Sunday October 18th ā 8:40am
15 minute firehose comparison between #WSocial (48.2k accounts) and #Eurosky (36.9k accounts). W has 151 events (likes, posts, follows, re-posts) whereas Eurosky has over 5 THOUSAND events.
Please DO NOT call W a "ghost town", it really triggers their leaders and MEGA fans, ok? They plan to monetize their platform in 2027, ok? Ok?!?
Hilariously, their co-founder even came up with the hashtag #NOGhostTown š»
And apologies dear Fedi friends if I continue to write about #WSocial, but I have my reasons:
The platform is fully endorsed by the European Commission!!! With von der Leyen taking time away from G7 meetings to do a video ad for their launch (!!!)
The #openweb #privacy destroying #EUKidsAct has been discussed between W and the EC during a meeting in early September. If W Identity is the thing implementing it in Europe, we're all in trouble as they publish personal details to the open web
@_elena@mastodon.social keep going. You are doing journalism here.
Thank you for taking the time to do this and write it up.
@onepict@chaos.social thank you Esther! I really appreciate your encouragement because I'm on the receiving end of so much bullying by W Social MEGA fans, ouf. Reporting on this topic is not for the faint of heart š„²
@_elena@mastodon.social I think you've got an article series on your hands.
Plus the fact that minor accounts were created and the accounts are still up there is alarming.
@onepict@chaos.social I've already published 6 articles about them and I'm feeling super guilty this clown show is taking time away from me promoting the Fediverse: https://blog.elenarossini.com/tag/w-social/
But no one in mainstream media is covering W in a fair way... therefore I persist š„²
@_elena@mastodon.social It is a shame for the fediverse, but by covering the corruption and incompetence by W you're helping the folks and their groups on the fediverse and beyond.
This is a massive threat to their users privacy and the EU is complicit in it's promotion of W.
Questions need to be asked of both.
The fact that the W fanboys are bullying tells us you are having an impact.
We can point at your series, it's asking serious questions that W can't or won't answer.
@onepict@chaos.social thank you Esther š„²
I've been really disturbed by how a bunch of corporates launched their open social network in DAVOS, tried to hide the source code came from Bluesky, then quietly went closed-source Ć la Truth Social and now they are cozying up to the European Commission with identity verification. OVER MY DEAD BODY.
Plus they keep messing up in ways big and small
@_elena@mastodon.social @veronicavd@mastodon.nl @onepict@chaos.social Thanks for your persistence!
Already completely forgot about this joke.
Itās hard to keep track of everything trying to compete with Mastodon.
Wo is behind https://mu.social ?
Next week @waag@waag.social launches https://oso.social (both in collaboration with Eurosky on the AT protocol)
@eWalthert@typo.social Eurosky is behind Mu! and I didn't know about oso.social, sounds AMAZING!
@veronicavd@mastodon.nl @onepict@chaos.social @waag@waag.social
@_elena@mastodon.social @veronicavd@mastodon.nl @onepict@chaos.social @waag@waag.social And mu.social is supposed to better appeal to the young folks than eruosky.social?
Or rather the young at heart? (Iām reading Proper Cringe, Memeās and Cat GIFs) š³
@_elena@mastodon.social @onepict@chaos.social I cannot imagine anyone being a fan of this WSocial platform.
Keep up the good work. šŖ
@_elena@mastodon.social I have never seen them, or heard anything about them, untill now. I have to consider myself very lucky, I guess. Never knew that was al thing.
@lectrodan@mastodon.social lucky you and please DO NOT go down their rabbit hole. If we're lucky they won't be around come 2028
@_elena@mastodon.social Keep doing it! With all thatās going on it is one of the forgotten battles ā
@_elena@mastodon.social stop apologizing, youāre doing great work! whoever fg doesnāt want to see can filter the hashtag:)
I guess the MEGA fans and the leaders are the same people, just with von der Leyen added.
Anyway, please don't stop! I really value your research and judging by the comments I am just one of many!
š
@_elena@mastodon.social now check what happens only on mastodon.social in 15 minutes š¤Ŗ then extrapolate that (roughly multiply it by 100 will do it) to the entire Fediverse.
@_elena@mastodon.social My "not a ghost town" hashtag has people asking a lot of questions already answered by my hashtag
@_elena@mastodon.social I'm surprised they haven't turned to LLMs to generate fake engagement yet.
@superblox@mastodon.social ooooooh you didn't hear about this? š https://blog.elenarossini.com/w-social-fictional-metrics-and-the-beauty-of-open-data/ they made up a fake engagement metric on their homepage š¤”
Now playing:
The Specials - Ghost Town
https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=RZ2oXzrnti4
For me it is a no go area š
@_elena@mastodon.social So Eurosky is using Bluesky's AT protocol, right?
I used to not be a big fan of Bluesky, because they reek of tech bros, and no-one could feasibly run an AT-protocol instance themselves. Is that starting to become obsolete information?
@_elena@mastodon.social That made me giggle. āā Have an amazing Sunday Elena. ā
ā
@_elena@mastodon.social Meanwhile on #Fedi:
HELLO?
(echo)Hello
(echo)hello
(echo)ello
(echo)o...
Best soc-net ever! :)
@_elena@mastodon.social
since Chat Control 1.0 and 2.0, social ban, ID verification and W social kind of freak stuffs, I feel quite sicked for EU govs.
they're seeking their own interests, not welfare for their people
@Pouakai@mastodon.social same here š¢
some months ago a group of people presented me the idea of sending me to Brussels to advocate for the Fediverse with influential people in politics/the EC (more like dangled a carrot and never brought it up anymore). I'm glad it never materialized because I've been burning so many bridges with my reporting on W Social. And I have become super disillusioned with the EC
@_elena@mastodon.social yikes, i think even northsky beats them by a healthy margin lol
which is crazy because i'm not sure they've even crossed the 5k mark :O
Add me to the list of people that appreciate your efforts pointing out the flaws with W Social.
Thank you!
@w_b@mastodon.world thank you Bill! ā¤ļø
I've only reported the tip of the iceberg, I know SO MANY THINGS on background (people don't want to go on the record about them).
This is basically my face when I think about W and how much I know about them: šµāš«
There are several scoops I have yet to write about. And they are šæ worthy!
I'm sure you'll write about those scoops when you can.
I'll keep the popcorn popper ready.
@w_b@mastodon.world I hope you won't get a stomachache because it's a LOT of popcorn.
I don't even know where to start... I could do a 12 Days of W Social - Ć la 12 days of Christmas - and reveal a big mishap a day...
Thank you for being concerned about my health! š
12 Days of W sounds intriguing.
@_elena@mastodon.social European Network Dynamics has 230 users so far and will be happy to welcome you.
@_elena@mastodon.social What does this mean? I recently started there a Wsocial account, and the idea with real persons, proofed with passport is great! Is there something wrong?
@moon12@muenchen.social I wrote a series of articles about them: https://blog.elenarossini.com/tag/w-social/ I'll let you make up your mind about them... I would personally stay away
@moon12@muenchen.social P.S.: if you let me know your username, I can check if your full name, approx. date of birth and nationality are being published in the clear on the world wide web
@_elena@mastodon.social Thank you for your fast answer! My name at Wsocial is Moon12, and my real name is Josef Fendt. I made the procedure with my passport. Basically I have no problems to give my real name privately or in security cases, but not in the internet. Its good you spot on this failures and a probable big hoax.
@moon12@muenchen.social I can see your birth year (approx birth date), full name and nationality here: https://wdonthavetime.tngl.io/wsocial-wned the info is grabbed from pdsls.dev because W Social makes that info public and publishes on their PDS
@_elena@mastodon.social thank you for your time! Yes, this is horrible, not these data, but the spreading of data around the world. I will close this account. Have a good day!
@moon12@muenchen.social oh wow! I was not expecting this reaction. Most W Social users I've been interacting with have been saying they "have nothing to hide" and willingly share their personal details.
Now, please first revoke access to your data on W Identity. And make sure to send a GDPR "right to be forgotten" request because for several deleted accounts, personal data is still displayed publicly and viewable on multiple sites.
Happy to stay in touch and help you figure out if your data is safe
@_elena@mastodon.social it really is quite rude to compare it to a ghost town. there would be much more activity in a ghost town
@mensrea@freeradical.zone š to be fair, they have a teeny tiny bit of activity - about 1.4k active users a week (source: https://bsky.app/profile/mackuba.eu/post/3mxw42ksup22q) so maybe I should call it a "quiet village" instead?
@_elena@mastodon.social Ermagerd... if those numbers didn't spell 'fail', then the need for that hashtag certainly did...