Only about computer technology. Other topics here are undistinguashable from the rest of the general Internet.

I dunno, certainly there's much more a norm of politeness here, along with decent moderation.

To contrast, the FT used to have good comments (and still does on really obscure topics) but overall they've gone massively downhill because of the lack of decent norms around thoughtful conversation.

This is an under appreciated statement. Pre-Elon takeover of Twitter, I tried for months to engage in legitimate, argumentative yet constructive conversations. I was met time and time again with reductive, inflammatory, and disingenuous responses. And this was in the infosec community, one that for years was one of, in my opinion, last places on Twitter for that kind of discourse. I quit shortly after.

This might be the first time I’ve heard someone refer to infosec Twitter in a positive light. They were always inflammatory and belligerent and spiteful.

The same crowd has now migrated to ActivityPub. You can find them there still acting the same way today.

While I do agree to some extent, and I’m grateful for what we have here, I think it’s important to call out that we are largely moderated by the community (flagging, downvoting) and still relatively conservative about what is able to be discussed. Pretty much any controversial concept related to anything going on in USA politics is going to get shut down.

>Pretty much any controversial concept related to anything going on in USA politics is going to get shut down.

Good! USA politics are so ridiculous and toxic, it's better to have a place that's free of all that garbage. However, I don't agree that these discussions get "shut down": I see Americans posting their libertarian, gun-fetish stuff here all the time.

Please flag obvious spam and ragebait. Even if you're a spammer or rage baiter yourself, you will benefit from the site getting rid of other spam and rage bait.

You have unlocked: Irony!!