All,
The moment has finally arrived! 🥳
@McCullohMD
and I have been hard at work for the past week putting together a Mastodon instance so that we can create a backup disability and chronic illness community.
It can be found here:
For now, we have set up a terms of service, privacy policy, rules and best practices.
I have plans to set up a Twitter space to go through each of these with the disability community directly to add/subtract/reword things.
But for now, this is the starting framework.
Rules and best practices can be found here:
https://disabled.social/about/more
The terms of service and privacy policy can be found here:
We are in the process of recruiting for the moderation team. We will be meeting with them shortly to finalize the team and to outline the process of moderation.
I also just met with the accessibility team coordinated by @.BlondeHistorian (Twitter)
to try and create plain language
documents for signing up and migrating accounts.
For now, here is a link to the long form version (does not include migration) of the guide for signing up and using Mastodon and various apps. This was written by
@kavana
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1k63jj47NufDwFJU895qok1JK3JAAGy9ugal8U3UCCLI/edit
Migration instructions can be found on the Mastodon blog here:
https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2019/06/how-to-migrate-from-one-server-to-another/
The sign up is set up so that applications need to be approved. So you apply to sign up to the server, and then we let you in.
Guide to Mastodon 1. What is Mastodon? 2. How do I Join and Use Mastodon? Short Version 3. How do I Join Mastodon? Long Version A. Decide which server to join B. Apply to join a server 3. How to Use Mastodon: Long Version A. Signing in on Tusky B. Using Tusky for Mastodon I. Local and Federated...
We really hope that we can create a safe community for all, so that we can continue to create new connections and to help each other thrive!
One of the longer term goals that I have, is to create a backup of the information from here on twitter on the Mastodon instance.
So many people have shared their knowledge here, and various scientific articles, places to get help, how to get benefits, etc, and it's imperative
that we don't lose that if twitter were to collapse.
That is a longer term item. Once moderation and the accessibility stuff is under way, I will begin putting out solicitations to gather people to head up the different repositories that I am envisioning.
Can't wait to see you all over there!
If you have any questions, drop them in the comments below and we will try to answer them!
Please boost for visibility, and share on your other social media platforms!
#DisabledSocial
#Disabled
#NEISvoid
#MentallyIll
#Neurodivergent
#ChronicallyIll
@PanickedFoodie Thanks for doing this! I will be working on a number of accessibility projects on mastodon. I'd definitely like to stay involved in the community, and look forward to connecting with folks from the server you've set up.
In the short term, I made a tool for pulling down all the alt text you've written if you have a Twitter archive saved: https://archive.alt-text.org
Soon, I'd like to start saving the alt text volunteers write here to the https://alt-text.org library
Do we know why this instance isn't showing up in the official Mastodon mobile apps for signup OR login? I've seen multiple reports now, and experienced the same.
If there is is a process server admins must take to become federated so folks can sign up/log in, I think that should be a priority.
Side note:
If y'all are making a list of people interested in becoming mods, will you add me to it? 💚 I've moderated Facebook groups and Discords before.
@PanickedFoodie @McCullohMD @stevendavis
So did I do that right? Asks the Mastodon newbie! I went and submitted a request to join.
@PanickedFoodie @McCullohMD @stevendavis
Q: are BIPOC disabled folks involved in setting up rules & best practices & enforcing them?
I ask bc there’s been significant issues already regarding tone policing of Black folks on Mastodon
& I noticed a best practice note about civility
For ref, I admin a large public FB group & we don’t allow personal attacks etc but explicitly state we won’t tone police.
Given civility is often weaponized against BIPOC, I’d consider clarifying that
@PanickedFoodie @McCullohMD @stevendavis
I’d also consider the best practice re sarcasm etc to ask for sarcasm tags etc instead of discouraging that at all which is what I read it the best practice as written to mean rn
To me that can fall under tone policing too esp when it says it’s not conducive to good discussion
It can def be that esp when it’s commonly used to describe ableism issues w the medical system etc
@hellozeik @McCullohMD @stevendavis
How about the following:
"In discussions, please remain civil, do not insult the people you're talking to. When using sarcasm, please indicate with /s."
@PanickedFoodie @McCullohMD @stevendavis
That sounds better to me 🙂
Thanks for updating
@hellozeik @McCullohMD @stevendavis My plan is to hold a twitter space for each part: rules, best practices, terms of service, and privacy policies. We want feedback directly from the community.
These are just a starting point to get things up and running.
We are planning to meet with the mod team this coming week, and then do the twitter spaces the following week.
@PanickedFoodie @McCullohMD @stevendavis
That sounds cool but I’d make sure leadership like admins & mods actually includes BIPOC bc from past exp there’s enough judgement involved in moderating that it’s imp to have a variety of perspectives
Also Twitter Spaces are unfortunately inaccessible to many of us so I’d consider doing a Twitter chat instead
@hellozeik @McCullohMD @stevendavis
Admins will not be moderating. Admins = tech team. All we do is push buttons.
The mod team though, is going to be diverse and I am seeking out people from the different groups who can moderate along those axes if that makes sense?
@PanickedFoodie @McCullohMD @stevendavis
Congratulations! I will direct any of my disabled bird app friends migrating over to your instance!
@noawitheringly @McCullohMD @stevendavis
Yup! That all looks good to me :)
Welcome to the community!
@PanickedFoodie @McCullohMD @stevendavis
That's great news, do we have to change servers then to interact? It's taken me dozens of hours to set up as I have (I'm blind) and I don't think I can bare to do it again
@emmuk74 @McCullohMD @stevendavis
Nope! What I am hoping we can do, is get a hashtag set up that you can consult for posts. You can also follow accounts on disabled.social from where you are, to get their content too!
Will definitely migrate to disabled.social if I can figure out how ...
@PanickedFoodie @McCullohMD @stevendavis thanks for setting this up as I was just about to invest and start an instance myself.
My only 2 cents is for the term "disabled", while scientifically true, has a lot of weight and negative bias to it (specially in developing countries).
Is it possible to migrate it to difabled.social? I always thought the "differently abled" doesn't put us in an "abnormal" box but just in a different one.
PS: I bought this domain to start one but am happy to transfer it to you for free, no strings attached.
Tags: #thinkingoutloud #humbletoot
@rishi @PanickedFoodie @Steve Hi Rishi, and thank you for bringing this up. Terminology is always very challenging, because each person has their own unique interactions & feelings about language.
We were intentional in the choice of 'disabled' - many have discussed in the past with the community and disabled is generally felt to actually be less stigmatizing than terms like 'differently abled' which shy away from confronting disability head-on. Disabled is not a dirty word! ☺️
@McCullohMD @PanickedFoodie @Steve I don't know how much of this is within a specific server's control but here are the big ones:
1. Cross-server exposure to others -- disability server is safe but the federation tab is not
2. If the user does something wrong, they risk cut off from the community -- need a way to alert a caregiver w/o requiring account monitoring
3. Grooming is common on other platforms; what looks harmless enough turns dangerous
@McCullohMD @PanickedFoodie @Steve
Solution ideas, but again not sure if this is feasible for individual servers:
1. Option to turn off federation tab and disallow comms with people outside the server
2. Optional contact account that is notified when the user account has acted in violation with the server rules
3. Option to disallow private DMs -- conversation is at least visible to moderators
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