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RE: mamot.fr/@imacrea/115977976198…

Current status: fuming with rage at the SHEER INEPTITUDE of the French press in covering W Social and Mastodon.

In the article linked below "journalist" François Saltiel wrote that @Gargron "quit his own network [Mastodon] because he was fed up with the behavior of certain users."

Eugen referred to deleting his bridge to Bluesky, not quitting Mastodon FFS.

You should know Mr. Saltier simply rehashed W Social's press release and failed to mention it is a fork of Bluesky...

"Journalism" today


> "concernant le réseau décentralisé Mastodon, développé par un informaticien allemand, Eugen Rochko, ce dernier a déclaré quitter son propre réseau, fatigué entre autres par le comportement de certains utilisateurs."

radiofrance.fr/franceculture/p…

Grosse incompréhension de la part du journaliste. Eugen a quitté Bluesky (!).

Quelqu'un·e pour écrire à François Saltiel ? @Mastodon @Gargron @renchap


reshared this

in reply to Elena Rossini

I'm surprised this kind of stuff even reaches mainstream press, normally they try to ignore any "computer-stuff" not backed by large corporations.
in reply to Elena Rossini

quit his own network? From what I can tell from following @Gargron , he seems both active in the platform and for the mastodon movement, a bit of a libelous statement
in reply to laxsill

@laxsill Yeah he stepped down from his job position but certainly didn’t quit Mastodon altogether. That was either lazy reporting or a poor interpretation of Eugene’s blog post. But he’s definitely still around.
in reply to Aaron 🥞

@aaronmccollum That's my impression too: it was a quick production because Zeiter's press release was on the table, so they quickly opened a blog page for a second structure, took a look, wrote something, and that was it.

These three-minute pieces are done under enormous time pressure. And very few listeners remember them afterwards.

@laxsill @_elena

in reply to Petra van Cronenburg

@NatureMC @aaronmccollum @laxsill
my mother was a reporter and editor. she got me a part time job in high school at her newspaper

i've watched her work since i was in diapers and so i understand through her time pressure in journalism

but that is no defense for shoddy work

nor do people just forget

in fact the lies, intentional or unintentional, that appear in the press have debilitating effects on the common perception of truth

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in reply to Ben Royce 🇺🇦 🇸🇩

@benroyce worth mentioning your Neil Postman connection too Ben for the extra cred 😉

The LinkedIn profile of that French journalist is really alarming because he's been a teacher of journalism at La Sorbonne and has published several books on tech. He's a radio producer and host. It's shocking that he would share such blatant lies. Shocking I tell you!

He even has a Wikipedia page: fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%…

@NatureMC @aaronmccollum @laxsill

in reply to Elena Rossini

Yup. NYU Media Ecology track Master of Arts grad here, Neil Postman was my thesis advisor

(now called the Media, Culture, and Communication dept, I'm old)

and François Saltiel needs to learn a little thing called integrity

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in reply to Elena Rossini

@benroyce They could have replaced “Eugen” with “Jack” and made a true statement because Jack did quit his own network (Bluesky) over the behavior of its users.
in reply to Elena Rossini

yup

#corporate "#journalism"

we are on #mastodon/ #fediverse because the profit motive in corporate #socialMedia means privacy defilement, free reign for bigotry/ ignorance, and #algorithm manipulation by #plutocracy agendas

the same applies to the #news #media:

#ventureCapital takes over dying traditional media outlets and puts right wing goons in the managing editor positions

we have nonprofit news (#NPR, #ProPublica, #TheGuardian, etc)

trust them

all else: beware

in reply to Ben Royce 🇺🇦 🇸🇩

@benroyce perfectly said Ben!!! 🙌

I just found a video of the CEO of W Social at Davos literally going: "10 years ago we were saying that data is the new oil, but right now we say HIGH QUALITY data is the new oil."

To me it kind of reads like a confession / motivating force behind (1) creating W Social (2) using AT Proto for their "European alternative to X." Ouf.

in reply to Elena Rossini

I didn't listen to it, only read the text. I wouldn't judge all journalists based on one example.
He states: "Tout cela est très marketing pour W, qui saisit une fenêtre d’opportunité" and while talking about Zeiter's great experience in marketing and publicity he nails the big problem of Mastodon.

Mastodon has neither the money nor the human power for big lobbyism/marketing.
I know, Mastodon fans don't like to hear it but it's a fact. And the size of a network depends on

@Gargron

in reply to Petra van Cronenburg

how many politicians, organisations and journalists will join - because then the masses will join. If we want that is another question.

So yes, it's just one of these "quick" broadcast contributions where an author doesn't interview people directly (or did he?) and graps the informations on the desk. And these were definitively the press release/publicity of Zeiter ...

@Gargron

in reply to Petra van Cronenburg

@NatureMC Is the lack of big capital a bug or a feature? I’m pretty sure most current users view it as a feature.
in reply to Elena Rossini

Wow, this, well, article is... something. In German jurisprudence, I guess this would most likely fall under “false factual claims” and can have legal consequences for the author. As it is not “only” directed against one person, but against the network as a whole and can have very negative consequences, I would at least consider taking legal actions against this person.
The crucial point is: Is this false factual claim being claimed as fact, or is it being expressed as opinion?
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in reply to Elena Rossini

Lawyer up. A claim like that can cause a lot of damage to the reputation of your hard work.
in reply to 狐ヴィクシー

@KitsuneVixi indeed

The chef's kiss is that according to LinkedIn, the author of the article has been a teacher of journalism at La Sorbonne and has published numerous books.

This is not a 19-year-old intern casually writing about tech: https://fr.linkedin.com/in/françois-saltiel-42725334

@Gargron

in reply to Elena Rossini

I foresee all those blind lemmings who left centralised platform X because one person started pulling the strings there with an undesirable fascist result, and then fled to a similar centralised platform, Bluesky, where ICE is suddenly allowed, now fleeing again to yet another centralised platform, W, only to find out in a few years' time that it's the same shit.

Donkeys don't stumble over the same stone twice!

in reply to Elena Rossini

Humans make mistakes.

Here is a page where you can write him. They will probably mention the mistake and correct it in another podcast:

radiofrance.fr/franceinter/con…

in reply to Elena Rossini

@imacrea
C’est un problème quand on doit écrire l’article si vite qu’on n’a même pas le temps de faire des recherches correctes. Le “journalisme” moderne est inutile.
in reply to Nick Bergen Computer Quest

@imacrea

In November 2025, Eugen Rochko stepped down as Mastodon CEO, and he transferred the trademark and assets to Mastodon. He did NOT cancel his account or any instances. It’s still there. The “journalist” could have check.
blog.joinmastodon.org/2025/11/…

In January 2026, he opted his Mastodon account out of the Bluesky bridge. This was supposedly because of the user behavior at Bsky. But I cannot find a direct statement about him leaving because of users.
mastodon.social/@Gargron/11591…


I will be opting my account out of the #Bluesky bridge next week. If you follow me from Bluesky (I think there are about 3.9K of you) and want to continue seeing my posts you will need to get an account on the fediverse. Cheers.

in reply to Nick Bergen Computer Quest

@NickBergenComputerQuest you can't "find a direct statement about him leaving because of users" because it's a complete fabrication by that so-called journalist / radio host.

I repeat, a complete fabrication. And my jaw is still on the floor.

Thank you @imacrea for bringing to our attention that shocking paragraph

in reply to Elena Rossini

@imacrea Well, that makes sense why it’s a little tough to find then. Which LLM hallucinated that, when it was writing their story.

These people give journalists such a bad name. But by the time you dig into the misinformation, they have 10 more stories up.

in reply to Elena Rossini

Update: Radio France removed the last paragraph in the piece that claimed " @Gargron had quit his own social network [Mastodon] because he was fed up the behavior of certain users."

But this preposterous lie is still in their radio broadcast. The clip has been up for 10 HOURS now.

Maybe @Mastodon could use this as leverage to set the record straight and get some exposure with French listeners.

I'm this close to getting my LinkedIn account out of hibernation to write to Radio France about it

reshared this

in reply to Elena Rossini

there is a right call "droit de réponse" that forces media to publish (but not necessarily broadcast) additional facts or versions. also the convention is to ask for comment on quotes and facts and precise the person didn't answer at time of publication (and courtesy is to let a reasonable amount of time for the person to answer).

fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Droit_de…

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Oblomov reshared this.

in reply to Elena Rossini

no no no @Gargron and John Mastodon have been have a quarrel for years. Something about John kept eating all of the sandwiches in the fridge despite the fact @Gargron put him name on them.

He just stopped putting his food on the Mastodon office fridge because of certain behaviors.

That story always gets twisted in its re-telling

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in reply to Elena Rossini

also, I noticed #Monnett advertised #WSocial (proposing itself as an alternative to Instagram and WSocial as an 'european' alternative to X) 😖

@Gargron @Mastodon

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in reply to Elena Rossini

An actual atrempt at remedy would be to make a new article explaining they made a mistake. A retraction doesn't retract misinformation from the minds of the people who already read it and repeat it to their friends. People don't wait around refreshing articles just incase a piece of information might get corrected.
in reply to 狐ヴィクシー

Even if they publicly apologize, that will only reach their readers, who probably aren't going to then propogate the apology to the people they passed the misinfo to.

Legal action would have greater reach though journals puhlishing about Radio France getting sued. Might even generate good PR for mastodon to people who never heard of it before (people tend to be sympathetic to victims of journalistic slander)

in reply to 狐ヴィクシー

@KitsuneVixi excellent points, thank you! I’ll repeat this to the Mastodon team this weekend at FOSDEM
in reply to Elena Rossini

Ineptitude or ill-intent. Hard to tell. The French press has a history of not caring about facts if it fits their narrative when talking about something they consider fringe (and there will be no consequence to their slander).
Or... Some people in the French government have a vested interest in the success of W social (either monetary or for good PR) and they're undermining what they see as its main competition. ⤵️