A bunch of us have been using Flattr recently. It's a goofy but sweet European company that allows you to set a budget for micropayments that get delivered through social media services: Flickr, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Github, App.net. You favorite a thing? Part of your monthly budget goes to that favorite.

This was going semi-well. One problem was that Flattr isn't that widespread yet, though it had to start somewhere. So payments tended to be a bit circular. I made about 7 Euros in the last month, and I spent about 15 Euros. A lot of this, it looks like, was just money sort of equally changing hands.

This conversation pursuant to this recent piece on "Dark Social" (that is, sharing via IM or chat or email or IDK, IRC?) is interesting. It started with a look at traffic to the Atlantic, where they found that "all the social networks that you know" were really on just "about 43.5 percent of our social traffic. On the other, you have this previously unmeasured darknet that's delivering 56.5 percent of people to individual stories. This is not a niche phenomenon! It's more than 2.5x Facebook's impact on the site." What do you think? TELL US ON A SOCIAL NETWORK SOMEWHERE IN SPACE.

I can't do this anymore. I was staying subscribed to World Net Daily's email blasts because I figured it was important to know what the wingnut right thinks about our COMMUNIST IN CHIEF and about olive oil. (???) But it's just like opening your gmail every day and having Nicolas Cage as Ghostrider emerge and spit in your mouth. It's not like that even. It IS that. A hideous digital face. Spitting. In my open mouth. I thought this was my job! But no job is worth this! Can someone take over monitoring them for me? Like I think this is the Southern Poverty Law Center's job or [...]

There are things I don't need to know about my Facebook acquaintances! Seriously people, that's it, turn that garbage off.

How does everything about this not make you want to run to Al Gore's house and pull the plug on the whole Internet? (via)

Thank the atheist Cylon God once again for the Ninth Circuit: in US v Nosal, yesterday they ruled (PDF) that, among other things, the ridiculous user agreements that we all "sign" online aren't really something that should be crimes if we violate them. That's not crazy: up until quite recently, the court points out, minors couldn't even "legally" use any Google product. On Facebook, it would have been "illegal" for any user to give another his password. The dissent—and other courts—claim their conclusion is silly, because just because the government can prosecute something doesn't mean they will. But that's not really how America works: "The government assures [...]

If you're not paying attention to the always incredible goings-on at Pinterest, some recent updates:

• Pinterest is perfect for people to find and buy things. That's why this spammer is making a minimum of $1,000 a day, all from affiliate links. Nothing really wrong with that: affiliate links to Amazon are a good business! And so is shoving up thousands of Pinterest pics a day, with affiliate links attached, apparently. BRB, gotta get on this, hate to watch a gravy train pass me by.

• Last week, when Pinterest rolled out new terms of service, which including banning thinspiration blogs—wait, sidebar? The poor anorexic bloggers! They are to [...]

OH YES. It's TripAdvisaargh. The name, we should think, is self-explanatory. (via)

I've raised five sons, none of whom have ever brought home a girl named Denise. Call me arrogant, but I'm proud of that.

— Anne Romney (@AnneRomney1) August 29, 2012

So this Twitter account is happening.

My obsession Thunderclap—it was Kickstarter-style mass-Tweeting to promote causes and/or products—was shut down under Twitter's API rules but is now back—on Facebook! (Which will also likely frown upon the API uses! But hey, fun for all.) Fast Company, without a shred of evidence, suggests it was shut down because it "steals thunder" from Twitter's advertising model. That's a fun thing to assert.

Once upon a time, "trigger warning" was an Internet shorthand for "Hey, look out, in what follows on this website, we are going to talk about rape or child sexual abuse or something really intense, and if you're not in the right emotional place for that, maybe go away and come back." This was a useful kind of thing! If sometimes applied a little broadly, but you know: fair warning is fair warning.

A couple of years ago now, a big dust-up went down. Oh, those were good times: "The debate over the feminist blog staple began with sex writer Susannah Breslin, who thinks trigger warnings are condescending [...]

What’s new, you might ask, in another tale of careless youth broken on the galley of journalism? Well, someone in power finally stood up—sort of—for the little guy.  In a column on the resignation of 20-something Elizabeth Flock after charges of “a significant ethical lapse” and “serious factual errors,” the Washington Post’s Ombudsman Patrick Pexton said, you know what? The newspaper was just as culpable as the reporter: “The Post” he wrote, “failed her as much as she failed The Post.”

As stirring as it is to find a hint of post-hoc compassion in a professional culture where any mistake appears increasingly to be fatal, the question is: [...]

Two things you're supposed to read today:

• On Facebook buying Instagram: "Companies once made sleds or dreamcatchers or software, but that’s all outsourced; an Internet product is very often a thing that lets other people make things—a kind of metaproduct—and you can get 30 million people working for you, for free, if you do a good job of it."

• Are comments actually bad for web business? "In conversations I’ve had with peers in the internet publishing world lately, as well as a resurgence of chatter about comments both online and in schmoozy-cocktail-space, I’m starting to come to a conclusion: comments are more trouble than they [...]

Dog farts + jet lag feels like the worst hangover I've ever had. Ouch.

— Neko Case (@NekoCase) February 9, 2012

Mmm, earlier today someone I follow on Twitter retweeted a famous comedian being dumb, and so I had the joy of blocking both of them. So delicious! Every time I see an ad on Twitter, I block the company. (So long, KmartDeals, StaplesUS, Walmart Specials.) Every time someone annoys me majorly, I don't unfollow: I just go the extra mile and block 'em. It's great! You're nuking them from your universe! Am I annoying you? You should block me too!

All the people who would be [...]

This Tumblr is just hypnotic: Our Incredible Journey collects the deadly combination of "We've been acquired, now our company will be amazing!" with the inevitable "We've suspended service to focus on Google/Facebook/Yahoo's core products" announcements. (via)

Something is going on with the Internet, and, once again, it's fun, but maybe not that fun. There's a rash of actually quite cool new "products"—services, websites, "apps" (sigh)—and they have a lot in common. From our pals at Branch to things like Medium and Svbtle (oh that name) and on back to Pinterest, and then forward to a few other projects in development, well… there's a visual language going on, for one thing, and it's like John Herrman writes: It's an internet where every blog is Daring Fireball, where every post looks like Instapaper, where every discussion is led by its rightful leaders, and where [...]

Today's the day that Thunderclap releases its first mass tweet into the wild. Late this morning, almost 2000 people are going to simultaneously Tweet a message from Matt Taibbi. If you don't know of it, Thunderclap is like Kickstarter for mass tweets: if enough people sign on to a message, it goes live. (This particular tweet now counts its total reach at "3,793,447 people.") I have mixed feelings about this project! It's sort of genius? And yet I also dislike shilling and intrusiveness on Twitter. (And FYI, we "signed on" to this tweet as an experiment, because we wanted to see what would happen. In other disclaimer news, [...]

"In an e-mail to Stickybits's investors, the pair explained Turntable and gave them a choice: They could take back what money remained or stick with them. All except one kept the faith. Chasen's announcement, made the day the staff returned from the winter holiday, was abrupt: The developers, with one exception, would cease work on Stickybits immediately. The business side would wind down client relationships. Left unsaid: All except a skeleton crew would soon leave the company." —An enjoyable story about the path to date of Turntable.fm. It's also an interesting reminder that entrepreneurs may be "job creators" but also sometimes they lay off everyone along the way.

Judge ruled against me on standing, on intervention, and on the subpoena. So uh Twitter is compelled to hand over @destructuremal's tweets

— Malcolm Harris (@BigMeanInternet) April 23, 2012

In the strange case of the Manhattan D.A. subpoenaing Occupy Wall Street arrestees' Twitters, so far we've come to a place where the state can request copies of three months of the things that people have published on the Internet. That seems… reasonable! Not very chilling! (The Internet being the Internet and all!) What is bizarre is to see the D.A. prepare such a labor-intensive assault in the matter of a violation—these charges [...]

"I worry that the assumption that people are clamoring for long form writing is incorrect. The main mission of most web browsing sessions—to dick around on the Internet—points directly to the value of brevity. To say people are looking for the gravitas in their writing through length is akin to telling a Shakira fan they’ll really like Joanna Newsom—after all, Newsom is just a female singer who sings longer. Like Shakira but inherently 'better.'" —Did you know that Matter, which wants to publish a piece of writing once a week, got $140,201 pledged on Kickstarter? They have already planned a "Best of Matter" print anthology! It's so magical. [...]