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Newspapers hosting their own Mastodon instances is the wrong model.

This here by WaPo, newspapers verifying their journalists wherever they toot, is the right model.

https://washpost.engineering/heres-how-the-washington-post-verified-its-journalists-on-mastodon-7b5dbc96985c

Here’s how The Washington Post verified its journalists on Mastodon

A small cross-disciplinary team of engineers worked together to add a feature so journalists at The Washington Post could link their Mastodon profiles from The Post’s website and verify themselves on…
Chris Zubak-Skees (Washington Post Engineering)
Evan Prodromou
Evan Prodromou  
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What? No. C'mon.

They're both fine. Any way that publications and journalists get on the fediverse is fine. Newspapers having their own instances is great. Newspapers verifying journalists is great. Both are great.
Ben Adida
Ben Adida  
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@evan i don't agree. One thing that was positive about Twitter is journalists having independent voices and a lasting timeline as they move from job to job. Being tied to your employer is not ideal, IMO.
@Evan Prodromou
Evan Prodromou
Evan Prodromou  
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Please don't discourage organizations or individuals from joining the fediverse.
Ted Han ★ 韓聖安
Ted Han ★ 韓聖安  
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@evan I don't think this is discouraging organizations from joining the fediverse for what it's worth. As someone who’s worked with a lot of journalists and built products aimed at newsrooms, I can say with great confidence that the incentives and goals of journalists and news organizations are definitely not the same, and in some cases not well aligned.
@Evan Prodromou
Evan Prodromou
Evan Prodromou  
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great! It's important that publications and broadcasters have a presence on the open social web.
Evan Prodromou
Evan Prodromou  
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I've been thinking about your plan.

In your scheme, is there a way for me to subscribe to all of the publication's articles as they come out?

Or do I have to subscribe to each journalist individually?

What about sections of the publication, like science, sports, or entertainment?

What about employees who aren't journalists?
Evan Prodromou
Evan Prodromou  
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and who is responsible for the server costs of distribution, and labour costs of moderation, on articles?

The unlucky operator who unknowingly let a reporter from the Washington Post onto their instance?

Is the reporter supposed to cover those costs out of their own pocket? I'm sure the superstars can handle it, but it seems bad for the long tail of journalists.
Evan Prodromou
Evan Prodromou  
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I'm glad to see that the Post is considering the long-term responsibilities of having their own instance.
Elias Mårtenson
Elias Mårtenson  
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doesn't it depend on the role under which they post? If they post on behalf of the company, they should use a corporate account. If they post as an individual that happens to work for the organisation, then it should be a verified personal account.
Evan Prodromou
Evan Prodromou  
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@thosch66 @loke we've got almost 40 years of experience as a culture with having work or school versus personal email addresses. I think we can work out having different fediverse accounts.
@Elias Mårtenson @Thomas Schewe
Thomas Schewe
Thomas Schewe  
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@evan
I never had any doubt that that any professional can handle this. And I did not wrote, that I was in doubt.
@loke @ben
@Elias Mårtenson @Evan Prodromou @Ben Adida
L. Rhodes
L. Rhodes  
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I'd be interested to hear your reasons, but at the moment, I disagree. This makes the staff subject to a broad range of user agreements and moderation rules, each of which will be subject to change at a moment's notice, and all of which will have to be continually monitored and parsed for conflicts with the org's policies. It also leaves them open to a range of potential security vulnerabilities that would be harder to exploit on a server run by a Post-employed admin and moderators.
penryu
penryu  
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@evan This is much more in line with my feelings on a journalistic publication's ethical responsibilities.
@Evan Prodromou
Evan Prodromou
Evan Prodromou  
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Why?
This entry was edited (1 year ago)
penryu
penryu  
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@evan Because "should have a mastodon instance" is too prescriptive. Similar to, "You must place a notice in the local newspaper before you can file for a change-of-name/divorce" or "Banking and health care can only use technologies that were bureaucratically approved as of 2003."
@Evan Prodromou
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