The arguments for remaining on twitter to “fight” remind me of the gambling adage that the house always wins. “Fighting” there is like gambling and thinking you’ll eventually beat the house. But even if you win $10,000 at the slot machine it’s because it’s in the casino’s bigger interests to give you $10,000.
A viral post from a progressive helps prop up an increasingly reactionary company. @jeffjarvis
@jeffjarvis @Chanders @Jelaniya
Consider shortening your intro to a bare bones “how to get on.” Seems most people stop at picking a server. Get them past that obstacle before smothering them with details.
Natasha, if you know anyone having the same problem, suggest that they choose these options on the Join Mastodon server page:
Legal structure: all
Sign-up speed: Instant
Region: All regions
Topic: All topics OR General
This will give a list of servers that should all be accepting new users.
As you’ve probably heard, once they get in somewhere, they explore what’s available and change later.
@Jelaniya @jeffjarvis also as the adult child of compulsive gamblers, this is spot on
Notice you always hear about the gamblers' wins. You don't hear how much they spent / lost to get that win.
It's insidious.
From GA: "The idea that somehow, some day, we will control our gambling is the great obsession of every compulsive gambler. The persistence of this illusion is astonishing. Many pursue it into the gates of prison, insanity or death."
@gabrielquotes @jeffjarvis @Jelaniya guys.. it's not the infrastructure, it's the community. using, living under a cracked infrastructure. it's the community (which maybe not so easy to reconstruct?) which people have a stake in.
who's country this is anymore? i don't know. doesnt really feel like mine. i'm just lurking!
@Jelaniya @jeffjarvis @Timmy
I moved from the US to Canada in 2005 (family), and there’s a lot that needs to be done in both countries, so crossing the border is no solution
Canada treats indigenous people very badly, disability rights here are less protected than the States #MAiDinCanada etc
And Canada’s healthcare system is in serious danger of being dismantled by austerity and privatization
So think about moving if you want, but the work needs doing everywhere
Keep your options open. Looks like there's a growing need for planting antifacist attitudes in the general population up here, too. Graft, greed, corruption and fascism are pretty much interchangeable.
@Jelaniya @jeffjarvis #Birdsite is not now - nor was it ever - a "level playing field". That was an illusion. The #algorithm dictated everything. No one will be staying to fight a person or even a group. They won't be fighting an idea they hate. They'll be fighting an algorithm that's owned them from the start.
It's the picture definition of a lost cause.
Long live the #fediverse!
@Jelaniya @jeffjarvis
100%.
Twitter has been a fun cesspool for me to wade into recreationally, and I recognize that's about the best case scenario, as there are plenty of others who get harassed and threatened for being there.
Fight for Twitter? That place has no value apart from our presence and eyeballs. It's worth nothing without people wanting to be there.
And the idiot in charge clearly doesn't understand that on any level.
Twitter must fail, spectacularly, to help improve things. It will be a haven for the worst of humanity, the neo nazis and alt right trolls will flock to it. Decent people must leave when they are ready and able. If they stay it will look successful and give a larger platform to the worst people.
Still hard to walk away from a space you've been in and found a tribe in.
@prodygy @Jelaniya @jeffjarvis Richard, that's it, exactly!
"The purchase is final."
Twitter ain't a democracy. It never was, but now that's obvious.
Too true. I'd also add that coming on Mastodon I feel like we are all co creators and owners of this space.
This isn't just a place to escape to but a place where we can build something new that belongs to us.
@Jelaniya @jeffjarvis I agree. It's a lost cause under the current management and policies, and the house always wins. Twitter isn't a country we can defend by repelling invaders. It's, ultimately, just a web site owned by an increasingly hostile billionaire. The only way to win is to move elsewhere.
I still visit, but just to find friends to tell them where I've moved.
@mattblaze @Jelaniya That's not what I'm doing, Matt. I'm urging people I respect there -- with respect -- to come here in hopes they will be treated well (no guarantees). I wrote a guide to help folks come over and I"m teaching a class next week to do likewise. Also, it is my job to study social media.
https://medium.com/whither-news/on-joining-mastodon-d539eed5e41a
@btanderson @jeffjarvis @Jelaniya I don't know if there's any group actually doing it, but I still hear people talking about it. The framing is as if a really awful president had taken power there, and they're choosing to stay and "fight" rather than flee and become a refugee in a different country.
As apt as analogies between Musk and Trump may be, Twitter isn't actually a country that can be "fought for" on those terms.
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