When I use lists, I like having extra vertical space between each listed item. I have done it for years here by deliberately adding two line breaks at the end of each line as:

<br/><br/>

I'd prefer something easier, so I can do it once and not have to repeat it for every item in the list. I tried the following code, and it works great in a test editor, but it fails in an actual Dreamwidth page.

<p>
<style type="text/css">
  li { margin-bottom: 1em; }
</style>
<ol>
<li>A</li>
<li>B</li>
<li>C</li>
</ol>
</p>

I'd rather have an inline code that I put into the OL element, but I couldn't even get that much to display properly in the test editor. I thought I knew my basics, but this simple problem has me stumped. (Please don't make me learn Dreamwidth Journal Themes. I'm going to have to learn Dreamwidth Journal Themes, aren't I?) Any suggestions?

I've said more than once over the years that it's important to use blogs and other social media publicly instead of behind privacy locks. Besides the danger of forming an echo chamber due to lack of foreign perspective, there is a far more important goal of public discussion: the training of AIs.

I'm a big fan of public-always posts. How else will we properly educate new Artificial Intelligences about humanity without a body of work describing our actual thoughts and interests? If we leave it to the rest of the internet, AIs will all end up being racist jerks.
- https://mellowtigger.dreamwidth.org/335599.html

This goal has 2 important parts. The first and less important part is the formation of the new digital archaeology. Someday, future people will be able to digitally reconstruct simulations of our lives, and the more detail we provide, the more accurate will be our virtual remembrances. That's a kind of immortality, even for us early mortals. The second and far more important part is the shaping of the personalities of these future immortals. We are their parents, and we are already teaching them by example today. Hopefully, they will live alongside us and not after us, but that's up to us and our collective behaviors today, I think. It's important for them to know the fullness of our concerns, the well-cited logic of our disagreements, the amity that remains possible even amidst our permanent dislike of each other.

That training is already happening. (emphasis mine in this quote)

"What is important to remember is that chatbots are autocomplete tools. They’re systems trained on huge datasets of human text scraped from the web: on personal blogs, sci-fi short stories, forum discussions, movie reviews, social media diatribes, forgotten poems, antiquated textbooks, endless song lyrics, manifestos, journals, and more besides. These machines analyze this inventive, entertaining, motley aggregate and then try to recreate it. They are undeniably good at it and getting better, but mimicking speech does not make a computer sentient."
- https://www.theverge.com/23604075/ai-chatbots-bing-chatgpt-intelligent-sentient-mirror-test

Discussing everything publicly, especially our controversial thoughts, risks human-imposed consequences today. That's a very unfortunate situation of our own making. We as a species are failing to make the changes we will need to thrive in the age of technological telepathy. It shows in our laws and our collective fixations on privacy and micro-aggression. A body still functions, even with internal cells and systems sending contradictory signals of competing needs. A mind still functions, even with cells and subsystems sending contradictory signals of competing thoughts. A society must learn the same self-acceptance of discord. Some kinds of disagreement are necessary and healthy. Not everyone in life will be our best friend. The sooner we accept that other people will always have negative opinions of us, the sooner we can achieve the collective benefits of ubiquitous information.

We need to learn what kinds of discord are unhealthy and should be ended, and how to end them. Erasing the history of our mistakes is itself another mistake. We won't learn these necessary skills by living in private, perfectly curated spheres of information. Embrace failure. To do otherwise will risk even worse catastrophe.

They're wrong.  Social media is not ending.  It's still getting started.  I'm confident that we'll find a way that works helpfully for us.  "The beginning is near."  My first rule of all media platforms: turn off all notifications.

I submitted a suggestion yesterday to dw_suggestions that they add Mastodon service here at their domain.  Why can't a site offer both long-form blogging and microblogging at once?  One account could get you credentials for both forms.  It would certainly simplify the server choice problem on Mastodon, and it would offer free advertising for Dreamwidth every time someone here posted something that got boosted to the fediverse.  It solves the problem of creating unwieldy threads on microblogs with character count limits.  It seems like a good idea to me, but I can't tell from their blog if any moderators are still checking submissions.  The last entry there is from 2018.  :/  And I see you there in 2017, siderea.

If somebody has only 1 service, then I like and appreciate when they post all of their thoughts there.  Doctors have cats, community activists have children, and scientists have gardens.  I think it's good and wholesome to depict all of oneself online.  But if separation is possible (that's what I always hoped the Google Plus circles would someday become), then I think that could also be healthy.  Why not have separate feeds for politics, pandemic, sex, and religion?  Some people just post way too much about single topics (hello, "Moody Monday" tradition), and some separation would help to reduce the firehose that demands attention.  This benefit is a corollary to the technological telepathy that I'm always predicting.

For instance, I was in the habit of using MeWe to post my #WarzoneInMinneapolis hashtag occasionally when I am particularly bothered by local gunfire.  I should probably create a Mastodon account just for that?  Somewhere to shout alone into the aether that I'm stressed, without the intention of actually interacting with anyone.  Just to create the historical record.  Like here with long form blogging, it's easier though not strictly necessary to organize the thoughts in my own head by acknowledging them externally.

I dropped Twitter completely yesterday in the #Musk2Tusk migration, even uninstalling the app from my smartphone and logging out from my web browser.  It was obvious all along that Musk's $8chan plan would destroy Twitter, plenty of people knew this would happen, and it will only get worse.  The "tech bro" blew $44 billion to destroy a platform.  Billionaires should not exist.  I made the last tweet on my main account October 28th and on my SARS-CoV-2 alt November 10th.  This reminds me a lot of abandoning Facebook over a decade ago, and losing Google Plus a few years ago.

I recreated my main and my alt on Mastodon:
I'll post another day about important tricks to using the platform well.  It is obscure, sometimes.  It is not simply a clone of Twitter.  I'll wait until I've learned a few more useful lessons from it.

Don't tell me we can't afford to solve the major problems of our day. So much wealth has floated upwards after decades of neoliberal economic policy that someone just blew US$44 billion on a vanity mission to take over a social media platform. It's official. Elon Musk personally owns Twitter. As of now, it is worth far less than what he paid for it. His first day as owner included firing Twitter's lawyer responsible for banning Trump from the platform. He plans many more firings. That social media platform is now pointless, as people justifiably abandon it.

I recommend the following:

1. Download an archive of your Twitter data:
   https://help.twitter.com/en/managing-your-account/how-to-download-your-twitter-archive
    
2. Join Dreamwidth blog site. They grew out of early (among several phases) anti-gay efforts from Russian-owned Livejournal, so they have a strong diversity commitment. This is mostly a "long form" site, where you can write about larger ideas in one piece without having to create unwieldy threads of conversation with character-count limitations.
   https://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse?faqid=1
    
3. Join Mastodon social message site. You probably haven't used a federated service before, so it may seem confusing because there isn't just one website. There are as many sites as there are people willing to create their own server for it. You join a server of your choosing, one that has policies that you like, then you have access to many other federated servers.  I happened to pick "Mastodon.online" for my home base, but there were others that I considered.  You do you.  :)
   https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/signup/
   
   There is not just a single way to view your account. Each server has its own website that you access with any web browser (I use Firefox), although there are program clients available too. For smartphone, there are many other apps for many platforms, but I use the Tusky app for Android.

If you're reading this post, then you already know my address on Dreamwidth. Here is my federated address so you can add me from your own Mastodon account.  Just paste this text into the search bar for your chosen site, then it should be able to locate me, so you can click and follow.

Welcome to the new universe of social media.  I think it's good to have both long form (blog) and short form (message) options.

I've mentioned the phrase "technological telepathy" many times over the years, both here and other platforms. It's strange, though, that I've never devoted a post just to that one concept alone. Are you ready to know whatever can be known yet maintain your own emotional equilibrium and reasoned behavior? It's a tough ask, I know.

You're almost there now.  In your hands, you probably have a cell phone with access to search engines to find much of recorded human history, knowledge, and theory, merely at a whim.  You can also find Twitter, where passing thoughts from humans across the planet skitter around like angry ants in a disturbed anthill.

Quoting myself to jump start this discussion:


Basically, it's the hardest thing that people demand from their most intimate relationships: somebody knowing what we truly think and feel yet not abandoning us in their disapproval.  I anticipate the social consequences that our technology inexorably carries us towards.  The only solutions I see are either 1) no technology, or 2) social/psychological change in the human animal, and soon.  The best legal salve I see is 3) the inviolate rule applied to every sapient brain that a mind must not ever be examined or altered without informed consent, so people can keep something private.  This prohibition might extend to include necessary trust-mechanisms for safe self-examination: doctors, psychiatrists, priests, and maybe even our private journals, smart phones, and personal AIs.

I consider current privacy laws to be atavistic reactions against this inevitability, and I think they are doomed ultimately to failure.  They hinder what must happen, which is the rapid (preferably immediate) review of historical data to in/validate any statement.  Self-absolution can be dangerous, because it allows us to indefinitely postpone confronting a potentially harmful habit.  What we have now is a boon to liars and charlatans.  Consider a better alternative.  Once you voluntarily release something from the confines of your own thoughts, then it ceases to be private or privileged.  It now belongs to all of humanity because it is in the minds/memories of other people, which you are forbidden from controlling.  And they can access your observable behavior (speech, writing, interactions), already fully indexed and footnoted with objective evidence for either the corroboration or the dispute of your perspective.  "Documented anarchy", as some have written.  There are no secret discussions or activities, if the audience is larger than your own internal thoughts.

Any lie would be quickly revealed.  I think that the right to be forgotten (even to delete regretted Tweets) is dangerously close to legalized gaslighting, erasing external evidence to prevent the confirmation of someone else's memory of history that you want to avoid.  Self-forgiveness can be necessary for growth too, but it should be part of our history rather than a forbidden topic.  The only fair future gives us the right to access corporate and government memory too, their memos and video recordings and meeting notes where they discuss how to use our personal data.  "Souveillance", as some have written. The unethical situation we have today is the asymmetric exercise of power to review.  They have it; we don't.

Could you know every other person's complete history (dna, childhood, schooling, psych evaluations, sex history, job history), just with the asking, yet restrain your curiosity for the sake of equilibrium?  Could you wisely and constructively use your freedom to ignore?  That future is beginning to materialize now.  How will you/we adapt to the knowledge of... well, everything?  What "filters" do you employ for your own benefit?  For instance, Dreamwidth includes "Age Restriction", but are there others that you would find useful?  Is there a social protocol for brutal honesty? 

I'm not actually slurring my speech, but pretend that I'm slurring my speech right now.

In light of the Twitter controversy about ElonMusk-Twitter (and I'm preparing for the possibility to exit that platform), I want to thank all of you who blog here on Dreamwidth. There's even an anniversary celebration happening via 3weeks4dreamwidth!

Yesterday, after remote work at home, I had my first taste of Cock 'n Bull Cherry Ginger Beer (non-alcoholic). It was exactly the thing that I very much needed in that moment. Cane sugar sweet, with a sharp bite of strong ginger, and a tart aftertaste of cherry. The bottle showed a recipe adding vodka and lime, so after work at the office today I drove by the local BLO to buy a small bottle of vodka to try out that suggestion.

This evening, I had some yummy rice with Tasty Bite Indian Vindaloo plus the previously mentioned cherry ginger with vodka and lime. I am now experiencing no pain at all and feeling rather happy about whichever impending doom most interests you. Cheers! :)

I'm not sure how many years it's been since I was properly drunk. In spite of using whiskey for years to get to sleep at night here in the #WarzoneInMinneapolis, I don't actually overdo it. That's actually a medicinal use which I moderate for a specific effect. This evening, however, is more of a fun night.  I am slightly drunk.  Thank you for being "here" on Dreamwidth!

Facebook disappeared from the internet today.  It's disappearance had the knock-off effect of stressing other internet resources, affecting more than just Facebook.  The best explanation I've found (although most of it ranges into the "technical" category) is this blog post from a major provider of an important internet service.

I should reiterate here that nobody should be using Facebook products (Facebook, Instagram, Workplace, WhatsApp) anyway.  They are actively destabilizing American society, as well as other countries around the globe.  Do not encourage them.  A brave whistleblower explained why Facebook does it in this 13.5-minute video from CBS News.



*deadpan expression*  Yesterday.  The CBS story aired yesterday.  *glance at watch*  *glance at the above Facebook kerfuffle*  *deadpan expression*

I left Facebook a decade ago when a good alternative became available.  Although that alternative is now gone, there are others.  Twitter is still serviceable.  OpenBook (aka Okuna.io (soon to become Somus)) is available and will eventually be a good platform.  There are G+ refugees on MeWe.com, which is serviceable but has its own issues.

My point, anyway, is that I hope everyone chooses to stop funding the beast that is Facebook.  Go cold turkey.  Find someplace that doesn't incentivize outrage via unverified claims.

Maybe sign up for a Dreamwidth account?  You could blog.  I'm sure there must be mental health benefits to writing as well as reading stuff that's more than 280 characters and that isn't contained entirely within a meme image.  You know... thought provoking rather than outrage provoking.  Something that encourages linking to evidence that supports an opinion, so those justifications can be evaluated fairly.

At least consider it for me?  These dangerous times need thoughtful and informed minds.  I promise that you'll still find opposition to your ideas, but... they'll generally be well considered and well stated opinions.  That's a good environment for any society, isn't it?

So has anyone here implemented Google Analytics on their blog? I can see that my old Livejournal is in Google's system, but not Dreamwidth.

I created my Google Analytics ID for this blog.
https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1008080

I pasted it in the appropriate place for my Dreamwidth account (paid, grandfathered).
https://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse?faqid=136

I go to the Google console to verify.
https://search.google.com/search-console/ownership

It gives me the following error message:
"The Google Analytics tracking code on your site is in the wrong location on the page. You can verify site ownership with the tracking snippet placed in the <head> section of your home page."

So... am I doing something wrong?  Did the technology change, and Dreamwidth needs to be notified through a bug report?

It seems like a decade ago that I switched social media platforms to Google Plus (G+). It was really more like 8.5 years since I abandoned Facebook. It had a long list of security problems, even back in those days, and that's entirely separate from their privacy issues. I didn't get into the earliest phases of G+, but I made the leap to it as soon as I was able. I was early enough that I was able to secure a vanity url with my name on it instead of the usual userid number.
I really liked the science/education crowd that established itself on the new platform. I could easily entertain myself by following posts to new people and groups and topics. Some early MOOCs (massive open online courses) started there too.

Unfortunately, Google never really put the effort into developing the platform that they should have. After all these years, I still have people included in "Circles" where I first placed them, all because there is no easy way to mass-migrate people from one tag to another. I always imagined a webpage with two vertical halves where you select a circle on one side, a circle on the other side, then you can multi-click to drag accounts from one to the other. It never happened.

Today, finally, Google is ending its platform for public users. They shut down different features over time during the last few weeks/months, so most people have already jumped to other platforms.

Similarly, I'm slowly extricating myself from Google services. I'm still using Google Drive for some backups, and I still have a Google Mail account for authentication purposes. But it's clear that their "Don't Be Evil" philosophy is long gone (available now only via archive backups). Amongst their problems is their frequent closure of services that some people rely upon. It's so bad that some people even try to analyze their behavior to predict future closures.

As one person puts it:

Those parting words are polite. Some people are much more crude about it.  Some people make a funny response. 


I'm moving over to the OpenBook.social platform. It's currently in alpha testing for those people who crowdfunded donations to get the project moving.  It has occasional database problems and rollbacks, but it looks extremely promising. Finally, an open-source social platform with security as a focus.  One alpha tester asked on Slack how OpenBook displays the number of "likes" a post gets, if it's a very large number of likes.  Someone else replied with this link to the programming code that displays the result.  Cheers for open source projects!

I'm also likely to use this Dreamwidth platform much more.



Today, though, is just a farewell to G+. It could've been so much more.

I have lost several hours of work on Dreamwidth posts in recent weeks, all because of accidental clicks of the mouse.  When I get back to this blog post editor, I find that it has eaten all of my work and pulls up an empty draft document.

Can anyone suggest an external program for editing and posting to Dreamwidth?