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Guys, this isn't Twitter, we don't have to be obtuse just to ramp up engagement. Right or wrong (evidently wrong), the common assumption has historically been

Guys, this isn't Twitter, we don't have to be obtuse just to ramp up engagement. Right or wrong (evidently wrong), the common assumption has historically been that the Internet giants like Google assumed the mantle of facilitating, and to a lesser degree, preserving, the digital commons. Having your own backups and general data practices is still going to be the best strategy, but I don't think it's fair or good faith to act like everyone who got bit by this and similar instances is just an idiot.

user3939382 1y ago
Agree totally. I don’t agree with the requirement that we naively treat all corporations of all sizes from 5 people to 500,000 by the same rules. When your profits are socialized across the entire world you have special obligations. Sorry not sorry. How to correctly specify those obligations to avoid unintended consequences is a separate matter, maybe not even possible but it’s an orthogonal question.
- andsoitis 1y ago
  > When your profits are socialized across the entire world What does this mean?
Finnucane 1y ago
Platforms like Google, Meta, Xitter, and so on, have an incentive to save data, because mining that data is how they make money. So they save as much as they can for as long as they can. But if a mine is tapped out, it gets closed.
jrmg 1y ago
I’m willing to bet the reaction here would be different (not from everyone, but in aggregate) if the headline was “Sourceforge just erased years of free software history” or “Google Scholar just erased years of scientific history” because they’d just taken down all old repos or search results for old papers without any notice.
- roenxi 1y ago
  > “Google Scholar just erased years of scientific history” Sure the tone would be different, but anyone who was totally shocked by Google pulling a service is definitely an idiot. How much worse could Google's reputation be at this point. It's Google. They pull stuff. That it happened on any particular day? Yeah, that is surprising. What are the odds. Could have been any day of any year. That it happened? Not a surprise. If it matters to you, you should have done something.
oytis 1y ago
I think it's not about individual, but rather collective idiocy. It's much more convenient to believe false impressions that big tech is trying to instill rather than listening to nerds reminding you that cloud is just other people's computer.
Aurornis 1y ago
> Guys, this isn't Twitter, we don't have to be obtuse just to ramp up engagement. I agree, but by the same notion jumping to the conclusion that this was a bad faith move from Google is overlooking the fact that the ad transparency site is still up and working for other countries. This only impacts EU countries, even though most of the comments have assumed the entire ad archive is gone (meaning they didn’t even skim the article). A true good faith curiousity perspective would be to wonder why it’s the EU specifically.
squigz 1y ago
> the common assumption has historically been that the Internet giants like Google assumed the mantle of facilitating, and to a lesser degree, preserving, the digital commons A role Google was happy to fill for so long. We shouldn't forget that, and we shouldn't let them simply throw away the responsibilities they endeavoured to undertake, just because it's no longer beneficial for them.

user3939382 1y ago

Agree totally. I don’t agree with the requirement that we naively treat all corporations of all sizes from 5 people to 500,000 by the same rules. When your profits are socialized across the entire world you have special obligations. Sorry not sorry. How to correctly specify those obligations to avoid unintended consequences is a separate matter, maybe not even possible but it’s an orthogonal question.

andsoitis 1y ago
> When your profits are socialized across the entire world What does this mean?

Finnucane 1y ago

Platforms like Google, Meta, Xitter, and so on, have an incentive to save data, because mining that data is how they make money. So they save as much as they can for as long as they can. But if a mine is tapped out, it gets closed.

jrmg 1y ago

I’m willing to bet the reaction here would be different (not from everyone, but in aggregate) if the headline was “Sourceforge just erased years of free software history” or “Google Scholar just erased years of scientific history” because they’d just taken down all old repos or search results for old papers without any notice.

roenxi 1y ago
> “Google Scholar just erased years of scientific history” Sure the tone would be different, but anyone who was totally shocked by Google pulling a service is definitely an idiot. How much worse could Google's reputation be at this point. It's Google. They pull stuff. That it happened on any particular day? Yeah, that is surprising. What are the odds. Could have been any day of any year. That it happened? Not a surprise. If it matters to you, you should have done something.

oytis 1y ago

I think it's not about individual, but rather collective idiocy. It's much more convenient to believe false impressions that big tech is trying to instill rather than listening to nerds reminding you that cloud is just other people's computer.

Aurornis 1y ago

> Guys, this isn't Twitter, we don't have to be obtuse just to ramp up engagement. I agree, but by the same notion jumping to the conclusion that this was a bad faith move from Google is overlooking the fact that the ad transparency site is still up and working for other countries. This only impacts EU countries, even though most of the comments have assumed the entire ad archive is gone (meaning they didn’t even skim the article). A true good faith curiousity perspective would be to wonder why it’s the EU specifically.

squigz 1y ago

> the common assumption has historically been that the Internet giants like Google assumed the mantle of facilitating, and to a lesser degree, preserving, the digital commons A role Google was happy to fill for so long. We shouldn't forget that, and we shouldn't let them simply throw away the responsibilities they endeavoured to undertake, just because it's no longer beneficial for them.