this wall of Dr. Pepper knockoffs is a magnificent lesson in branding magic and semiotics and all that fancy jazz.
Continue reading Photo of all the Dr. Pepper knockoffs

Burger King’s new ad forces Google Home to advertise the Whopper | The Verge

Read Burger King’s new ad forces Google Home to advertise the Whopper by Jacob Kastrenakes (The Verge)
Burger King is unveiling a horrible, genius, infuriating, hilarious, and maybe very poorly thought-out ad today that’s designed to intentionally set off Google Homes and Android phones.
Continue reading Burger King’s new ad forces Google Home to advertise the Whopper | The Verge

Le Cinq, Paris: restaurant review | The Guardian

Read Le Cinq, Paris: restaurant review by Jay Rayner (The Guardian)
It was supposed to be a joyous trip to one of France’s famous gastro palaces – what could possibly go wrong?
You’d almost think this reviewer was going out of his way to be as delightfully brutal as he possibly could be…

Continue reading Le Cinq, Paris: restaurant review | The Guardian

The Brooklyn Neighborhood Blogger with the Paul Manafort Scoop

Read The Brooklyn Neighborhood Blogger with the Paul Manafort Scoop (The New Yorker)
A stray news tip led to the discovery that Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, owns a brownstone in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.
Continue reading The Brooklyn Neighborhood Blogger with the Paul Manafort Scoop

Donald, This I Will Tell You | New York Times

Read Donald, This I Will Tell You by Maureen Dowd (New York Times)
Donald, you said you could shake up Washington and make it work again. Instead, you’re the one who got worked over. 
Continue reading Donald, This I Will Tell You | New York Times

Why You Should Never Accept The First Hotel Room You’re Offered | Huffington Post

Read Why You Should Never Accept The First Hotel Room You're Offered by Suzy Strutner (Huffington Post)
Be courteous, but firm.
Continue reading Why You Should Never Accept The First Hotel Room You’re Offered | Huffington Post

What killed the romcom? It was Love, Actually

Read What killed the romcom? It was Love, Actually by Hadley Freeman (The Guardian)
Richard Curtis’s sexist, saccharine turkey is being recooked at a time when TV romance is far superior. May it teach filmmakers to aim higher.
‘The script is bad in Love, Actually. So bad. Not one person behaves like a recognisable human being.’ Photograph: Universal Studios

Continue reading What killed the romcom? It was Love, Actually