Mastodawn

Eniko (moved ➡ gamedev.place)Dec 20, 2022

I'm about to make saying "build a community not an audience" a blockable offense. Some people need an audience to keep a roof over their head and food on the table, and it's the only option for many marginalized people who aren't able to be gainfully employed in society due to bigotry or lack of support. What do you want them to do, just starve because a fascist burned down their only means of generating income?

And why the hell are you letting brands own the word "audience" anyway, and pretending it's some dirty thing now? The arts have used that word respectfully for centuries, long before brands came around

I'm sorry I keep posting about this but as a working slash often starving artist the mastodon interaction purity police is really starting to get to me

Eniko (moved ➡ gamedev.place)Dec 20, 2022

Especially stop this if you are a cis straight white dude who works in tech and as a democratic party operative who's never had to worry about food on the table your entire goddamn life

EDIT: IMPORTANT NOTE: if you're a butthurt reply guy please note i am describing the dude I am subtweeting directly, I am describing a *specific person*

Eniko (moved ➡ gamedev.place)Dec 20, 2022

Just. Fucking stop. Let people engage with the fediverse however they want *or need* to. Jesus

Eniko (moved ➡ gamedev.place)Dec 20, 2022

Like, my god. A whole class of creative people are biting their nails fearing for their literal lives because a fascist just burned down the only means of generating income they have and in some cases the only means of generating income that /society will afford them/ and they're coming here exhausted and terrified and instead of warmly welcoming them in you're going tut tut and telling them they're doing survival wrong. Just. FUCK

Luke Davies Dec 20, 2022

@eniko there is a bit of a "oh but this is our commune" or the good ole "OSS should never be used for profit" vibe isn't there

Eniko (moved ➡ gamedev.place)Dec 20, 2022

@candyleader no doubt by a bunch of white dudes who have a day job with a nice juicy paycheck

dr 🛠️🛰️📡🎧

blobfoxcomputer

@eniko @candyleader The people telling artists to "quit spamming" are the same ones telling #BlackMastodon they can "just block anyone you don't like".

Meanwhile I'm over here having to dm an artist I really liked because she didn't have a store anywhere I could find.

Hit me with those links, peeps! I can buy scented candles from local craftspeople any time, I want something different from artists in my timeline!

Aby & the Axolotls ꒰(˶• ᴗ •˶)꒱Dec 20, 2022

@davidr @eniko @candyleader - yes, and the irony being that they won't 'just block' the way they tell others to.

@aby @davidr @eniko @candyleader Early on here I saw what looked like an interesting server & started following. Realized pretty quickly that they were REALLY AGGRESSIVE about defederation - & about ADVOCATING FOR WIDESPREAD DEFEDERATION - of WHOLE INSTANCES that didn't meet their local community standards.

& it was stuff like this! Like artists, writers, etc trying to put their art out there.

Basically saying: "The Fediverse is not a blog & you shouldn't try to make it one."

FeralRobots Dec 20, 2022

@aby @davidr @eniko @candyleader
...left out the part where they defederated me. I didn't post on their threads & didn't repost them (they hated that, & I respected their wishes) - but I did say things like 'the number of users is gonna increase by multiples & they will not share the current aesthetic, & current users are going to have to deal with that.'

FWIW Eugen said shit like that, too, but they can't defederate him.

Michael Coorlim Dec 20, 2022

@FeralRobots @aby @davidr @eniko @candyleader "the Fediverse is not a blog" is ironic because that's the primary way that a creative professional can build an audience here.

Without paid marketing options and algorithms "good content" is really the only way to build a following; your posts just won't get in front of eyes otherwise. This is a framework in which the soft sell is going to be the most effective means of gaining traction.

Aby & the Axolotls ꒰(˶• ᴗ •˶)꒱Dec 20, 2022

@mcoorlim @FeralRobots @davidr @eniko @candyleader - algorithms and paid marketing options don't exist on other platforms for these sorts of creators, though. They exist for huge companies.. an author or a dice maker (for example) can't afford to pay to advertise on twitter and the algorithm definitely doesn't exist to promote them.

Michael Coorlim Dec 20, 2022

@aby @FeralRobots @davidr @eniko @candyleader very true! As a small fish you need to come at them sideways, swim in the wake to torture the metaphore, and make a cludge of it.

Small fry marketing on Twitter was a culture of a decade and a half of these hacks, ways to survive and thrive in that particular environment.

I'm awful at marketing but I survived for a decade by making the least mistakes I could.

Michael Coorlim Dec 20, 2022

@aby @FeralRobots @davidr @eniko @candyleader ultimately Twitter was designed as a platform to serve potential consumer to advertisers, and we were able to kind of come along for the ride by exploiting the quirks of its algorithms.

For a lot of people, this is the only social media marketing they've known, the weird twitter life-hacks.

These hacks are not endemic to all platforms, and may not be effective elsewhere.

Leonard Stolas Dec 20, 2022

@FeralRobots @aby @davidr @eniko @candyleader
LOL. Those people are going to be in for a rude awakening when Tumblr implements ActivityPub, aren't they?

FeralRobots Dec 20, 2022

@leonardstolas @aby @davidr @eniko @candyleader
Was that in Matt M's big interview that's been floating around? Interesting! That might bode well also for better support in WordPress!

FeralRobots Dec 20, 2022

@aby @davidr @eniko @candyleader
I wrote that quickly & should have followed up to explain my comment about blogging. It wasn't anything anybody actually said - it was how I interpreted it, having been a serious blogger for years.

The point of blogging was that you could say whatever you wanted, & there were tools to bring your stuff to the attention of others.

That took me to seeing a lot of folks' attitude around here as being that Masto is more like a message board.

https://mastodon.social/@FeralRobots/109547461739680179

FeralRobots Dec 20, 2022

@aby @davidr @eniko @candyleader

Ultimately Mastodon does need better curation tools - & better tools for controlling how your own content is used, yes, but if you're going to make your writing public, it's always going to be possible for someone to misuse your writing.

IOW, it's not going to have controls like you'd have on a message board.

There are probably ways to control content misuse, but I don't know them yet. (Someone I follow does block sharing, which I hadn't known one could do.)

FeralRobots Dec 20, 2022

@aby @davidr @eniko @candyleader
It seems to me one CAN make Mastodon behave like a message board, hiding posts from people not specifically authorized to see them. (I don't yet understand how secure the posts are when they get transmitted to subscribers on other instances.)

Much to figure out, & now (when work requires me to do a lot of stuff in two other systems that're relatively new to me) is not the time it's going to happen.

FeralRobots Dec 20, 2022

@aby @davidr @eniko @candyleader
I lied, of course I can't let go now that I'm thinking about it - many of my questions about security seem to be addressed in the linked doc - particularly, white list mode seems to be how you might federate with carefully selected partners.

https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2019/10/mastodon-3.0-in-depth/

Mastodon 3.0 in-depth

Detailed notes on REST API changes, new deployment options, new admin settings and how to use them

Official Mastodon Blog

Ian Ramjohn Dec 20, 2022

@FeralRobots @aby @davidr @eniko @candyleader

"The Fediverse is not a blog & you shouldn't try to make it one."

WordPress is part of the fediverse. WordPress is blogging software. This is a paradox.

FeralRobots Dec 21, 2022

@iramjohn @aby @davidr @eniko @candyleader
To expand what I said on followup that was arguably a non-charitable interpretation of the message they were sending.

That said, the folks I'm talking about did generally say 'fediverse' when they really seemed to mean 'Mastodon ecosystem.'