Glenn Ellingson
@geewiz.bsky.social
Humans gonna human. Gotta love 'em anyway, and maybe try to help out a bit...
iOS 26 is a disaster. Stunningly fugly; unreadable blurs under your text; the widget screen (leftmost swipe) is a disaster - they even broke the one usable widget (recent/search apps); controls keep hiding and morphing so you can't find or hit them... I used to blame Jony Ive... who do I blame now?
September 27, 2025 at 11:10 PM
iOS 26 is a disaster. Stunningly fugly; unreadable blurs under your text; the widget screen (leftmost swipe) is a disaster - they even broke the one usable widget (recent/search apps); controls keep hiding and morphing so you can't find or hit them... I used to blame Jony Ive... who do I blame now?
Reposted by Glenn Ellingson
Trump’s Immigration Enforcement: Free The Criminals, Jail The Innocent
The Trump administration's immigration enforcement has revealed itself to be not just cruel, but fundamentally backwards: They're literally freeing dangerous criminals while manufacturing cases against innocent people. And…
The Trump administration's immigration enforcement has revealed itself to be not just cruel, but fundamentally backwards: They're literally freeing dangerous criminals while manufacturing cases against innocent people. And…
Trump’s Immigration Enforcement: Free The Criminals, Jail The Innocent
The Trump administration's immigration enforcement has revealed itself to be not just cruel, but fundamentally backwards: They're literally freeing dangerous criminals while manufacturing cases against innocent people. And they're doing it all to cover up their own massive legal fuckups. Take the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. We covered this last week when Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes ordered his release, noting that the Justice Department appeared to have leaned on actual criminals to fabricate evidence against him.
www.techdirt.com
July 2, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Trump’s Immigration Enforcement: Free The Criminals, Jail The Innocent
The Trump administration's immigration enforcement has revealed itself to be not just cruel, but fundamentally backwards: They're literally freeing dangerous criminals while manufacturing cases against innocent people. And…
The Trump administration's immigration enforcement has revealed itself to be not just cruel, but fundamentally backwards: They're literally freeing dangerous criminals while manufacturing cases against innocent people. And…
Do you use LLMs for search/answers? Do you have friends who do? It's time to sit down and have an intervention!
Across all vendors LLMS confidently misidentify information (e.g. fabricating sources) more than half the time -- even when "plain" google does not.
arstechnica.com/ai/2025/03/a...
Across all vendors LLMS confidently misidentify information (e.g. fabricating sources) more than half the time -- even when "plain" google does not.
arstechnica.com/ai/2025/03/a...
AI search engines cite incorrect sources at an alarming 60% rate, study says
CJR study shows AI search services misinform users and ignore publisher exclusion requests.
arstechnica.com
March 15, 2025 at 2:09 AM
Do you use LLMs for search/answers? Do you have friends who do? It's time to sit down and have an intervention!
Across all vendors LLMS confidently misidentify information (e.g. fabricating sources) more than half the time -- even when "plain" google does not.
arstechnica.com/ai/2025/03/a...
Across all vendors LLMS confidently misidentify information (e.g. fabricating sources) more than half the time -- even when "plain" google does not.
arstechnica.com/ai/2025/03/a...
And while I'm at it, another hot take: the Apple Watch SUCKS. I will spare y'all my 15 bullet points on why. TL;DR: after 4 days of constant use (and twiddling, and googling) I still have almost no idea what it's doing most of the time, and it apparently feels the same way about me.
January 15, 2025 at 4:58 PM
And while I'm at it, another hot take: the Apple Watch SUCKS. I will spare y'all my 15 bullet points on why. TL;DR: after 4 days of constant use (and twiddling, and googling) I still have almost no idea what it's doing most of the time, and it apparently feels the same way about me.
Apple's FindMy is both the best AND the worst feature ever. I misplace EVERYTHING so I love this idea SO MUCH but I just spent 15 minutes using it to find my AirPods, which were within arm's reach when I started searching, hidden under a faraday cage -- oops, I mean a cardboard box lid from See's.
January 15, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Apple's FindMy is both the best AND the worst feature ever. I misplace EVERYTHING so I love this idea SO MUCH but I just spent 15 minutes using it to find my AirPods, which were within arm's reach when I started searching, hidden under a faraday cage -- oops, I mean a cardboard box lid from See's.
Reposted by Glenn Ellingson
Pretty much every one of these studies comes up with similar results.
Denver gave people experiencing homelessness $1,000 a month.
Results showed that close to half of the participants secured housing, and nearly $600K saved in public service costs due to fewer ER visits & jail stays. They also saw improved mental health.
Results showed that close to half of the participants secured housing, and nearly $600K saved in public service costs due to fewer ER visits & jail stays. They also saw improved mental health.
Denver gave people experiencing homelessness $1,000 a month. A year later, nearly half of participants had housing.
Participants in Denver's basic income program received up to $1,000 a month. They became more housing secure and landed full-time jobs.
www.yahoo.com
June 25, 2024 at 11:18 PM
Pretty much every one of these studies comes up with similar results.
Honored to be quoted in @washingtonpost.com last week on how people naturally will disengage after bad experiences on social media -- which is not so great for those businesses. Safer social media is better social media. Platforms should invest in trust and safety, it is core to their success!
How two smart people fell for a classic Facebook scam
After one man loses control of his social media account, one of his acquaintances gets bilked out of $5,000.
wapo.st
March 20, 2024 at 2:17 PM
Honored to be quoted in @washingtonpost.com last week on how people naturally will disengage after bad experiences on social media -- which is not so great for those businesses. Safer social media is better social media. Platforms should invest in trust and safety, it is core to their success!
From Casey Newton's latest piece: "Reddit has made lasting, positive contributions to the web. Its decentralized approach to content moderation now serves as one of the foundational principles of federated social networks like Bluesky and Mastodon. "
Reddit goes public
It’s a pillar of the social web — but will it make a good investment?
www.platformer.news
March 20, 2024 at 2:06 PM
From Casey Newton's latest piece: "Reddit has made lasting, positive contributions to the web. Its decentralized approach to content moderation now serves as one of the foundational principles of federated social networks like Bluesky and Mastodon. "
Jeff Allen, co-founder of the Integrity Institute, just dropped the most accessible, comprehensive, balanced-yet-pulling-no-punches look at how and why social media search (and ranking) is so truly awful: fundamental errors in goal-setting, strategy, and execution. READ THIS ARTICLE!
Why Is Instagram Search More Harmful Than Google Search? — Integrity Institute
An analysis of why Instagram search is more harmful than Google Search. We
dive into how Instagram search is designed, compare to how Google Search is
designed, and highlight how Instagram’s design ...
integrityinstitute.org
February 13, 2024 at 4:43 PM
Jeff Allen, co-founder of the Integrity Institute, just dropped the most accessible, comprehensive, balanced-yet-pulling-no-punches look at how and why social media search (and ranking) is so truly awful: fundamental errors in goal-setting, strategy, and execution. READ THIS ARTICLE!
Moderation is an exercise of power - always, inherently.
Excellent discussion of this from the abstract to the nuts-and-bolts of what this means and what we can and should be doing in a Bluesky world, from someone doing the real work.
Excellent discussion of this from the abstract to the nuts-and-bolts of what this means and what we can and should be doing in a Bluesky world, from someone doing the real work.
Moderation is seen as a stacking of authority. I explain some of the analogies here.
The most power is in clients and app views. That is where you should look for the answer to “who stops the nazi server”.
Some even think PDSs are almost pointless. That’s a separate convo though
The most power is in clients and app views. That is where you should look for the answer to “who stops the nazi server”.
Some even think PDSs are almost pointless. That’s a separate convo though
The Moderation article
From the very beginning, the internet was antiblack.
blog.rudyfraser.com
February 9, 2024 at 6:18 PM
Moderation is an exercise of power - always, inherently.
Excellent discussion of this from the abstract to the nuts-and-bolts of what this means and what we can and should be doing in a Bluesky world, from someone doing the real work.
Excellent discussion of this from the abstract to the nuts-and-bolts of what this means and what we can and should be doing in a Bluesky world, from someone doing the real work.
Reposted by Glenn Ellingson
CHAI have announced the Prosocial Ranking Challenge — propose a sufficiently promising algorithm for bridging-based ranking and they'll spend $50k to test it with 1500 people on Facebook, X, and Reddit over a 4 month period.
https://bit.ly/prosocial-ranking-challenge
https://bit.ly/prosocial-ranking-challenge
January 19, 2024 at 9:31 AM
CHAI have announced the Prosocial Ranking Challenge — propose a sufficiently promising algorithm for bridging-based ranking and they'll spend $50k to test it with 1500 people on Facebook, X, and Reddit over a 4 month period.
https://bit.ly/prosocial-ranking-challenge
https://bit.ly/prosocial-ranking-challenge
Reposted by Glenn Ellingson
Big Tech chose to disproportionately lay-off experts in combating harmful content on their platforms in order to save a buck. In this piece, @geewiz.bsky.social and I document how extraordinarily expensive this decision was and continues to be in the long-run www.techpolicy.press/the-unbearab...
The Unbearably High Cost of Cutting Trust & Safety Corners | TechPolicy.Press
If products grow harmful enough, people will seek less noxious alternatives, say Matt Motyl & Glenn Elllingson.
www.techpolicy.press
January 6, 2024 at 1:59 AM
Big Tech chose to disproportionately lay-off experts in combating harmful content on their platforms in order to save a buck. In this piece, @geewiz.bsky.social and I document how extraordinarily expensive this decision was and continues to be in the long-run www.techpolicy.press/the-unbearab...
Here @mattmotyl.bsky.social and I lay out the business case for trust and safety (also known as integrity) work.
T&S is not just about dodging monumental government fines, it's also essential to ad-based business models, and for long-term customer satisfaction and growth, without which.....
T&S is not just about dodging monumental government fines, it's also essential to ad-based business models, and for long-term customer satisfaction and growth, without which.....
The Unbearably High Cost of Cutting Trust & Safety Corners | TechPolicy.Press
If products grow harmful enough, people will seek less noxious alternatives, say Matt Motyl & Glenn Elllingson.
www.techpolicy.press
January 4, 2024 at 4:42 PM
Here @mattmotyl.bsky.social and I lay out the business case for trust and safety (also known as integrity) work.
T&S is not just about dodging monumental government fines, it's also essential to ad-based business models, and for long-term customer satisfaction and growth, without which.....
T&S is not just about dodging monumental government fines, it's also essential to ad-based business models, and for long-term customer satisfaction and growth, without which.....
Reposted by Glenn Ellingson
Seems kinda fascist to have the voting public pass an amendment and then have the legislature say "we're sure people didn't mean to do this so we're going to stop the judiciary from enforcing it."
What the everloving fuck. Writing about this in the newsletter today but I had to share now: Ohio Republicans say that "to prevent mischief by pro-abortion courts with Issue 1, Ohio legislators will consider removing jurisdiction from the judiciary." ohiohouse.gov/news/republi...
DECEPTIVE OHIO ISSUE 1 MISLED THE PUBLIC BUT DOESN'T REPEAL OUR LAWS
COLUMBUS, OH - Ohio Legislators will be introducing several bills to address this issue in the coming weeks.
“Foreign billionaires don't get to make Ohio laws,” said...
ohiohouse.gov
November 11, 2023 at 3:08 AM
Seems kinda fascist to have the voting public pass an amendment and then have the legislature say "we're sure people didn't mean to do this so we're going to stop the judiciary from enforcing it."
Delighted to be able to sign and share the Neely Center's Design Code for Social Media. @iyerland.bsky.social. This is a deep, thoughtful document that all practitioners should read - and that everyone can demand our social products embody.
uscneelycenter.substack.com/p/introducin...
uscneelycenter.substack.com/p/introducin...
Introducing the Neely Center Design Code for Social Media
We introduce a set of specific design solutions for improving social media's impact on society, especially given upcoming global elections and the increasing ubiquity of generative AI.
uscneelycenter.substack.com
October 19, 2023 at 6:48 PM
Delighted to be able to sign and share the Neely Center's Design Code for Social Media. @iyerland.bsky.social. This is a deep, thoughtful document that all practitioners should read - and that everyone can demand our social products embody.
uscneelycenter.substack.com/p/introducin...
uscneelycenter.substack.com/p/introducin...
This is one of the most critical issues with all forms of fact checking -- whether by the community or journalists. While it's a good thing for people to engage and challenge misinfo, careful, thoughtful responses to all the junk being spewed cannot and will not be enough.
This is the clearest analysis I’ve seen of the fundamental problem with Community Notes in crisis situations: The overwhelming majority of impressions on tweets happen in the first 1-3 hours after posting, but it takes an average of 10 hours and 44 minutes for Community Notes to publicly show up.
I took a look at how Community Notes is doing at handling the deluge of misinformation related to the current Israel/Hamas war. TLDR: Community Notes has managed to label some popular false posts, but is falling short in multiple ways.
conspirator0.substack.com/p/community-...
conspirator0.substack.com/p/community-...
October 16, 2023 at 2:51 AM
This is one of the most critical issues with all forms of fact checking -- whether by the community or journalists. While it's a good thing for people to engage and challenge misinfo, careful, thoughtful responses to all the junk being spewed cannot and will not be enough.
Reposted by Glenn Ellingson
This continues to be a hard time for workers in trust and safety and tech. I wanted to write a pep talk as we go into what will be a really tough year.
Plus the Integrity Institute has launched part two of our election integrity best practices guide.
anchorchange.substack.com/p/keep-doing...
Plus the Integrity Institute has launched part two of our election integrity best practices guide.
anchorchange.substack.com/p/keep-doing...
Keep doing hard things - a pep talk for trust and safety workers
Plus, the Integrity Institute launches the second part of its Election Integrity Best Practices Guide.
anchorchange.substack.com
October 4, 2023 at 1:36 PM
This continues to be a hard time for workers in trust and safety and tech. I wanted to write a pep talk as we go into what will be a really tough year.
Plus the Integrity Institute has launched part two of our election integrity best practices guide.
anchorchange.substack.com/p/keep-doing...
Plus the Integrity Institute has launched part two of our election integrity best practices guide.
anchorchange.substack.com/p/keep-doing...
Reposted by Glenn Ellingson
KEEPING PEOPLE HOUSED & FED during rough periods of their lives is *cheaper* than incarcerating & hospitalizing them repeatedly when they’re shoved onto the streets. Always has been. Just give them the money.
It saves money, even if “it’s just the right thing to do” never convinced you.
It saves money, even if “it’s just the right thing to do” never convinced you.
Preliminary results from the Denver Basic Income Project that's providing cash to hundreds of unhoused people for one year using the first 6 months of data:
• NO ONE receiving $1,000/mo still sleeping outside
• Full-time employment increased
• Fewer visits to the ER
• Fewer nights spent in jail
• NO ONE receiving $1,000/mo still sleeping outside
• Full-time employment increased
• Fewer visits to the ER
• Fewer nights spent in jail
October 4, 2023 at 3:03 AM
KEEPING PEOPLE HOUSED & FED during rough periods of their lives is *cheaper* than incarcerating & hospitalizing them repeatedly when they’re shoved onto the streets. Always has been. Just give them the money.
It saves money, even if “it’s just the right thing to do” never convinced you.
It saves money, even if “it’s just the right thing to do” never convinced you.
Proud to share the Integrity Institute's second election integrity guide for online platforms (adding to our first guide earlier this year)! @katieharbath.bsky.social and I, and the fantastic group of integrity professionals at the Institute, hope people find this helpful heading into 2024 elections
New Guide Provides Concrete Elections Integrity Recommendations for Online Platforms — Integrity I...
Elections matter, and history has demonstrated online platforms will find
themselves grappling with these challenges whether they want to be or not.
This latest guide provides companies – large or...
integrityinstitute.org
October 4, 2023 at 10:52 PM
Proud to share the Integrity Institute's second election integrity guide for online platforms (adding to our first guide earlier this year)! @katieharbath.bsky.social and I, and the fantastic group of integrity professionals at the Institute, hope people find this helpful heading into 2024 elections
Reposted by Glenn Ellingson
So... you called him a pedophile for no reason, leading to a flood of death threats, forced him out of his home permanently, and he goes on stage a year later to say "that kinda sucked," and your response is to say that he is "evil in as pure a form"? WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!?
October 3, 2023 at 4:38 AM
So... you called him a pedophile for no reason, leading to a flood of death threats, forced him out of his home permanently, and he goes on stage a year later to say "that kinda sucked," and your response is to say that he is "evil in as pure a form"? WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!?
Reposted by Glenn Ellingson
I just preordered an iPhone 15 Pro Max and paid through PayPal. My iTunes charges also through PayPal; no logins required for either experience.
While it sucks to have old eyes that need a giant phone, it's kinda neat to buy that phone using products you helped build before the iPhone even existed.
While it sucks to have old eyes that need a giant phone, it's kinda neat to buy that phone using products you helped build before the iPhone even existed.
September 15, 2023 at 12:33 PM
I just preordered an iPhone 15 Pro Max and paid through PayPal. My iTunes charges also through PayPal; no logins required for either experience.
While it sucks to have old eyes that need a giant phone, it's kinda neat to buy that phone using products you helped build before the iPhone even existed.
While it sucks to have old eyes that need a giant phone, it's kinda neat to buy that phone using products you helped build before the iPhone even existed.
OK, so I've done some quantitative empirical research on bsky. Ready for the big reveal? I have received 4 follows, of which 1 was a spammer (followed 61k accounts and posted spammy junk) so...
July 20, 2023 at 9:42 PM
OK, so I've done some quantitative empirical research on bsky. Ready for the big reveal? I have received 4 follows, of which 1 was a spammer (followed 61k accounts and posted spammy junk) so...
So... Many.... Social... Media... Plays....
How shall I document myself here? Let's start with who it's really all about, the cat I serve, although apparently not quite as well as I should:
How shall I document myself here? Let's start with who it's really all about, the cat I serve, although apparently not quite as well as I should:
July 6, 2023 at 1:08 AM
So... Many.... Social... Media... Plays....
How shall I document myself here? Let's start with who it's really all about, the cat I serve, although apparently not quite as well as I should:
How shall I document myself here? Let's start with who it's really all about, the cat I serve, although apparently not quite as well as I should: