Today's threads (a thread)
Inside: Why Wikipedia works; and more!
Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2025/09/05/be-the-first-person/
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@pluralistic
Yesterday I installed Kiwix and downloaded the big archive of Wikipedia. Because in today's world I just can't see 'something that works' being allowed to continue to work.
If nothing else, some politician will decide access to verifiable facts is 'bad for children'.
The most enshittification-proof way to get the Enshittification audiobook, ebook and hardcover is to pre-order them on my Kickstarter! Help me do an end-run around the Amazon/Audible audiobook monopoly and disenshittify your audiobook experience in the process:
http://disenshittification.org
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Why Wikipedia works: Agreeing on source notability, not facts.
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/115152973111533264
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Hey look at this
* WKRP: Johnny Fever Mix https://www.awphooey.com/wkrp (h/t Mitch Wagner)
* Why AI Narrators Will Never Be Able to Tell a Real Human Story https://lithub.com/why-ai-narrators-will-never-be-able-to-tell-a-real-human-story/
* Sugar Daddies https://prospect.org/power/sugar-daddies/
* UK government trial of M365 Copilot finds no clear productivity boost https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/04/m365_copilot_uk_government/ (h/t Slashdot)
* Age Verification Is A Windfall for Big Tech—And A Death Sentence For Smaller Platforms https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/09/age-verification-windfall-big-tech-and-death-sentence-smaller-platforms
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#20yrsago Imagineer who designed Disneyland castle is dead, alas https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-sep-05-me-joerger5-story.html
#20yrsago Understanding the Kazaa judgment https://weatherall.blogspot.com/2005_09_01_weatherall_archive.html#112592939140783823
#15yrsago XKCD cake https://web.archive.org/web/20100909001343/https://blog.pinkcakebox.com/xkcd-comic-wedding-cake-2010-09-05.htm
#15yrsago Latest leaked draft of secret copyright treaty: US trying to cram DRM rules down the world’s throats https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2010/09/acta-dc-leak/
#15yrsago Gibson’s ZERO HISTORY: exciting adventure that wakes you to the present-day’s futurism https://memex.craphound.com/2010/09/06/gibsons-zero-history-exciting-adventure-that-wakes-you-to-the-present-days-futurism/
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My latest novel is "Picks and Shovels," a historical technothriller set in the Weird Era of the PC, about Ponzi schemes, techbros, and the dawn of enshittification:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865908/picksandshovels
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My next nonfiction book is "Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It," out from MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux on October 7:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374619329/enshittification/
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