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1. Anil Dash (anildash@me.dm)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Mar-2024 22:56:15 JST Anil Dash

   Has anybody written about the near-ubiquitous online trend of bowdlerizing text, either to avoid being penalized by the algorithm (real or imagined) or to avoid content being searchable by others? We have people who communicate about "s*x" instead of "sex" and... that's probably a very bad thing.

   • Eugen Rochko (gargron@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Mar-2024 22:56:14 JST Eugen Rochko

     in reply to

     @anildash Would the usage of "unalive" instead of "dead" or "kill" be considered part of that same trend?

   • 1 Fuckering Light (monsoonrains@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Mar-2024 22:59:39 JST 1 Fuckering Light

     in reply to

     • Eugen Rochko

     @Gargron @anildash I hope so because 'unalive'... omg I hate it viscerally.

   • schrotthaufen (schrotthaufen@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Mar-2024 23:01:14 JST schrotthaufen

     in reply to

     • Eugen Rochko

     @Gargron @anildash Absolutely. All the newspeak/self-censorship to avoid algorithmic penalties should be included.

   • FeralRobots (feralrobots@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Mar-2024 23:06:10 JST FeralRobots

     in reply to

     • Eugen Rochko

     @Gargron @anildash
     I'd argue it's usually not, since I mostly see it used ironically ("17 civilians were discovered to have been rendered unalive") or as a fine distinction ("there's something unalive about that painting"). I.e., not bowdlerization - it has a different purpose than that.

   • Eugen Rochko (gargron@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Mar-2024 23:08:21 JST Eugen Rochko

     in reply to

     • Ben Ramsey
     • schrotthaufen

     @ramsey @schrotthaufen @anildash It is used primarily to avoid algorithms downranking you on TikTok and YouTube.

   • Ben Ramsey (ramsey@phpc.social)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Mar-2024 23:08:23 JST Ben Ramsey

     in reply to

     • Eugen Rochko
     • schrotthaufen

     @schrotthaufen @Gargron @anildash I’m not sure whether “unalive” is a way to avoid algorithms or just a way to avoid saying “dead.” Where I grew up, referring to someone as “dead” seems crude and disrespectful, so we would say “passed away” or “moved on” or “in heaven.” I wonder if “unalive” is in a similar vein.

   • schrotthaufen (schrotthaufen@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Mar-2024 23:23:49 JST schrotthaufen

     in reply to

     • Eugen Rochko
     • Ben Ramsey

     @Gargron @ramsey @anildash I’ve heard people claim that using words like “killed”, “dead”, “rape”, etc can get accounts automatically suspended on tiktok. I don’t know is this is true.