Dan
@danheslep.bsky.social
I study platforms! And sometimes I write about them too. I have weapons-grade ADHD so I will make typos without realizing it.
Been thinking about Polanyi:
"It should be upheld at all cost—even that of efficiency in production, economy in consumption or rationality in administration. An industrial society can afford to be free."
Our platform society can afford to be free; we owe nothing to the oligarchs who say otherwise.
"It should be upheld at all cost—even that of efficiency in production, economy in consumption or rationality in administration. An industrial society can afford to be free."
Our platform society can afford to be free; we owe nothing to the oligarchs who say otherwise.
September 4, 2026 at 8:39 PM
Been thinking about Polanyi:
"It should be upheld at all cost—even that of efficiency in production, economy in consumption or rationality in administration. An industrial society can afford to be free."
Our platform society can afford to be free; we owe nothing to the oligarchs who say otherwise.
"It should be upheld at all cost—even that of efficiency in production, economy in consumption or rationality in administration. An industrial society can afford to be free."
Our platform society can afford to be free; we owe nothing to the oligarchs who say otherwise.
Reposted by Dan
This is an extremely reactionary article, arguing that the universal Servi fee, which is like $0.14 on your phone bill, is bad because Waste Fraud and Abuse (where have I heard that before) because arglebargle??
Propublica is fucking trash now www.propublica.org/article/adak...
Propublica is fucking trash now www.propublica.org/article/adak...
On This Nearly Deserted Alaska Island, You Pay to Keep Hundreds of Empty Buildings Wired for Internet
U.S. phone customers pay more than $340,000 a year for an Anchorage company to keep homes and buildings on Alaska’s Adak Island wired for obsolete internet service. All but a few of them sit empty.
www.propublica.org
August 20, 2026 at 3:56 PM
This is an extremely reactionary article, arguing that the universal Servi fee, which is like $0.14 on your phone bill, is bad because Waste Fraud and Abuse (where have I heard that before) because arglebargle??
Propublica is fucking trash now www.propublica.org/article/adak...
Propublica is fucking trash now www.propublica.org/article/adak...
Reposted by Dan
The City of Minneapolis, evicting 48 of the poorest families in its care, for a total of $30,144.
Yesterday MPHA & affiliated nonprofit Community Housing Resources filed a combined 48 evictions. These alone represent 85% of Hennepin County filings & 57% of all statewide filings on 4/14/26.
Average of alleged overdue rent amounts: $628.
81% of the cases allege less than $1,000 in overdue rent.
Average of alleged overdue rent amounts: $628.
81% of the cases allege less than $1,000 in overdue rent.
Grateful for the partners making it happen — Minnesota Housing, Hennepin County, MPHA, the Metropolitan Council, and many more.
April 15, 2026 at 7:26 PM
The City of Minneapolis, evicting 48 of the poorest families in its care, for a total of $30,144.
Reposted by Dan
Associated with the Frankfurt School, Habermas was a world-renowned thinker on modernity and democracy who helped shape German post-war and post-reunification political discourse. n.pr/3Nptb1g
Acclaimed 20th century philosopher Jürgen Habermas dies at 96
Associated with the Frankfurt School, Habermas was a world-renowned thinker on modernity and democracy who helped shape German post-war and post-reunification political discourse.
n.pr
March 15, 2026 at 3:57 AM
Associated with the Frankfurt School, Habermas was a world-renowned thinker on modernity and democracy who helped shape German post-war and post-reunification political discourse. n.pr/3Nptb1g
Reposted by Dan
For @msnownews.bsky.social, I wrote an article about how ICE Watch is grounded in sociological theories of violence prevention.
The reality is that most men will only commit public violence in extremely specific scenarios and ICE Watch disrupts the conditions necessary for escalation.
The reality is that most men will only commit public violence in extremely specific scenarios and ICE Watch disrupts the conditions necessary for escalation.
Opinion | I'm a Minneapolis sociologist who studies violence. Here's how ICE observers are helping.
Research into how violence occurs shows that disapproval from the people around you can help reduce it.
www.ms.now
January 16, 2026 at 6:55 PM
For @msnownews.bsky.social, I wrote an article about how ICE Watch is grounded in sociological theories of violence prevention.
The reality is that most men will only commit public violence in extremely specific scenarios and ICE Watch disrupts the conditions necessary for escalation.
The reality is that most men will only commit public violence in extremely specific scenarios and ICE Watch disrupts the conditions necessary for escalation.
Reposted by Dan
In my article, Infrostructure (s), I talk about how a key part of administering information is what I call materialization: that is tying the information to specific physical database. Apparently, ELITE is a materializing framework in which ICE is using data from HHS to create individual dossiers.
New: meet ELITE, the Palantir app ICE is using to find neighborhoods to raid. Map interface; officers search for immigrants; click person to bring up individual dossier. This is clearest link between what Palantir is building and ICE's activities on the ground yet www.404media.co/elite-the-pa...
‘ELITE’: The Palantir App ICE Uses to Find Neighborhoods to Raid
Internal ICE material and testimony from an official obtained by 404 Media provides the clearest link yet between the technological infrastructure Palantir is building for ICE and the agency’s activit...
www.404media.co
January 15, 2026 at 5:27 PM
In my article, Infrostructure (s), I talk about how a key part of administering information is what I call materialization: that is tying the information to specific physical database. Apparently, ELITE is a materializing framework in which ICE is using data from HHS to create individual dossiers.
Reposted by Dan
The CFP for #AoIR2025 in Mexico City is now posted. The theme is "Regeneration(s)". Submissions are due March 1.
aoir.org/aoir2026/aoi...
aoir.org/aoir2026/aoi...
January 8, 2026 at 3:07 AM
The CFP for #AoIR2025 in Mexico City is now posted. The theme is "Regeneration(s)". Submissions are due March 1.
aoir.org/aoir2026/aoi...
aoir.org/aoir2026/aoi...
Reposted by Dan
This is the biggest, toughest article I’ve done about so-called “AI psychosis.” It’s the story of a man who committed a horrific crime in his youth but served his time and against all odds found love and a new life—one that completely unraveled after he started talking to Google’s Gemini chatbot.
He Grew Obsessed With an AI Chatbot. Then He Vanished in the Ozarks
Jon Ganz committed a terrible crime in his youth, but he survived prison, fell in love, and started over. His new life unraveled in a way nobody could have predicted.
www.rollingstone.com
October 2, 2025 at 12:10 AM
This is the biggest, toughest article I’ve done about so-called “AI psychosis.” It’s the story of a man who committed a horrific crime in his youth but served his time and against all odds found love and a new life—one that completely unraveled after he started talking to Google’s Gemini chatbot.
Okay, as someone who is writing his dissertation on #Discord, this is fascinating:
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/w...
1. Discord is really good for directing a specific activity in a large bounded group; it's a pattern of activity *broadly* different from the one-to-many networks of 2010's protests.
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/w...
1. Discord is really good for directing a specific activity in a large bounded group; it's a pattern of activity *broadly* different from the one-to-many networks of 2010's protests.
Nepal’s Social Media Ban Backfires as Politics Moves to a Chat Room
www.nytimes.com
September 12, 2025 at 9:03 PM
Okay, as someone who is writing his dissertation on #Discord, this is fascinating:
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/w...
1. Discord is really good for directing a specific activity in a large bounded group; it's a pattern of activity *broadly* different from the one-to-many networks of 2010's protests.
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/w...
1. Discord is really good for directing a specific activity in a large bounded group; it's a pattern of activity *broadly* different from the one-to-many networks of 2010's protests.
One of the smallest thing I hope comes from the 50501 protests is that folks doing network analysis of social movements stop calling everything "connective action".
June 2, 2025 at 3:12 PM
One of the smallest thing I hope comes from the 50501 protests is that folks doing network analysis of social movements stop calling everything "connective action".
Discord just hired Kantar to "help advertisers understand the true impact of their Quests campaigns"
Kantar has also done extensive laundering for the Tobacco industry over the years.
Interesting stuff
www.tobaccotactics.org/article/kant...
Kantar has also done extensive laundering for the Tobacco industry over the years.
Interesting stuff
www.tobaccotactics.org/article/kant...
Kantar - Tobacco Tactics
Kantar is the research and data collection arm of public relations conglomerate WPP. Kantar itself is made up of 12 companies, including Kantar TNS, Kantar Media, Kantar IMRB, Kantar Health and Kantar...
www.tobaccotactics.org
May 28, 2025 at 11:32 PM
Discord just hired Kantar to "help advertisers understand the true impact of their Quests campaigns"
Kantar has also done extensive laundering for the Tobacco industry over the years.
Interesting stuff
www.tobaccotactics.org/article/kant...
Kantar has also done extensive laundering for the Tobacco industry over the years.
Interesting stuff
www.tobaccotactics.org/article/kant...
Reposted by Dan
Update on the Discord dataset: It's no longer online (zenodo.org/records/1517...) though no way to know if the researchers removed it or the platform where they posted it did. The 404 Media article was also updated with Discord clarifying that the researchers did violate their policies.
May 28, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Update on the Discord dataset: It's no longer online (zenodo.org/records/1517...) though no way to know if the researchers removed it or the platform where they posted it did. The 404 Media article was also updated with Discord clarifying that the researchers did violate their policies.
Reposted by Dan
Another week, another research ethics controversy.
TL;DR Researchers released a public dataset of 2B+ messages from 4M+ users on 3k+ "public" Discord servers. Usernames/IDs are anonymized.
But let's unpack this one... 🧵
www.404media.co/researchers-...
TL;DR Researchers released a public dataset of 2B+ messages from 4M+ users on 3k+ "public" Discord servers. Usernames/IDs are anonymized.
But let's unpack this one... 🧵
www.404media.co/researchers-...
Researchers Scrape 2 Billion Discord Messages and Publish Them Online
A Brazilian team used Discord’s API to scrape 10% of its open servers.
www.404media.co
May 21, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Another week, another research ethics controversy.
TL;DR Researchers released a public dataset of 2B+ messages from 4M+ users on 3k+ "public" Discord servers. Usernames/IDs are anonymized.
But let's unpack this one... 🧵
www.404media.co/researchers-...
TL;DR Researchers released a public dataset of 2B+ messages from 4M+ users on 3k+ "public" Discord servers. Usernames/IDs are anonymized.
But let's unpack this one... 🧵
www.404media.co/researchers-...
Workign on a paper on the ethics of researching semi-public spaces and this drops: arxiv.org/abs/2502.00627
This seems to be grounded in a misrepresentation of Discord's norms of interaction. The title is "Discord unveiled"; it tacitly posits that the data is not public while claiming it as such
This seems to be grounded in a misrepresentation of Discord's norms of interaction. The title is "Discord unveiled"; it tacitly posits that the data is not public while claiming it as such
Discord Unveiled: A Comprehensive Dataset of Public Communication (2015-2024)
Discord has evolved from a gaming-focused communication tool into a versatile platform supporting diverse online communities. Despite its large user base and active public servers, academic research o...
arxiv.org
May 19, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Workign on a paper on the ethics of researching semi-public spaces and this drops: arxiv.org/abs/2502.00627
This seems to be grounded in a misrepresentation of Discord's norms of interaction. The title is "Discord unveiled"; it tacitly posits that the data is not public while claiming it as such
This seems to be grounded in a misrepresentation of Discord's norms of interaction. The title is "Discord unveiled"; it tacitly posits that the data is not public while claiming it as such
Reposted by Dan
I am excited to share my open access collaboration with @ekj.bsky.social, *Critical Making in the Age of AI*, available today from Amherst College Press. It includes theory and practice from our own pedagogy, as well as examples from our own amazing students: www.fulcrum.org/concern/mono... #dhmakes
Critical Making in the Age of AI
Critical Making in the Age of AI invites students, teachers, learners, and digital humanists to explore making as scholarship. Inspired by the craft traditions of textile arts, this book combines a su...
www.fulcrum.org
April 15, 2025 at 5:14 PM
I am excited to share my open access collaboration with @ekj.bsky.social, *Critical Making in the Age of AI*, available today from Amherst College Press. It includes theory and practice from our own pedagogy, as well as examples from our own amazing students: www.fulcrum.org/concern/mono... #dhmakes
Reposted by Dan
The 🦇 D/ARC 🦇 server reached a huge milestone this week: 700 members! 🥳 So proud of this kind and wonderfully supportive community, and thrilled it continues to be found by those who need it! 🥹 Huge thanks to Dan and @iceberge.bsky.social for being the best Mod team a gal could ask for. 💯✨
February 17, 2024 at 3:08 AM
The 🦇 D/ARC 🦇 server reached a huge milestone this week: 700 members! 🥳 So proud of this kind and wonderfully supportive community, and thrilled it continues to be found by those who need it! 🥹 Huge thanks to Dan and @iceberge.bsky.social for being the best Mod team a gal could ask for. 💯✨
Reposted by Dan
🚨New AI for Humanists tutorials just dropped!🚨
We have new code notebooks for using LLMs to:
- measure document similarity
- classify texts with zero-shot prompting
We explore narrative vs non-narrative texts, historical poetry, ChatGPT poetry, & book reviews.
Tutorial effort led by Greg Yauney!
We have new code notebooks for using LLMs to:
- measure document similarity
- classify texts with zero-shot prompting
We explore narrative vs non-narrative texts, historical poetry, ChatGPT poetry, & book reviews.
Tutorial effort led by Greg Yauney!
February 14, 2024 at 4:27 PM
🚨New AI for Humanists tutorials just dropped!🚨
We have new code notebooks for using LLMs to:
- measure document similarity
- classify texts with zero-shot prompting
We explore narrative vs non-narrative texts, historical poetry, ChatGPT poetry, & book reviews.
Tutorial effort led by Greg Yauney!
We have new code notebooks for using LLMs to:
- measure document similarity
- classify texts with zero-shot prompting
We explore narrative vs non-narrative texts, historical poetry, ChatGPT poetry, & book reviews.
Tutorial effort led by Greg Yauney!