Mastodawn

ProjectFearlessness

I know people of colour and other minority groups are still having a hard time here on Mastodon. As a white man there's nothing I can say that you're already saying much better, so all I do is boost those posts whenever I see them. Keep on speaking up. You must be heard.

What I will say is we want you here. We need you here. The ones who say they don't want you here are the ones who need you here the most.

If we don't have a #BlackMastodon all we have is a #WhiteElephant and nobody needs that.

Prokofy Dec 2, 2022

@ProjectFearlessness If I might could have just a minute of your time...

Why did the founders of this project name it after an extinct animal? I mean, if it is forward and progressive. Is this like how Discord, supposedly designed to enable harmonious speech, was called the opposite? (Or maybe someone didn't understand there's another, similar word - "Discourse".) Or is it like that soi-disant work productivity engine that named itself "Slack"? I never understand these things.

ProjectFearlessness Dec 2, 2022

@prokofy The short answer is Mastodon is named after the founder's favourite heavy metal band.
The longer answer is if, in a state of white fragility, you wanted a platform to cocoon yourself in, an apolotical vacuum where your views stayed relevant in spite of an ever changing, increasingly diverse world, you would name it after an extinct animal like Mastodon.
That sounds harsh when I say it out loud! I don't want to be mean. It's just a platform. It's the people on it that count. That's us.

Prokofy Dec 2, 2022

@ProjectFearlessness OK, I'm not your go-to guy on heavy metal bands so I didn't catch the reference. Reading a little about Our Glorious Leader, so far, I parsed "Leninist grouplets" but thought at Pioneer age, he would likely not have absorbed that concept, altho, say, Brin clearly imbibed the Soviet Knowledge Society and Gorky's Universal Encyclopedia. As to fragility, when I think of the Buffalo shooter sentenced for terrorism and hate, it doesn't track. I've missed a lot during pandemic tho

ProjectFearlessness Dec 3, 2022

@prokofy Yes. There is a lot that has been said about mastodon's founder and its' culture. I'm not getting overly worried about it. It's still just a platform, it's the people on it that count.
I stand by what I said about Mastodon though. The band is shit. So is using it as a name for a social media platform.
If they'd called it Mammoth it would have been much bigger by now.

Prokofy Dec 3, 2022

@ProjectFearlessness 1) Eh, the band is in a queue to things I may listen to someday. And I'm in a position to diagnose the founder's culture more than most, but meh, who has the time. He/his comrades are facing what they might call a "world-historical" challenge, and they may rise to the occasion, or they may not.

Prokofy Dec 3, 2022

@ProjectFearlessness 2) If not, there's always "Zoom, Photos for Life!". Oh, you mean the conferencing app? No, the photo sharing web site that didn't trademark its name or they might be rich now, and disappeared with all our photos like in 1999. Oh, well!

ProjectFearlessness Dec 3, 2022

@prokofy I actually don't remember Zoom! Photos for Life. So many platforms came and went, yet here we all are, on another platform. The point is it's always about the people and not the platform. And, fer chrissakes, back up your stuff.

Prokofy Dec 3, 2022

@ProjectFearlessness You may be too young to remember Zoom! Photos for Life! but here's the thing: it wouldn't matter if I actually now had photos for life that I posted when I was young. You know? But I don't. So yeah, "it's not the platform, it's the people!" Durrr! But as you get older, you become less willing to put content on platforms that are run by people who don't respect private property in every meaning of that term.

ProjectFearlessness Dec 3, 2022

@prokofy Good point. The lawless way the internet runs now, it's kind of hard to imagine anyone will respect your privacy anywhere, regardless of how much they try to.
Before I share anything, I always remind myself that what I'm doing is throwing that info out into a murky void and it's likely to end up in anybody's hands, no matter what. I make sure I'm comfortable with that before I press send.

Prokofy Dec 3, 2022

@ProjectFearlessness No. Privacy I don't need. I don't have that on the Internet, in case you looked. Techs and their followers boil down all rights on the Internet to "privacy," by which they mean everything from victims of domestic violence being able to escape from their abusive partners to the ability to plot the overthrow of the state with other anarchists. I mean private property, which means copyright protection. I mean regulated private business, which we didn't have on Twitter.

ProjectFearlessness Dec 3, 2022

@prokofy Yes. It's easy to conflate the issues. Privacy, Private Property, Copyright Protection. They all have different meanings, and then they become meaningless as soon as you post something. The internet sucks.
I totally agree though. Businesses should be able to provide us with all these things. It's a basic.

Prokofy Dec 3, 2022

@ProjectFearlessness I can't worry about "the Wrong Hands" which of course was the name of a griefing group in Second Life who doxxed and threatened people to get their way with the cover story that this was helping to stop griefing, which of course was word salad. Sometimes I type obscure terms into Google and find an article and say, oh, someone else has written on this odd topic, and it's my article, under a different name. What can you do.

Prokofy Dec 3, 2022

@ProjectFearlessness Eh, who needs screenshots from The Sims Online, which is all I put on Zoom! Photos for Life! TS0, where I was in the beta in 1999, put up the Game Over sign in the sky in 2008, which I was present to witness. There's a limit to how much you "back up your stuff" when it's all a game, eh?

Fanua 🌐Dec 2, 2022

*Raises hand* #Indigenous #Pasifika in the house. #Mastodon

@ProjectFearlessness

Sir Dr Rusty o the Isle 🖤💛❤️Dec 2, 2022

@ProjectFearlessness #Mastodon must be colour neutral and gender neutral
It must be unlike #DodoLand

ProjectFearlessness Dec 2, 2022

@rkd993 It must be. It's not, yet. It needs some work, but that's what we're all here for.

Dr Lisa Evans Dec 2, 2022

@rkd993 @ProjectFearlessness What does that mean? You want to live in a beige world? Diversity is life.

ProjectFearlessness Dec 2, 2022

@lisae @rkd993
I took that as meaning that everybody should have equal footing here on Mastodon with no prejudices based on race or gender. Neutral as in unbiased.

Dr Lisa Evans Dec 2, 2022

@ProjectFearlessness @rkd993 Neutrality isn't enough in an unjust world, unfortunately. When some people are overly privileged and others disadvantaged, a neutral platform favours the privileged. To create a diverse community you have to provide extra support for the most disadvantaged, and encourage the privileged to take a back seat.

ProjectFearlessness Dec 2, 2022

@lisae @rkd993
Yes, that is a great point. People often use words like neutrality in a well meaning way without stopping to think about it. I'm sure there was no ill intent and now you've made me notice it. This is a good conversation to have.

Dr Lisa Evans Dec 2, 2022

@ProjectFearlessness @rkd993 Thank you, I didn't mean to be harsh with the first toot. I get a bit passionate about this.

ProjectFearlessness Dec 2, 2022

@lisae @rkd993
Be passionate. You made your point well.

Sir Dr Rusty o the Isle 🖤💛❤️Dec 2, 2022

@lisae @ProjectFearlessness
I did stop to think about it, going back to my days in #CivilRights era and those days, issues, and movement along with my social science background. It has never been simple 😢. Not then, not now.
Happy to work together to a better terminology.

RicochetRabbitt Dec 2, 2022

This is such a powerful graphic.

Dr Lisa Evans Dec 2, 2022

@AndyBarnett I should have given credit. It's by @restoringracialjustice on Twitter (edit: nope, Instagram) and I found it here:

https://www.bu.edu/diversity/resource-toolkit/inequity-equality-equity-and-justice/

Inequity, Equality, Equity, and Justice | Diversity & Inclusion

Sir Dr Rusty o the Isle 🖤💛❤️Dec 2, 2022

@lisae @AndyBarnett yes, a useful graphic. BU has a long history, quite a bit of it wrestling with such issues, particularly from the 60s [my era but I was at Carleton which has always had a very active history of involvement too]

https://www.bu.edu/articles/2021/boston-university-history-class/

A Deep Dive into Boston University History

Students taking this summer’s History of Boston University HUB class get a deep dive into the history of BU, both in and outside of the classroom.

BU Today

RicochetRabbitt Dec 2, 2022

@lisae
Thank you. It's an image I've seen used in EDI training previously. Great to give it a wider audience.

Sir Dr Rusty o the Isle 🖤💛❤️Dec 2, 2022

@lisae @ProjectFearlessness We don't disagree

Sue Dec 2, 2022

@lisae @ProjectFearlessness @rkd993
Great way of showing inequality

infinity_rainbow

@lisae @ProjectFearlessness @rkd993

I do love that graphic and I use it in presentations myself.
However, my autistic brain does wonder if those three people are all a bit selfish? Surely they should all pay for tickets to watch the game properly, rather than bypass the security measures :)

#overthinking
#Autistic

K Satov Dec 2, 2022

@lisae @ProjectFearlessness @rkd993 I love this graphic. I’ve only ever seen it once before but it should be widespread.

ProjectFearlessness Dec 3, 2022

@karsatov @lisae @rkd993
It is great. It has a credit on it (@restoringracialjustice). I don't think I'm speaking out of turn in saying whoever drew this illustration wanted everyone to see it. It should be widespread. Everyone needs to see it. You can go ahead and share it.

Catmama 🐈Dec 2, 2022

@ProjectFearlessness @lisae @rkd993 That may be what was intended, but my mind went to "I don't see color," or "I'm colorblind." It sounds nice, but in reality it erases the lived experiences of POC, and to shut them up for speaking about their experiences.

ProjectFearlessness Dec 2, 2022

@Catmama @lisae @rkd993
Yes. I see your point. It's such a short statement that it can be read in different ways. I'll wait for the original poster to respond.

Sir Dr Rusty o the Isle 🖤💛❤️Dec 2, 2022

@lisae @ProjectFearlessness @Catmama 🙏🏽

Sir Dr Rusty o the Isle 🖤💛❤️Dec 2, 2022

@lisae @ProjectFearlessness @Catmama That was not the context nor was there any intent of that nature. I'm well aware of the hazards of language "erasing". I've often talked about such issues in my teaching and on social media. Hope that clarifies. (Just on that general issue, the English language is sadly often problematic for such subtleties.)

Sir Dr Rusty o the Isle 🖤💛❤️Dec 2, 2022

@ProjectFearlessness @lisae Sorry to have been late back to this discussion. I certainly did mean neutral in that sense. Given my backgroundn(academic/social@psychology/linguistics/sociolinguistics) I'm well aware of the complexities of language, my main work was in attitude change (broadly) and what was referred to as #CrossCultural research methods, ethics and issues. /1

Sir Dr Rusty o the Isle 🖤💛❤️Dec 2, 2022

@ProjectFearlessness @lisae @psychology/linguistics/sociolinguistics) /2

Part of what is refreshing about #Mastodon is that there are, or can be, dedicated places for everyone (for example I was very excited to see the indg.club group)

What I envision is a place where both can happen. That the place can be safe for all reasonable people (I don't consider hate groups & Nazis reasonable. #DoDoLand broke that trust today) and those needing a boost can do it/get it here

Sir Dr Rusty o the Isle 🖤💛❤️Dec 2, 2022

@lisae @ProjectFearlessness 🙏🏽

Sue Dec 2, 2022

@ProjectFearlessness
Couldn’t have said it any better