Read The Influencer and the Hit Man | Do It For State Snaps: How How a Feud Over a URL Ended in a Bloody Shootout by Ian FrischIan Frisch (onezero.medium.com)

How a years-long domain name feud ended in a bloody shootout

When Ethan Deyo’s small, sandy-haired dog cocked his head and perked up his ears, Deyo knew something was wrong. Deyo stepped out of the second-floor office of his Cedar Rapids, Iowa, home and peered down the stairs. That’s when he saw a man with a gun standing in his foyer, and he began to understand the peril he was in.

“Come here, motherfucker!” Deyo remembered the man screaming, pointing a gun at him. The gunman wore a baseball cap, had pantyhose pulled over his face, and sunglasses covered his eyes.

An extreme case where owning “your” domain may run you into trouble…

👓 Snapchat Employees Abused Data Access to Spy on Users | Vice

Read Snapchat Employees Abused Data Access to Spy on Users (Vice)
Multiple sources and emails also describe SnapLion, an internal tool used by various departments to access Snapchat user data.

👓 Mod 2 open v. privacy image | Katlyn Foster

Liked Mod 2 open v. privacy image by Katlyn FosterKatlyn Foster (msmartinez8118.com)
1. Here we have a teacher super excited to find open educational resources.
2. Here we have that same teacher sharing with her friends how she is going to enjoy her snow day on snapchat (thinking it is private).
3. Here we have that teacher making the news.

👓 Teens Are Abandoning Facebook. For Real This Time. | Slate

Read Teens Are Abandoning Facebook. For Real This Time. (Slate Magazine)
Facebook is no longer the dominant social network among teens, according to Pew’s survey of 743 U.S. residents aged 13 to 17, conducted between March 7 and April 10, 2018. In fact, it’s no longer even in the top three. (A Facebook spokesperson declined to comment on the survey.)

👓 Invisible asymptotes | Remains of the Day

Read Invisible asymptotes by Eugene Wei (Remains of the Day)
My first job at Amazon was as the first analyst in strategic planning, the forward-looking counterpart to accounting, which records what already happened. We maintained several time horizons for our forward forecasts, from granular monthly forecasts to quarterly and annual forecasts to even five and ten year forecasts for the purposes of fund-raising and, well, strategic planning.
A great long read covering some interesting portions of UX and strategy in the future of social. There are some useful tidbits for the IndieWeb to consider here.

👓 In One Tweet, Kylie Jenner Wiped Out $1.3 Billion of Snap’s Market Value | Bloomberg

Read In One Tweet, Kylie Jenner Wiped Out $1.3 Billion of Snap’s Market Value by Justina Vasquez (Bloomberg.com)
Snap Inc.’s flagship platform has lost some luster, at least according to one social-media influencer in the Kardashian-Jenner clan.
I’m surprised that platforms like this don’t have their biggest users doing beta testing of their product to prevent things just like this from happening.

It’s also a good example of why having my own site is valuable: no one can force changes on me if I don’t really want them.

Snapchat Accused of Misleading Investors in Ex-Employee’s Lawsuit

Read Snapchat Accused of Misleading Investors in Ex-Employee's Lawsuit by Ashley Cullins (The Hollywood Reporter)
An ex-Snapchat employee says he was fired just weeks after the company poached him from Facebook and is being blackballed. The company says his claims have no merit.