Emmie BI must say, that even in the last few days since I joined Mastodon I’ve seen a culture shift - more #politics, more ‘hot takes’, less discussion, fewer #CWs, less #AltText. I hope it’s a blip and urge newbies like me not to unwittingly play out the #coloniser #stereotypes and ride roughshod over the existing culture. It’s a lovely, gentle, curious #community here, would be awful to ruin it because we’re conditioned to something worse.
Eebie Abby Obie@Emmie I've been looking through community posts and was really excited to see the culture they've cultivated. Finally start up my own, and then bare witness to all the terrible things you've mentioned. I've also see no one interacting with them, fortunately. And if there's something that should have CW tag without a CW then I just block them for the time being.
ku90@Emmie I've wondered the same. I guess we can just do the best we can. be ourselves. mind the Elders of Mastodon and hopefully end up with a fusion that's gentle
Wendy MsGator 🐊We're getting the hang of it. I posted a long political post this morning under a CW. I post pics with Alt text now. I'd never heard of or used either of these before coming to Mastodon.
Give us time to educate ourselves and each other. We're grateful to be here. 😎
Rev. Magdalen@Emmie We're not colonizers, and they sold this space as an open source platform, not a particular culture. This is how cults recruit, with the subtle shaming to do things that don't make sense. Why would we even come here if we were going to be shamed and hassled for talking about the topic that made us leave Twitter?
@Emmie AND! Apparently the "existing culture" is to pay no attention to the whole servers full of literal Nazis. Hypocrites!
Jenn / CaptainHanyuu@revmagdalen @Emmie wdym "pay no attention"? Many servers have the Nazu servers blocked from interacting, if your server doesn't do that, you should switch.
Chris ElyContacting your instance admin to block / quarantine servers filled with hate groups is the way to solve this.
Complaining to other people on instances that already don't allow these things won't help you or anyone else.
HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴Exactly.
#HowTo deal with #Christofascists, #MAGATs, #RussianBots and sympathizers and other #Nazis:
Do not engage.
Report.
Block.
Repeat.
JohnInKalbarri@revmagdalen 100% correct!
Waiʻala Luna@revmagdalen @Emmie Why do you think anyone is calling any of you Colonizers? You feel shame about history? Want hard? Try being one of us. Why do you think WE LEFT 🐦? You’re expecting Indigenous & POC to be silenced on ISSUES that we were forced by White People to be #silenced on. Saying come on inside, but act happy and don’t raise a fuss? So, no #FreeSpeech Is this place like the Stepford Wives? Just smile? Just be quiet and dance? #Indigenous @alt_text #Native
Frederik ElwertI am pleased to say that I, personally, can't confirm this.
I have over 13k of toots, a great deal with #USpol, but also #UKpol and other #European countries.
Whereas the discussion might have gotten heated at times, e.g. about the contentious subject of peace in the #MiddleEast, I was never insulted, and the discourse always remained or became civil again.
These are great folks here, and you can talk about anything. 😀
StephanWell if there was any need of proof for what @Emmie was saying, @revmagdalen was very helpful in providing it. I completely agree with you, Emmie!
Nik 
I appreciate the feedback.
Not to make excuses, but I'm sorry to say that in addition to the #twittermigration hordes, the US side members are in a rather fraught #election cycle right now, so imagine none of us are at our best.
Joanne Freeman@Emmie I think a lot of people are just learning how to use this site, and adjusting to its culture. Took me awhile to know what a CW is, & I'm still not sure when to use them (though I have been offering #AltText for images). Is this not a place to discuss #politics? That seems hard to do these days.
Auri Jae (They/Them)
Līga@autisticlyaarjaewilliams
I don't see any dictating at all.
I don't see any dictating at all.
@jbf1755 I think people just tend to put political stuff behind a content warning.
rlowery
Jared 🇦🇺🏳️🌈⚧️👽@Emmie I'm seeing it shift back; with education; or i'm just unfollowing folks who boost that stuff.
Steven Smith@Emmie Sorry but politics is life to me. I don't talk about personal life on SM.
@rocketracer69 @Emmie It must be convenient to be so unaffected by politics that one feels they are not worth discussing.
@rocketracer69 @Emmie I've been using Mastodon for years, and have never seen the levels of tone policing I've seen from the 'older' users here.
@bigeats270 @rocketracer69 No, not that's it's not worth it. I for one am pretty political. But for a lot of people it is very stressful and anxiety-inducing, hence the culture for putting political stuff behind a content warning on here. I respect that. I'll be political on the bird site and boost people's floofs on here.
A lot of people - like myself - are automatically cross-posting from Twitter. I am unaware of how to automatically put CW on these posts.
@rocketracer69 @bigeats270 Good question. I'm not sure there is a way tbh. I know our server admin has disabled a Tweet bridge function, partly for that reason and partly because it was confusing people.
@bigeats270 @rocketracer69 @Emmie
So you like politics, great. Have fun. For those of us who prefer to talk about other stuff, well that our choice
So you like politics, great. Have fun. For those of us who prefer to talk about other stuff, well that our choice
@Liga @rocketracer69 @Emmie No problem with that, but fussing at new people isn't half as effective as muting.
@bigeats270 @rocketracer69 @Emmie
I've seen ex bird people come in here and merging into the culture and enjoying all it has to offer, and I've seen others jump in and cause strife from get go being all demanding and easily offended and jumping on folks.
I've seen ex bird people come in here and merging into the culture and enjoying all it has to offer, and I've seen others jump in and cause strife from get go being all demanding and easily offended and jumping on folks.
@Liga @rocketracer69 @Emmie I've been here for at least three of these influxes, and this is the first time I've noticed this level of tone policing. Maybe I was just sheltered because I was on a smaller instance when Facebook crapped the bed, but it's starting to border on disturbing.
@Liga @rocketracer69 @Emmie Just because you don't look at it that way doesn't change what it is. Maybe it's necessary, and maybe I'm being overly sensitive to it, but people moving into this platform don't owe us anything. If we want to control the culture of Mastodon, we are free to create our own instances. Giving new users a hard time because they don't fit our Platonic ideal of a social network isn't something that I'm too comfortable with.
@Liga @rocketracer69 @Emmie In New York people joke that a "gentrifier" is the person who moves into the neighborhood the month after you finish unpacking. There's a lot of that here. I think that everyone would do well to recognize it, then move on having taken a second to roll it over in their mind.
Michele@Emmie i’ve been wondering about becoming a nag, because I’ve seen a similar lack of #AltText #ContentWarnings and especially about #Politics
@IbuMichele @Emmie I mean what cautionary warnings should be on politics and how to apply
@autisticlyaarjaewilliams @IbuMichele I think just a content warning so people don't have to see it on their timeline. I know there are blocks and filters but they can't get rid of everything. I think it's just about respecting the original tone, not necessarily not discussing the things you want to. I get the feeling this platform has been more about finding out about other interesting people and helping each other, rather than having a political bent like the bird site.
@Emmie @IbuMichele Do you not think that people should be able to say things how they want to say it or express how they want to express. Maybe should only be expect if people discussing rape, torture, violence, not safe for work stuff. I worry about there being over policing of warnings
@autisticlyaarjaewilliams @IbuMichele As long as problematic things are behind a content warning, I don't really see a problem. Difficult to always know what should and shouldn't be behind one - I'm sure I'll continue to make mistakes but I'll try my best. But also worth bearing in mind that if, for example, you flout your instance rules e.g. transphobia, you'll get kicked off. And if your instance allows that kind of thing, other instances will block your whole instance.
@Emmie @IbuMichele Don’t worry all good I’m pro-trans rights and support the trans community. I’d use the content warning button when I find it’s needed. But the way want to engage in politics and that stuff is different from Twitter more considered, listened to, empathetic as the politics of injustices and lived experiences from minority and marginalised voices that’s separate from electioneering and political gossip. Though, I do hope that trans people can share their
@Emmie @IbuMichele stories of transphobia without being removed as being transphobic.
@autisticlyaarjaewilliams @IbuMichele Yes, I agree. Far more good-faith engagement here, rather than soap-boxing and vitriol.
Write what you like as long as it doesn't just show up the timeline as we scroll by.
How you open the content warning section is with the icon at the bottom with an exclamation point, usually.
Here is a picture showing what that looks like...
@tcely I’m aware of how you use the content warning feature. But, why say you must and should use the feature for say election politics I know you might want to escape. So why not mute people or topics than nagging and addressing people to use the feature. When rightfully some people may have reasons against using it for such topic? Think there maybe some toleration for how some people use Mastodon that may need to adapt to work for your own preferred experience through tools like
@IbuMichele @Emmie I think if you don’t like how someone is saying things and post it without the post being nasty hurtful. Don’t like it, don’t nag just mute and don’t educate to over police content warnings if it isn’t triggering trauma.
@autisticlyaarjaewilliams @IbuMichele I think I just want to respect the culture that's already here rather than replicate the bird site. AFAIK Fedi was built and cultivated by marginalised and oppressed folks. I'm thankful for the alternative they've built and I don't want to make them feel uncomfortable in their own home.
CT4All@Emmie As a recent migrator, great reminder to those others new to the community.
queer as in fuck your borders@Emmie I pay most attention to image descriptions because they're most relevant to me, and they always take a nosedive when there's a wave of new people. They always come back up. And I've seen a lot of new people take them on enthusiastically now. So I have hope the same thing will happen again this time.
Mirishuli@bright_helpings @Emmie I just learned how to make image descriptions today!
@bright_helpings That's reassuring! Thank you.
Sara Wasson@Emmie I agree so much. Gentle and curious are exactly the words.
@Emmie I am hoping that it’s the election causing this shift. I’ve started making myself write real responses, not quips or cryptic one liners. Everything in my life is shifting, adult kids moving, health changes, and I’m just a bit perplexed at it all.
nionidh@Emmie Lets roam free and fool around, wooooooooo
Kimkhb.v2@Emmie 100% - noticed the same and crave the reasoned takes, not being dragged back into the vortex. It’s lovely here. Please let it stay that way.
@Emmie OG people aren’t a people in same way as nativists or indigenous communities. Social media is about having multi culturalism and plurality of views
Lucy Montgomery (She/Her)@Emmie I have been learning to love #AltText The opportunity to describe t my ridiculous floofy cat when posting a picture of him in all of his magestic glory was an excellent start to my journey. Someone has already invented the #AltTextYourPet challenge/campaign, right?