RE: Furries - I've learned that they're a pretty reasonable mix of cool and annoying (maybe more cool than the general population, actually); they account for a disproportionate number of sysadmins, elite devs, etc.; and they make the best fucking cocktails on the playa (in my #RegionalBurn).

I don't feel drawn to the lifestyle, but I kind of love the art. I mean, who doesn't love an adorable fox-humanoid hugging an equally-adorable pony-humanoid?

#Request for fediverse #recommendations -

I go to regional burns (#BurningMan - type events) in my USA region and the principal way of organizing and connecting people is #facebook. I do not love this. I have suggested my local burner groups create a parallel group or two here on #mastodon. I'm looking for

(a) Recommendations for a server to point people to (probably #mastodon but that's because Mastodon is all I know; I'm open to other ideas), and

(b) Pointers to how groups get done now that gup.pe is offline.

Notes:

• Local (above) means within a 2- to 5-state radius in the USA. Many people are hundreds of km (and miles) apart. Most people have no real chance of in-person meeting between burns.
• If it is possible to have both public and private forums (like on FB), that would be great; burners discuss things that happened at burns and, for a variety of reasons, many don't want those discussions visible to the wider universe (this need might be partly met with anonymous usernames, without truly private groups).
• Server recommendations: people with no #fediverse experience will be much more likely to make fediverse accounts and use them if I point them to a non-toxic, probably-functional-for-a-while server that would be a good fit, rather than just saying "Go find a server."
• Burners are pretty good fedizens already: they tend to be silly, friendly, and strongly social justice-oriented. Many are anarchists and burns are frequently described as temporary anarchist communities. Of course I immediately thought of beige.party, but I don't know a ton of servers. I have had good experiences with c.im, as well. I've heard some reasons not to send people to mastodon.social. Aaaaand I'm out of ideas.
• I'm not interested in running my own server. Years fighting with self-hosted services like nextcloud, limesurvey, and moodle have shown me I do not have the skills or time to maintain something like this. It's possible that, if enough burners come to the fediverse, someone with more skills and time might set up a server, but that is not on the horizon right now.
• The social aspect of social media is important here. I don't want to recommend lemmy; I think something that facilitates immediate interaction more smoothly would be better. If there's a recommendation to use services besides Mastodon, I think something with a lot of active users would be best, to make the newcomers understand at a gut level that they are in an active larger community. For that reason, I'm not as interested right now in a newer service that has few people and doesn't federate seamlessly with other services.
• I'm trying to avoid bluesky (for probably-obvious reasons). That's where I'm pretty sure some people will start recommending if the fediverse transition is too complicated or not "social-feeling" enough. All recommendations to leave corporate social media seem to gravitate toward bluesky recommendations, so I suspect those are going to happen, and I'd like for people to not feel a need to go anywhere but the fediverse.

Right now, probably because of my limited experience, I'm thinking #mastodon instead of #friendica (which seems less trafficked than mastodon... but IDK) or other fediverse platforms. I'm very open to other suggestions, recognizing my limited perspective.

Send me your suggestions for any of the following, if you have them:

• Mastodon servers to recommend for people who don't want or know how to search for one that fits them
• Different platforms besides Mastodon (if you think others would be better for this)
• Explainers for how groups work now (realizing I didn't really understand how they worked before gup.pe went down)
• Changing this entire plan if it seems misguided

#help #RegionalBurn #organize

It’s only Thursday and I am so glad to not be camping in the woods in a Nor’ Easter this weekend. Good luck and dry socks to everybody who is.

#Constellation #constellation2025 #RegionalBurn

In 3 days I'm going to a burn. Those of you who have been to the "big burn" (#BurningMan) or a regional burn (my fave) know what this means. It's a bunch of stress to get ready, prepare my life to accommodate 4-5 days absent, and pack everything I need (radical self-reliance, folks!). It also means I will be in a place with no hierarchies, no bosses, no schedules, awesome music (until about 4 a.m.; I bring ear plugs these days), art everywhere, ridiculous whimsy, silly costumes, people trying to feed me, people open to conversation and meeting me, people making music, people dancing, people reciting poetry, people being weird and accommodating--even celebrating--the weirdness of others, and just... I think these are my people. I don't love all of them, but I love a hell of a lot of them, and loving them is my first instinct.

Where in the world are the joyful motherfuckers, though?
Fearless lovers though, rainbow shooters though?
Wild acceptors though, the hopeful sinners though?
Gentle teachers though, true forgivers?
Les courageuses, les amoureuses?
Les enfants braves? les grand-mères jeunes? les lumineuses?
- Allison Russell

I think a lot of them are going to be in a forest in Pennsylvania in a few days.

#RegionalBurn #JoyfulMotherfuckers #reset

Some fire spinning pics from Conclave at #PortalBurn in NY state (Note: I have explicit permission from the performers to share these here).

#fire #firedancing #firespinning #burningman #regionalburn

Anyone know about this app, called Dust? (Note: I don't think it's the secure messaging app). It's apparently for regional burns (mini-Burning Man events). A burn I'm attending is going to do all their organizing, messaging, mapping, etc. using the Dust app.

I fucking hate apps. I mean, some are okay. I hate everything in the world shoving an app at you, mostly because nearly every such app requires a significant chunk of personal data, then needs permissions it shouldn't have, and almost certainly resells my data or keeps it just in case the company needs extra cash.

So... how do I find this stuff out? It's not a major app; maybe a few thousand or tens of thousands of people ever use it, so I'm not finding any info about it by online searching. Admittedly, my google-fu (well, ddg-fu) might be lacking.

If you have any info about how predatory or chill this app is, or hints where I can find such info, I hope you'll share.

#apps #dust #burningman #regionalburn #security #privacy