From 3a79fd1a405bb1a22931e3977e6607e42b106d75 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: TheRON Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2025 23:15:09 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] Minor updates, more to follow --- docs/screencast/Intro.md | 6 +++--- 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) diff --git a/docs/screencast/Intro.md b/docs/screencast/Intro.md index 0728d37..2d057c1 100644 --- a/docs/screencast/Intro.md +++ b/docs/screencast/Intro.md @@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ You walk away with more motivation, direction, and experience, ready to take on **Interlude: Why the MockForum Exists** -While I was introducing those ideas, you saw the MockForum rolling by. That wasn’t just comic relief. It’s a miniature of the Massively Populous Public Platform—the place where format differences make no difference. Everything flattens into the same scrolling strip, and the result is predictable. +Before I started Indroduction to CIVICVS, you saw the MockForum rolling by. That wasn’t just comic relief. It’s a miniature of the Massively Populous Public Platform—the place where format differences make no difference. Everything flattens into the same scrolling strip, and the result is predictable. First, **pretenders**. People speak with certainty outside their lane—HOA law from a non-lawyer, lottery math from a storyteller, database admin from “maybe the admin.” The platform has no built-in way to attach *competence* to a claim. Volume substitutes for proof. @@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ Fourth, **metric chasing**. The message counter, the Bitcoin “reward,” the l Fifth, **format sabotage**. “No links, use screenshots of screenshots.” “No swearing—use CAPS.” These rules parody a real dynamic: strip away citations and slow readers down; boost spectacle and speed. The result is **performative certainty** with **non-portable evidence**—you can’t check it, you can only react to it. -Sixth, **no memory, no ownership**. Mods vanish, “admins” blur, and nothing gets recorded as a decision. Without a ledger—who decided what, based on which facts—every argument resets to zero tomorrow. Perfect conditions for **plausible deniability** and **endless relitigation**. +Sixth, **no memory, no ownership**. Moderators vanish, Administrators blur, and nothing gets recorded as a decision. Without a ledger—who decided what, based on which facts—every argument resets to zero, tomorrow. Perfect conditions for **plausible deniability** and **endless relitigation**. Seventh, **incentive misalignment**. The platform extracts engagement; participants extract attention; almost no one extracts *resolution*. Brandolini’s asymmetry dominates: it takes ten times more effort to refute noise than to produce it. Exhaustion is a feature, not a bug. @@ -122,7 +122,7 @@ But when you read it as a Civic Analyst, something else comes through. Alphabet writes: *“We provide a range of viewpoints.”* That sounds like debate, doesn’t it? Healthy disagreement, freedom of expression. -But in practice, what do we see? Not debate — but white noise. Billions of uploads, millions of voices — with little structure or exchange, and rarely any civic value you can act on. A flood so overwhelming that testimony drowns before it’s even heard. +But in practice, what do we see? Not debate — but whiteDministrators noise. Billions of uploads, millions of voices — with little structure or exchange, and rarely any civic value you can act on. A flood so overwhelming that testimony drowns before it’s even heard. Here’s another line: *“Our policies evolved during the pandemic.”* Sounds adaptive, flexible, responsible.