Robert W. Gehl @robertwgehl@scholar.social
- Dark Web Ethnography
- https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/weaving-dark-web
- Social Engineering Book
- https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/social-engineering
He/Him/His.
Trans rights are human rights!
I'm an Ontario Research Chair of Digital Governance for Social Justice at York University.
My books:
Reverse Engineering Social Media (Temple)
Weaving the Dark Web (MIT)
My latest book is Social Engineering (MIT, 2022). This book takes up hacker social engineering practice to conceptualize manipulative communication happening online.
www.robertwgehl.org
Joined Jan 2018
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Follow Request
I realize I might violate people's preferences regarding follow requests. Many people suggest having some interaction first before accepting follow requests.
I very much prefer to listen to others, so when I make a follow request, it's in the spirit of "I want to hear more from you."
Those two things might be exclusive, but if anyone is curious about why I'm seeking to follow them, it's because I find them intriguing and I want to learn more from them.
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Replaying some of the Quest for Glory games. Either it's my nostalgia, or they just hold up.
Seeking etiquette advice from Canadians
I am moving to Canada from the US, which makes me very, very happy. I can't begin to tell you how much.
In an effort to be less of an 'ugly American,' I would like to ask Canadians for some advice:
How tolerant will people be of my spelling?
I'm going to try to type labour and centre, but after 40 years, it's going to be a tough switch. I'm probably going to use US spelling a great deal.
Microsoft, cursing
aaaaaaargh! AAAAAAAAAAAACH! Ugh. Ugh. Dammit. Dammit all to hell. JFC. Really? Really.
Ugh.
Robert W. Gehl
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MST3K
Robot roll call:
MST3K
Robot roll call:
Robert W. Gehl
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Fedi seems like the perfect place to ask this, so here goes: If you were me, and you were thinking about building out a new-old machine, to load up with software from the DOS6 to Win3.1 to Win95 (maybe) era to play around with (ahh, nostalgia), what kind of hardware would you target?
Looking at a few blog posts, you could be "above the top of the line" from 1995 with 16/32MB RAM, a 1 or 2GB ATA HDD.
For CPU, looks like a Pentium I? Video? Sound?
Gab, fascists, racism, transmisia
Studying Gab right now. I certainly expected the fascism, racism, transmisia. I expected the white christian nationalism.
I didn't expect the joylessness. It's a really, really, really angry and scared place. It's bleak.
I'll admit I thought I would see some "friendly" content -- pictures of pets, or flowers, that sort of thing. You know, people being social. But it's just a string of loveTFG/hate Dems memes.
Thinking about memes today, and it occurs to me that a genealogical predecessor to internet memes is the bumper sticker. I wonder if anyone has studied bumper stickers as proto-memes?
New paper out on alternative social media and Scuttlebutt looks interesting: https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051221122448
Robert W. Gehl
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Eastern Michigan University faculty are on strike! (X-Post from Birdsite)
RT @EMUAAUP
As of midnight tonight [09/07/2022] we are on strike 332/365.
91% were forced to vote YES for a strike.
It did not have to be this way.
We hate to do this. It is breaking our hearts.
Gab mention
I'm going to present a paper and part of what I have to do is talk about Gab, so the past few days have been Gab days and I am quite nauseated.
respond with puppy pictures, s'il vous plaît
Robert W. Gehl
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Do you run a Fediverse instance?
Do you block other instances?
Do you breakdown your Fediverse blocks by category?
Do you want the Fediverse to be a safer place and are willing to put time/effort into making that happen?
I'd like to talk to you for an upcoming project.
Robert W. Gehl
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Hello
if you wanna tip the #fediblock tag creator! HI, it me ⬇️
Signal boosting my GFM, as in a weeks time I have to travel overseas for thesis defense, and need help with bills, accommodation and all the other things that life constantly throws our way. I appreciate all the help as I push through these final months of focusing on my studies whilst unable to work. Thank you so much for your help, I also have venmo/cashapp if that is more your style
Communication and Media Studies at York University is searching for an assistant professor doing critical AI and Data Studies work:
http://webapps.yorku.ca/academichiringviewer/viewposition.jsp?positionnumber=2272
This includes scholars focusing on indigenous data practices, social justice, and critical studies of inequality due to AI.
I literally just joined Comm and Media Studies at York yesterday, but if I can answer any questions about this position, please feel free to DM me.
Boosts appreciated.
Robert W. Gehl
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Robert W. Gehl
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So the situation in Jackson, MS, continues the long trend of local municipalities neglecting Black population centers and subjecting them to ongoing efforts of defunding until it results in a 'crisis.'
This isn't an accident. It's managed negligence to get a specific result. They did the same thing in New Orleans after Katrina. They are doing the same in Flint, Michigan right now.
And now it's being adopted in Jackson to root out their Black population after destroying that city for years through policy.
https://www.vox.com/2022/8/31/23329604/jackson-mississippi-water-crisis
Robert W. Gehl
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New article by me
Bit of a labour of love by my co-author and I, a duoethnography on teaching second language listening. 
https://languagescholar.leeds.ac.uk/reflecting-dialogically-on-listening-pedagogy-a-duoethnography/
email griping
Email is no longer reliable. Unless you have gmail. Over the past few years, I've heard more and more people say they're not getting my emails. Even if 1/2 of them are just saying that, it's still a lot.
So much of our daily work happens through email; I'm not sure what's going to replace it, but whatever it is, I can guarantee I will loathe it.
Robert W. Gehl
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Robert W. Gehl
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I feel like basic OSINT & social engineering has become a requirement nowadays to handle your own legitimate accounts as more and more companies start hiding their phone numbers behind web forms that go straight to /dev/null...
I hate living in the future.
- Dark Web Ethnography
- https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/weaving-dark-web
- Social Engineering Book
- https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/social-engineering
He/Him/His.
Trans rights are human rights!
I'm an Ontario Research Chair of Digital Governance for Social Justice at York University.
My books:
Reverse Engineering Social Media (Temple)
Weaving the Dark Web (MIT)
My latest book is Social Engineering (MIT, 2022). This book takes up hacker social engineering practice to conceptualize manipulative communication happening online.
www.robertwgehl.org
Joined Jan 2018
