Corey CradleNov 20, 2022

A bit of background on the origin of #journahost. Maybe the Fediverse should leave them blocked for a week or so and then those that are able(not all communities can) unblock and see how it goes. The seem to be feeling their way through this like the rest of us.

https://themarkup.org/newsletter/hello-world/mastodons-moment

Mastodon’s Moment – The Markup

A conversation with Adam Davidson

Show threadPO TAY TOESNov 21, 2022
@ccradle would you be kind enough to fill me in or point me toward an account of what happened here? I know Adam Davidson to be a decent person, seems like his cause is just; why does everyone want to block journa.host?
Show threadSonjaNov 22, 2022
@ipsotaters @ccradle from what I can tell in looking around on this in the last hour or so ...
* A post was made on journa.host that referred to a NYT article about puberty blockers as thorough reporting
* That NYT article had multiple problematic framings - including how the data was presented (potentially misleading/creating alarm by not giving a sense of scope), not having any named sources, putting medical statements on par with republican political opinion
1/
Show threadSonjaNov 22, 2022
@ipsotaters @ccradle
* Another member of journa.host reacted strongly, objecting to the position that this was thorough reporting
* That member was suspended
* Here's where I'm _inferring_ why blocking of journal.host started: it appeared that member was suspended for objecting to the post, and the suspension appeared therefore transphobic on journa.host's part. It has since become clear the suspension was for name-calling in the post where they objected. 2/
Show threadSonjaNov 22, 2022

@ipsotaters @ccradle at this point, the suspended journalist is even saying to hold off on blocking journa.host. It sounds like the parties involved (or at least, the suspended account holder and journa moderators) have spoken and are largely at a good place with each other.

Journa evolved fast and is now having to get their feet under them. But as far as I can tell, instance-wide blocking isn't currently necessary.
3/

Show threadSonjaNov 22, 2022

@ipsotaters @ccradle
Oh, here's a little more. From https://www.cjr.org/analysis/journalists-want-to-recreate-twitter-on-mastodon-mastodon-is-not-into-it.php

So there's other reasons as well, though also isn't necessarily a wide spread block (yet).

Journalists want to re-create Twitter on Mastodon. Mastodon is not into it.

<p>Ever since Elon Musk completed his $45 billion takeover of Twitter last month, there has been a steady stream of users, including a number of journalists, signing up for Mastodon, an open-source alternative. No one controls Mastodon—or rather, everyone controls their own version of it. There are thousands of servers running the software, and each […]</p>

Columbia Journalism Review
Show threadGrandma’s High Again 🙄Nov 22, 2022
@sonjathegrey @ipsotaters @ccradle I’m new here. One of the things I miss about 🐦 is “breaking news”. Why is that frowned on by Mastodon? I feel like I’m missing something culturally important.
Show threadSonjaNov 22, 2022
@Rkfatheree @ipsotaters @ccradle I'm very new, too, so this is just conjecture from me on this topic ... There's two things I've noticed -
- the OG mastodon population have worked very hard to make this a safe space. News often isn't that.
- there's no algorithm boosting posts based on account or post performance. Things get seen when people on your server engage with content, either through commenting or boosting. So if the community is not into it, it just slides on by.
Show threadSonjaNov 22, 2022
@Rkfatheree
... which also means, that despite what a lot of setup blogs say ("your server doesn't matter") - I suspect it does matter. What you see is influenced by who you're following and what other users on your server are engaging with.
Show threadSonjaNov 22, 2022
@Rkfatheree ... Also following journalists who migrate here would change that in your feed, theoretically, very quickly.
Show threadGrandma’s High Again 🙄
@sonjathegrey Thank you for your responses. I’m trying to get the hang of CWs and alt text so others can choose (or not) to see what I share.
Nov 22, 2022 at 6:29pmWeb
Show threadSonjaNov 22, 2022
@Rkfatheree yeah, and I'm noticing that's another sticky place - there's the OG mastodon culture which is to CW around many many topics. But POC have entered in to say that they're being criticized for not using CWs on what amounts to their daily life (which includes racist experiences). So how CWs evolve here over time will, I suspect, also depend a lot on chosen instance (which amounts to a person's local community).
Show threadGrandma’s High Again 🙄Nov 22, 2022
@sonjathegrey I’m counting on longer-term users to let me know if I should CW something I haven’t If it’s too restrictive, I’ll change instances. We all need a little grace.