Mostly HarmlessNov 27, 2022
The Spoonless Kitchen

We've done poorly, my fellow migrants from other websites. We need to do better. Read this:

https://www.hughrundle.net/home-invasion/

Some quotes:

"It's not entirely [their] fault. They've been taught to behave in certain ways. To chase favourites and reboosts. To promote themselves. To perform. "

Taught? Or brainwashed? #TwitterRefugees we must do better.

"I hadn't fully understood — really appreciated — how much corporate publishing systems steer people's behaviour until this week."

I think a lot of us have not appreciated that either. With a few exceptions (okay ME) people don't realize how truly abusive the website we have migrated from really was.

"Early this week, I realised that some people had cross-posted my Mastodon post[ ...]. Someone else had posted a screenshot of it ....

Nobody thought to ask if I wanted that."

That last line. I'm guilty of this but at least I only posted a former refugee's post. We need to do better. Read the article if you've come from the #TwitterMigration.

Home invasion - Mastodon's Eternal September begins

The fediverse is dealing with a huge wave of Twitter people bringing toxic ideas with them.

Nov 27, 2022 at 11:13amWeb
Show threadThe Spoonless KitchenNov 27, 2022

"Like fourteenth century Europeans, they bring the contagion with them as they flee."

Let's not do this. That's certainly not why I dipped my toe in here, after spending the better part of the past year trying to convince people social media websites were that very thing, a plague, and a contagion upon the earth.

Antisocial media websites, anyway.

Show threadThe Spoonless KitchenNov 27, 2022

"Old hands shared #FediTips to help guide behaviour in a positive direction. This is, of course, mutual aid."

Let's boost that hashtag, my fellow migrants from other websites. And read it. And take it in.

Show threadThe Spoonless KitchenNov 27, 2022

"Whilst many will be happy to try replicating what they know"

Ugh now I feel bad for wishing the journalists and government officials would come over here so I could get news without having to wade through Russian/Chinese/Iranian/Saudi propaganda to try and find information.

Then be exposed to the poison, hatred, and manipulation of that propaganda via the illusory truth effect, where, if you see it enough times, you believe it, even if you don't believe it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusory_truth_effect. That's oonce or IF I do find the info I'm looking for.

There is one Canadian senator here already, which I take as a very very good sign, but maybe the journalists...not such a good idea? The Toronto Star @torontostar is already trying to replicate here how it was elsewhere, and not even on one of the journalism servers, newsie.social or journa.host. Is this good or bad? IDK. #TwitterMigration

And the hashtag #TwitterMigration is, as I type it in to the box, hitting 752 uses per week. That's a lot!

Illusory truth effect - Wikipedia

Show threadMostly HarmlessNov 27, 2022
@thespoonless that's a really good article. I'm actually enjoying the #fediverse myself.
Show threadThe Spoonless KitchenNov 27, 2022

@twinjastrife Yes, I'm enjoying my stay here as well, with caveats, and I've seen a few red flags already, thanks to warnings from the infosec.exchange accounts.

I don't look at anything on the Internet with rose-coloured glasses, though, as I am old enough to remember to mistrust the box in the corner that promises to give me the world - and then gives me the world, in all its fullness.

Having found a place that is the exact opposite of what I have been through for the past three years, which, I will call it what it was, mental abuse at the hands of foreign state bad actors, paying for the privilege of abusing those of us forced to seek out news and information in the midst of their dross, because we cannot afford to seek it elsewhere, I do not want to see that chaos and bad behaviour repeated here.

How to mitigate the contagion? I'm not sure. That depends on determining just how brain-damaged we are from the other place and the way it has manipulated its refugees into behaving.

Show threadMostly HarmlessNov 27, 2022
@thespoonless education maybe? I think some people come across expecting it to be a similar platform, but its quite different here. This is more about community building rather than a platform for marketing and to push agendas.
Show threadThe Spoonless KitchenNov 27, 2022

@twinjastrife Yes, definitely #FediTips needs to be promoted and read more than it is- I've just run into a "welcome to Holland" moment myself.

(That is a reference to a very old essay, that is rather ableist in these times, but talks about changing the way you see your world when it changes:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welcome_to_Holland )

The admins of the news servers, I think, should also try and collect those journalism and media accounts that have migrated here, and maybe have a journalistic standard/set of rules? I am very encouraged by the EU's template server, and I hope other countries will emulate it:
https://social.network.europa.eu/about

If the journalists and politicians and government officials just come here, and expect to act like they did in other places, that will also attract the bad actors.

Mice bring fleas. Maybe Mastodon has to fumigate/decontaminate the refugees?! IDK I'm being facetious but not really. A lot of people have actively been mentally harmed by antisocial media corporations.

Welcome to Holland - Wikipedia

Show threadThe Spoonless KitchenNov 27, 2022

@twinjastrife What is the answer? I don't know. I just hope there are mitigations and safeguards that can be put in place to ensure that Mastodon as a whole does not turn out like the other websites.

The people in organizations and governments who used those other websites before, have literally no insight as to how negatively those websites have affected their behaviour, either, sadly.

Even those of us who were fighting that bad behaviour on other websites, are suspect of being contaminated!

I am certainly beginning to understand just how negatively my own behaviour was affected, even though I was fighting (or trying to) the bad behaviour I saw elsewhere.

It will take a long, long, time to unpack, I think. Will Mastodon survive it? I don't know. I hope it will. In the same manner it has been ticking along with before the #TwitterMigration.

But there has been a significant amount of damage done to the world, by the other websites. That needs to be foremost in peoples' minds IMO.