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1. myrmepropagandist (futurebird@sauropods.win)'s status on Sunday, 16-Jun-2024 22:11:24 JST myrmepropagandist

   I decided to find out if any progress had been made on the science behind why some ants are attracted to electrical fields. After filtering out exterminators (it's so demoralizing to search for information on creatures you love and find nothing but people who know nothing about them boasting about how they will kill them all) I found what looked like a blog. But, who the heck is "James Brown"? Never heard of the dude. Maybe he could be my new friend if he likes ants enough to blog about them!

   • G. Gibson (mistergibson@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 16-Jun-2024 22:11:15 JST G. Gibson

     in reply to

     • 🌈☔🌦️🍄
     • Alex Wild
     • Bob Davidson

     @wa7iut @futurebird @wmd @alexwild Someone turned me onto this: https://www.ecosia.org/

     they plant trees with ad revenue --> very cool

   • Bob Davidson (wa7iut@mastodon.radio)'s status on Sunday, 16-Jun-2024 22:11:19 JST Bob Davidson

     in reply to

     • 🌈☔🌦️🍄
     • Alex Wild

     @futurebird @wmd @alexwild

     I wonder if a non-profit search engine is possible. I can’t believe Google is willing to burn down their brand like this. Also, an opening for curated information services like Wikipedia and Encylopedia Brittanica.

     I was initially skeptical of Wikipedia and I feel a little bad about the article I contributed about hummingbirds hitching rides on the backs of geese (it didn’t last long) but Wikipedia has proven very reliable for what I need.

   • myrmepropagandist (futurebird@sauropods.win)'s status on Sunday, 16-Jun-2024 22:11:20 JST myrmepropagandist

     in reply to

     • 🌈☔🌦️🍄
     • Alex Wild

     @wmd @alexwild

     These fake pages ought to be blacklisted to oblivion. But I don't see any search engines taking this seriously at all.

     Not really in their interest to do that. We need to make more noise about just how terrible these pages are. Fake experts? Fake people? Fake images? Fake facts?

     Information pollution & fragmentation of natural networks of human learning. A rot on the body of human knowledge: any search engine that puts such pages at the top should be ashamed.

   • 🌈☔🌦️🍄 (wmd@chaos.social)'s status on Sunday, 16-Jun-2024 22:11:21 JST 🌈☔🌦️🍄

     in reply to

     • Alex Wild

     @futurebird @alexwild SEO and the marketing as a whole are toxic as fuck. They want to push themselves in your space, without your consent only to gain more power/money. There is not a single acceptable thing about it ...

   • myrmepropagandist (futurebird@sauropods.win)'s status on Sunday, 16-Jun-2024 22:11:22 JST myrmepropagandist

     in reply to

     • Alex Wild

     We are expected to take this kind of BS as "harmless gaming of the system." but I find it incredibly distrustful and hurtful. It's making it harder for people to find each other by putting all these fake people in the way. It's LIES the pages are full of half-true nonsense. It's making people know less and filling their heads with false facts.

     And this kind of page is what you find FIRST. You won't find @alexwild or the formiculture forum.

     You find these mendacious SEO ghosts.

   • myrmepropagandist (futurebird@sauropods.win)'s status on Sunday, 16-Jun-2024 22:11:23 JST myrmepropagandist

     in reply to

     As far as I can tell these people are phantoms. That's cruel on multiple levels. If I was not familiar with this SEO trick I'd spend time looking for them both (to politely tell them about the errors in their blog... which I would assume they would care about since they love insects.)

     But I know what this is now. It's probably the exterminators. To get their page ranks up they need "legitimate" pages... like personal blogs by enthusiasts to link to them.

     They are pretending to be *ME*😡😳😩

   • myrmepropagandist (futurebird@sauropods.win)'s status on Sunday, 16-Jun-2024 22:11:54 JST myrmepropagandist

     in reply to

     • 🌈☔🌦️🍄
     • Bob Davidson
     • G. Gibson

     @mistergibson @wa7iut @wmd

     I don't have a good feeling about this. "Planting trees" is almost a red flag for me at this point since very few people seem to understand how complex and the real investment needed to plant a tree.

     You can't just spam saplings and expect a forest. A forest is a living complex system easier to preserve than it is to build.

     "planting trees?" Really? What kind? Are they native species? Who will care for them in the critical first years? Who owns the land?