Colin Sullivan

Besides a smaller role for America, the outcome I have the highest confidence in is that the number of nation states with nuclear weapons will increase significantly. I suspect allies will be the largest addition as they are both the most capable and motivated by an unreliable umbrella.

Patreon is one of the founding members of theinternet.works which is a group of mid-sized tech companies advocating for Section 230 in DC, so we're trying.

One aspect that Mike doesn't mention is that a big area of liability here is defamation, which will lead platforms that moderate to crack down on speech critical of powerful people that can afford to bring defamation lawsuits.

Great thread explaining the practical implications of repealing Section 230. I can also confirm the cost of dismissing frivolous lawsuits even with 230 protection.

Very excited and honored to join the Creative Commons board!

The CC licenses are part of what got me interested in the law and starting down the path to be an attorney, so this is especially meaningful.

I look forward to bringing my experience from Patreon of building for creators.

Last time I was there was ~25 years ago so no recent recs, but Bunaken and the surrounding islands are pretty good. Some strong currents that led to wild drift dives.

If you love muck diving though I'm guessing you're going to Lembeh Strait?

I promise you, Section 230 and "opaque algorithms" are not what got us here.

Undercutting Section 230 is the best thing we can do for a bunch of massive tech companies who are willing and eager to stifle any hint of competition at a moment's notice.

This is a distraction.

And this is assuming it's *only* intentional actions leading to default. A system crash caused by inexperienced engineers pushing buggy code would be worse.

Great idea!

We do a lot on the backend to roll over expired cards and let folks know when a card is expired, but it's not a guarantee. When the creator reaches out directly it's powerful.

Homeworld remains one of my favorite games of all time, and that scene is a big factor.

Of course I agree that audience capture is a concern for journalism, but I would argue it is just as prevalent in larger publications, and as we've seen those are also subject to billionaire capture.

While Patreon is much more broad than journalism, we've seen that people who pay for niche media are more likely to keep paying the more creators they subscribe to. There may be an upper limit, but there is a much stronger attachment to paying creators you care about than a larger publication.

So I've been trying to come up with an analogy to explain how embarrassing this is to non-gamers.

It's like if Mark Cuban made the Mavericks sub him in during a game, embarrassed himself on live TV, and then loudly insisted at every opportunity that he's a pro basketball player.

- Patreon used to be only focused on paid subscriptions, but now we do everything.

- The large built in network is largely illusory. Substack suggests that every subscriber that already had an account was someone that joined because of Substack. You still have to attract most of those subscribers yourself. Patreon actually has much higher user base and network density.

I'm obviously biased, but here's my perspective:
- Their product is very good for newsletters, that's their core product market fit.
- It isn't as good for podcasts. Patreon and others are better if you want to add a podcast.

Also a dark day for creators as this ban throws the future of thousands of small media businesses into doubt. They now have to scramble to figure out how to keep their businesses running, pay employees etc. It's long past time for elected officials to understand how the creator economy works.

It's especially funny given how the D3 real money auction house brought paying cash for gear out into the open. Didn't go away just because it's not directly facilitated in-game anymore.

Eventually that leads to artists not showing up in Congress to testify that they need more or longer protections.

Agree that AI fundamentally shifts the dynamics of the fight. I'm hopeful that we can find a path that protects artists without expanding copyright to the detriment of other artists.

That's a big part of why I originally joined Patreon. I believed if enough artists were making a good living because of a strong connection with their super fans, they would care less about the monetization of copyrights.

Ooh, @hankgreen.bsky.social effectively articulates the frustration I have with Twitter and Threads downranking anything that would take a user off their site.

Bluesky and Mastodon don’t do that and I’m so happy they don’t.

Look, a link! 😱😉 youtu.be/D4ghgVq9z4M

Especially true for in-house positions. My undergrad grades were a dumpster fire, my law school grades were actually pretty good, but I've never been asked for either and I would never ask a prospective employee. They just don't matter.

More fundamentally, this is another example of creators being disintermediated by an algorithm that doesn't prioritize follows.

This, combined with the much better engagement here, is why creators should use Bluesky. A platform that penalizes you for linking out isn't building for creators.

Hank captures that well in this video, our minds are uniquely vulnerable to the magic spells of the internet.

I also hope that we can find those solutions without hundreds of years of disruption.

When I'm asked about big picture solutions to the problems on platforms, usually referring to a complex mix of regulations and platform policies, my more pessimistic answer is that we need a few generations to live with the problems before we develop societal immunity.

It is so incredibly nice to have a social platform that values links again - a breath of fresh air in the poisoned ecosystem of the creator economy

This place is quickly becoming the art community I hoped it would be. I hope it just continues to grow and grow.

a group of cartoon characters are hugging each other and smiling Alt: a group of Starfleet officer cartoon characters from Star Trek: Lower Decks, hugging each other and smiling because they’re best friends and love science.

STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS is currently airing the final season on Paramount+

A comedic, animated look at the junior officers in Starfleet, and a show which loves Star Trek and Trekkie culture more than life itself.

I increasingly think Twitter (and the concept of a universal social media) was just a point in time. Return to interest based communities will be the next phase, although those communities will probably be more interconnected.