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Anybody willing to beta a short, gen Discworld story?
I’ve been thinking about the LJ comments-to-Facebook changes. Code structures what we think we can do; it influences what we think we should do as well, which is why Facebook makes it so very easy to post to Facebook from various sites (not just LJ). I find the concept of affordances useful in discussing this (you can download Larry Lessig’s whole book, Code, which also explores the concept). It has always been possible to repost content seen in a locked post. But suggesting that one can do so by checking a box normalizes it: makes it easy to imagine, which may also (not necessarily, and not for everyone, but even a shift of the average matters) make it easier to approve. And that’s putting aside the accessibility/accidental posting issues, which are significant. We should generally structure our institutions to support behavior we like and discourage behavior we don’t. With respect to comments, I think LJ is not following that rule, at least as many of us have understood commenting.
If this had just been posts, I think the reaction would have been different. I see some comments that my Facebook friends make on posts by their friends, though I doubt I see them all (Facebook privacy is a confusing mess). That plus Twitter makes it clear where the idea came from. But Facebook culture is not LJ culture; and in any event the open-comment-on-locked-post combo is bad. But I’m not sure the idea of making it easier to publicize public posts is anything to worry about, even though your commenters also might get a bit of that exposure from people who then follow the link to the post. And I don’t think anybody else can disseminate your comments as such using this new feature.
I’ve been thinking about the LJ comments-to-Facebook changes. Code structures what we think we can do; it influences what we think we should do as well, which is why Facebook makes it so very easy to post to Facebook from various sites (not just LJ). I find the concept of affordances useful in discussing this (you can download Larry Lessig’s whole book, Code, which also explores the concept). It has always been possible to repost content seen in a locked post. But suggesting that one can do so by checking a box normalizes it: makes it easy to imagine, which may also (not necessarily, and not for everyone, but even a shift of the average matters) make it easier to approve. And that’s putting aside the accessibility/accidental posting issues, which are significant. We should generally structure our institutions to support behavior we like and discourage behavior we don’t. With respect to comments, I think LJ is not following that rule, at least as many of us have understood commenting.
If this had just been posts, I think the reaction would have been different. I see some comments that my Facebook friends make on posts by their friends, though I doubt I see them all (Facebook privacy is a confusing mess). That plus Twitter makes it clear where the idea came from. But Facebook culture is not LJ culture; and in any event the open-comment-on-locked-post combo is bad. But I’m not sure the idea of making it easier to publicize public posts is anything to worry about, even though your commenters also might get a bit of that exposure from people who then follow the link to the post. And I don’t think anybody else can disseminate your comments as such using this new feature.
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I haven't tested this, though, so I don't know if it actually works.
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(She is my friend; she is also a longtime LJ volunteer, as am I.)
The thing I personally keep coming back to is that this is not congruent with the ShareThis button, which is not on locked entries.
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(here from ilyena_sylph)
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