This shit demonstrates exactly some of the arguments I've been making here. The thing that I want to direct everyone to is this:
"There is a fundamentally diferent culture here that you will need to understand or accept or you won't make it here... This is a world of builders.. you won't get anywhere by publishing social thesis or critiques."
https://soapbox.midwaytrades.com/objects/0c9b5e2b-1673-408d-acef-e6e7024ff3f1
The post, and the poster's replies, indicate one of my broader critiques: the "open source world of builders" that the OP points to is one that, by OP's own admission, does not care about the social critique of the things they are building.
That is, in a "world of builders" the social organization of what is being built is less important than actually being able to build something. To the extent that the social is less relevant, this is that I "need to understand."
This points back to something that I've been saying and, honestly, is something that mastodonians of color have been saying: you cannot engineer a solution to a cultural problem. And, insofar as OP makes clear the cultural context of the cultural problems facing Mastodon, I actually agree with them.
Mastodon is a world of builders, but the myopic focus on the ability to build ignores what is being built and who is supposed to "live" there.
And, insofar as this "world of builders" keeps spitting out engineering solutions to cultural problems, the same cultural problems will continue to arise within the fediverse.
Why do you THINK the fediverse has never heard the end of CW and QT discourse? Why do you think that other replies in my threads have said "I've heard this whinging before?" It's because y'all keep trying to engineer a solution to a cultural problem.
@shengokai "Why do any introspection at all when I can build the U.S.S. Enterprise in Minecraft?" 😑
(Thank you for this thread.)
@AnonymooseGuy @shengokai Depending how you mean that, you can, and it's cool:
So to follow someone you go to their profile and click follow - then their posts appear in your Home.
Then to *extra* follow them you click the "bell" icon that now appears next to the [un]follow button - then their posts appear in your Notifications too. I do this for people where I really don't want to miss anything they say.
@zeborah @AnonymooseGuy @shengokai
Another approach to *extra* following: adding the people you want to extra follow to a pinned list. Then always read that list before your more general feed.
@dynamic @AnonymooseGuy @shengokai Absolutely. The reason I went with the notification method is because when I've read them all I can clear my notifications so I know "where I'm up to". For all other columns as I scroll through I have to play the "Have I now caught up or do I only remember that one because someone else boosted it?" game.
Oh, the notifications method may not include their boosts, so there's that downside.
@shengokai It’s very interesting what you are saying. It is a commonplace among software engineers to say “technical solutions cannot solve social problems” especially when a ubiquitous tech gets abused by a criminal grouping.
The world of UX also strongly understands the need to user test. These engineers seems to have forgotten that also.
So maybe there are some ways to help them past their assumptions (I hope)
@shengokai the dominant culture can change rapidly, but the attitude is linked, as you observe, to behavior.
Being a leader in an engineering organization i came across lots of attempts to engineer technical solutions to social challenges. It's rarely inherently malevolent, but often can mix with inherited toxic prejudices. Usually it's associated with either immaturity or a persistent difficulty understanding how other people think (i.e. neurodivergence). Many engineering orgs structure around this dynamic.
One of the common techniques involves positioning experts that can tell the engineers what to do. Engineering mindset folks tend to trust experts, especially experts who appeal to arguments over sentiments. Getting those voices speaking and amplified might help mitigate.
@fivetonsflax @shengokai It's one of those #WickedProblems.
M. Scott Peck's #book The Different Drum describes for group therapy community development the process of forming, storming, norming, and performing (based on Tuckman's stages of group development).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuckman%27s_stages_of_group_development
@jofijaan @thorne @shengokai like literally all of you dudes I am puzzled! because for me this is a world of trans femmes and queers.
either you experience a completely different fediverse which has little overlap with the one I'm experiencing or you think trans femmes aren't marginalized. (because some us can run a server? What?).
Or can you tell me another reason why are you all ignoring us? Or rather why are you all refusing to deal with the fact that part of the fediverse is built by marginalized people?
@missqarnstein it’s not as simple as the either or binary that you’re presenting here: different marginalized groups can and do gave different experiences of marginalization in the same space.
Further, even if I experienced this as a world of queer folks and trans femmes, it is not the case that being marginalized along one axis prevents marginalization along another.
The key thing here is in where you preface your statement “for me,” and this is important.
@jofijaan No, not actually.. I don know how long you have been on Matodon but early on the transgender group had a very big impact on the culture. Marginalized people still do. We'll see now how things will change with latest migration but that is how things where.
@jofijaan Ohh, if you talk about it in general I agree with you.
Mastodon though has a history of being fanatically against any sort of racism e.t.c.. The CW et.al.. have their origin in the queer and neurodivergent groups so I think there has been acknowledgement there.
Is there any part you think of especially that has been underdeveloped?
@jofijaan Yes, I know that and agree but from my view BIPoCs have gotten quite a big space here on Mastodon. I was asking more specific what you mean on here.. not in general.
@jofijaan Yes, Europeans are on here. That is not the same as BIPoCs are not respected. Of course.. Mastodon is not free from it and things could improve..
I think the ability to chose your admin (that it is decentralized) makes a real difference.
Personally I have seen almost none of it. Rather the opposite. I guess it also depends on who you follow.
@shengokai and if you're right (I think you are), how to fix this?
I'm a builder. And think in solutions. Just reiterating a problem won't ever solve it, it just makes frustrated humans.
@shengokai What practical steps would you suggest be taken to address this problem?
This is a great observation but I'm honestly not sure what I should be doing with this information.
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