Hacker News: nillium

Journalism Needs Your Help

nillium — Tue, 18 Jun 2024 18:20:05 +0000

Article URL: https://letsgo.forth.news/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40720613

Points: 4

# Comments: 1

Taking News Forth: original reporting with the look and feel of social

nillium — Mon, 24 May 2021 14:22:29 +0000

Article URL: https://blog.nillium.com/taking-news-forth/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27264687

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

News was never meant for social media

nillium — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 17:16:03 +0000

Article URL: https://blog.nillium.com/news-was-never-meant-for-social-platforms/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26865310

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

New comment by nillium in "Facebook gives money to America’s biggest news organizations"

nillium — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 15:16:51 +0000

Wrote this a little while back. Most news orgs -- especially local -- are being set up to fail in this environment.

https://blog.nillium.com/news-was-never-meant-for-social-pla...

Fact-checking is the wrong way to fight misinformation

nillium — Fri, 26 Mar 2021 19:36:58 +0000

Article URL: https://blog.nillium.com/fighting-misinformation-online/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26596041

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Forth Editorial Policy

nillium — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 18:06:44 +0000

Article URL: https://www.forthapp.com/docs/policy.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26583437

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

New comment by nillium in "Combating Misinformation"

nillium — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 18:00:55 +0000

The problem with misinformation, ultimately, is that it is given a platform. We've reached an inflection point where people can truly believe these mistruths so deeply, that any fact checking is received as a personal attack -- and they get even more defensive.

Facebook (or YouTube, or Twitter, or whoever) can try to come up with even more infoboxes or disclaimers, but it will continue to exist as long as it is given a platform.

The original sin of social media comes down to the idea that anyone can post, and that virality begets virality. Shocking content is presented on the same level as traditional media -- and in many cases, can exceed those traditional news sources' reach.

FWIW, and disclosure -- we're building a platform that aims to combat misinfo by making it only for news. (https://blog.nillium.com/were-not-an-aggregator/).

Our reporters follow an Editorial Policy, that comes with consequences if they break the guidelines. Virtually every respectable news org has something like this -- we're just making ours public. https://www.forthapp.com/docs/policy.html

Until we hold the reporting produced by professional reporters -- reviewed by editors, fact checked, and held in check by an editorial process -- at a higher esteem than what Firstname Bunchanumbers says, misinformation will continue.

New comment by nillium in "Nextdoor is replacing the small-town paper"

nillium — Fri, 05 Feb 2021 05:07:48 +0000

Of course, this is not ideal. There is a big difference between journalism and message boards -- though that isn't to say, of course, that there can't room for both.

We've been working on a platform reimagining how local news can operate -- taking whats good from social media (the format and distribution), but maintaining journalistic rigor.

We cannot lose journalism.

https://blog.nillium.com/defending-journalism-to-defend-the-...

Now what? The collateral damage of a tech backlash

nillium — Mon, 11 Jan 2021 21:34:21 +0000

Article URL: https://blog.nillium.com/now-what-the-collateral-damage-of-a-tech-backlash/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25737531

Points: 29

# Comments: 26

It took a siege at the US Capitol for social platforms to do the right thing

nillium — Fri, 08 Jan 2021 20:20:17 +0000

Article URL: https://blog.nillium.com/it-only-took-a-siege-on-the-capitol-for-social-platforms-to-do-the-right-thing/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25689882

Points: 3

# Comments: 2

“We need a well equipped press corps to keep us informed.”

nillium — Thu, 07 Jan 2021 22:08:35 +0000

Article URL: https://blog.nillium.com/defending-journalism-to-defend-the-republic/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25678291

Points: 5

# Comments: 0

Forth: Concise updates with context, from journalists you can trust

nillium — Wed, 06 Jan 2021 02:33:05 +0000

Article URL: https://www.forthapp.com/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25654099

Points: 2

# Comments: 1

New comment by nillium in "Emotional headlines have an impact regardless of the credibility of the source"

nillium — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 23:28:14 +0000

This is why we're building a news platform that sets up a different incentive structure than the current status quo. If publishers aren't desperate for clicks, there is no reason to stoop to outrage porn.

https://blog.nillium.com/news-was-never-meant-for-social-pla...

New comment by nillium in "Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?"

nillium — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 13:54:52 +0000

Substack can work for reporters who already have a following -- but we are trying to help those in local markets and earlier in their careers.

From a user perspective, we're looking to give a holistic view of what's happening around you, regardless of which trusted journalist is posting.

New comment by nillium in "Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?"

nillium — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 13:53:00 +0000

Apologies -- For now, yes, we are US specific. This requires a lot of individual connections and deals with newsrooms and reporters, so we had to start somewhere.

Hopefully we can expand in the near future

New comment by nillium in "Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?"

nillium — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 02:10:56 +0000

FWIW, we are working on this. Almost all of the issues listed in this thread can be traced back to the way aggregators and social networks end up monetizing (or not monetizing) news. We're trying something a little different: https://blog.nillium.com/were-not-an-aggregator/

New comment by nillium in "We can have democracy or we can have Facebook"

nillium — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 15:52:05 +0000

But that all requires an informed populace. The problem with Facebook (and others, of course) is that it warps all financial incentives for the publishers, while sapping revenue away from them.

Now if you want any revenue at all, which is required for surviving, you need to have clickbaity headlines so you can get traffic to your page. And even that assumes that certain news can find an audience; local news especially tends to fail in that regard because it by definition appeals to a smaller group of people.

https://blog.nillium.com/news-was-never-meant-for-social-pla...

New comment by nillium in "We can have democracy or we can have Facebook"

nillium — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 15:34:05 +0000

This is more like Amazon diverting the money that used to go to the book authors back to themselves, and then when the authors and publishers start layoffs and go bankrupt, people ask why the writing is so bad.

Shameless plug, but we're working on something to take the good of social without the predatory leanings or misaligned interests: https://blog.nillium.com/why-were-building-forth/

New comment by nillium in "It’s time to remove news from Facebook and Google"

nillium — Mon, 30 Nov 2020 21:47:55 +0000

Continuing the discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25259370

New comment by nillium in "News was never meant for social platforms"

nillium — Mon, 30 Nov 2020 21:45:20 +0000

OP here: this is meant as a follow up to the comments in this thread from yesterday:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25249414