Overall I feel like I’m much more comfortable chatting with ppl I don’t know on Mastodon than the bird app. I essentially stopped interacting with ppl I don’t already follow over on the bird app because I guess my guard was up quite a bit.
@thatjaneng this for sure, I'm sure there will be moderation hiccups at some point but for now it feels pretty calm.
@brizee I have seen some moderation hiccups seeding thoughtful conversations about the whole system of moderating or how to do it better, and I think that’s great. It’s just ppl figuring out how to exist together and that’s messy? less “corporation has evil agenda” which *sometimes* is an easy dismissal

@thatjaneng 100% - I saw someone refer to Mastodon as heavily based on consent and I still really like that analogy. The moderation tools are in place that that you're really not forced to co-exist with anyone. So the onus is on everyone to make it a happy place to co-exist.

It has it's downsides for sure, the CW meta discourse being the most immediately apparent but it puts people in the frame of mind to try and solve problems at least.

@brizee yeah. I've had see a couple of "well if you're on X large instance you'd better move because you're gonna get silenced" posts and that honestly really rubs me the wrong way... like... okay, I don't know if I want to be on any instances that are run by ppl who are that ok to cut off large groups either without some grace for *volunteers* ramping up on moderation.

@thatjaneng Yeaaah, I think in fairness those instances are largely talking about temporarily defederating and because they've observed a historical trend.

The big moves are scary but the ability to make the big moves is what forces people to work together. 🤷‍♂️ For better or worse, it's an interesting dynamic at least.

I think it'll shake out okay, folk who want smaller communities might defederate and others will leave the niche servers.

@brizee yeah I totally get it, but we definitely have to adjust to a different power dynamic here in terms of needing to be curious about the process of moderating per instance, given admins have big curation powers. We have more agency here to shape how that works which I like, but it *is* more work for the user for sure

@thatjaneng Yep, definitely - have seen a few on Twitter already fatigued by this sort of thing on Mastodon.

That shaking out okay still feels important - if you're in a server that suffers mass defederation it's not a statement on you - you can wait and see and then bail and migrate your followers later afaik.

There are historical issues with my instance and I've seen a lot of folk worrying they've got to migrate. I've reviewed and made my decision about that and now I wait and see. 🤷‍♂️

@thatjaneng I can't remember the last time I interacted with anyone on social media, well, before peeking my head on here. A bastard named Mr Contrary always appeared dramatically.
@thatjaneng Yeah, I’m even contemplating … posting? As if that’s a thing I still know how to do
@henryg haha it’s def a muscle that needs to be exercised!
@thatjaneng yeah this does have some sort of "twitter as it was 12+ years ago" feeling. I do wonder whether it will last -- what made twitter different in the end was a whole bouquet of factors, a whole bunch of them aren't in effect here (yet?)
@aras I do like that users have a bit more agency in helping make it function? Watching people engage with how tough content moderation is with no bad faith actors involved has been interesting and hopeful.
@thatjaneng same! I actually posted something here (it was my dog). Just been a ghost on the other site for months.
@Meepaca good to see you on here!