The Trump era.... it's ending, Fake news and Trolls
For me it started as soon as he won the elections. It is not so much that he is a republican but more the fact that I had the idea he was not someone who was able to work with others. I placed some filters on Social Media that allowed me to simply enjoy the media without getting a heartburn every time I opened it. No, not possible on the main stream platforms but on Mastodon and Hubzilla it was very much possible to simply ban it.
Sure, turning on the news-shows or reading the papers did make me aware of his existence and the foolish, maybe even more idiot decisions he made.
They are now trying to make sure he will never again be able to run Office but he left a nation divided into two sides that simply seem to hate each other. I know it should not be a problem for me since I am not living in the US and I was not born there. I do care due to relatives living there and having friends who live in parts of that Nation.
The real question should be, how to go and fix what the Orange guy did. Some might state he did some good like lowering taxes but then there are also people who lost their jobs due to his ruling. I will be an awful difficult job to bring sides together and unite again to a more normal situation.
Getting back into social media we know that this played a giant role. Fake news, not the news Donald mentioned, is alive and kicking. It will not stop in the main stream media since people gain (votes, money, influence) power using it. The users of that media will more and more see info that might be right but it is conducted due to the tools Facebook and Twitter use it. Sure, they play nice now but let's be honest, they gained from all of this (money).
I am slowly seeing this more and more on the Fediworld networks. Trolls are using bots to create new accounts and people are in fights since Twitter and Facebook kicked the orange guy. There are a lot of people who simply want to troll or influence the communities. What can we do about it?
A lot, the first rule is one that is very simple. Do not get your feet wet in responding to them. That is about all they want. Do not give them any ground to start a discussion that will end badly.
Blocking people, or simply ignoring them, or simply filter messages. Yes, I know that can be hard on certain platforms but on Mastodon, Hubzilla and other platforms it is easy. I case of the Orange guy I simply see a yellow button (Hubzilla) that shows the word that is filtered. I do not see the article unless I click on it. This helped me to still connect to contacts (friends) without discussing floods of posts about the Orange guy. I can still talk to them and discuss other topics. To be honest that is, for me, the most valued tool. On Mastodon I can even use my favorite firewall rule by simply blocking posts on predefined words.
Ignoring people (not ignoring their posts or responds to topics). This is a tool that simply allows me to stop following people if I somehow do not like them in general but I want them to be able to respond to something I write. Together with the filters this is very powerful. I can be in a discussion on subject xyz, the the ignored person answer and not feel bad about it. They can respond to my situation/posts too if they want but I simply do not follow them.
Blocking on a user level. This can be done on Hubzilla and on Mastodon. You simply do not see posts from those people, nor any responses. This should, in my opinion, only be used for Trolls or people where you absolutely have problems with.
Blocking on the server level. This is what is left if the above does not help. Blocking a server (as a user) means that all other users on the blocked server is not shown anymore. Use it with care. If needed a podmin (admin) can block a server too. It should be used with great care.
This might have been a more negative post but it isn't meant to be. I described how to be able to handle situation X and I only used the orange guy as an example. If you simply want to enjoy social media then think about what you post, what your response is and make sure we all have a bit of fun too.