FACTS ABOUT MASTODON

If you are curious about leaving the cooked turkey site and going to the elephant site, here are some important tips:

1. It sucks. But then, so does every site.

2. You can still shitpost. Take great glee.

3. Picking your server instance is super important.

Ideally you should start at a large instance, and leave because it's full of white suburban NIMBY reactionaries who joined in November because they were promised 0 uncomfortable experiences in their lives and lash out whenever this turns out not to be the case.

Then you move to a smaller server where suddenly you can't talk to your friends because the admin of your instance is feuding with the admin of their instance. Then you wait a month before you can move again.

In this regard, the feudal structure of Mastodon instances is very like early 2000s message boards, whenever the admin got drunk and deleted the site.

4. You can work around the feudalism by running Mastodon yourself. It's the size of a mastodon and costs a fortune.

You can run Pleroma, which is smaller, and is also favoured by Nazis by unfortunate historical accident. Pleroma is perfectly good software that fulfils a need for something smaller than Mastodon, but also the devs are definitely not Nazis but are the other ten guys at the table.

There was a hilarious moment where the guy behind Spinster was so obnoxious he got kicked out of Pleroma and started his own fork called Soapbox/Rebased. He is now known as Soapbox Terf.

The nice people went to Pleroma fork Akkoma, which Soapbox Terf calls the "tr***y server", a review I understand they were delighted by. Try that.

There's also Misskey, which is a bit weird and Japanese, and supports cat ears right there in the protocol.

5. Any bozo who complains about your posts with assertions about the Fediverse that assume it all runs on the rules of mastodon.social is one of the suburban NIMBYs and invariably joined in November. Block and don't look back.

6. If anyone annoys you about your posting, you can improve their feed for them by blocking them from ever seeing your posts. The blocking tools are marvellous.

7. There are NO QUOTE TWEETS on Mastodon and anyone who wants QUOTE TWEETS is an invader, pollutant and corrupting influence despoiling the suburban vistas of Mastodon who only wants quote tweets so they can wreak EVIL.

So quote-tweeting is well supported in Akkoma and Misskey (and forks thereof), is in the Treehouse fork of Mastodon, and will be coming to more Fediverse software soon.

UPDATE: once enough other fedi software adopted quoting, Mastodon finally put it in, implemented gratuitously differently because fuck you.

8. In Mastodon, Eugen Rochko has achieved the creation of something greater than himself. And he will *never forgive it*.

9. The Fediverse interprets Website Boy as damage and routes around him.

10. Mastodon is yet another demonstration that worse is better. So come onto Mastodon, and *be* that worse.
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EDIT: this post is attracting some very dumb reply guys. Consider *not* posting debate club fatuity.

@davidgerard I was lucky to drop right into a lovely instance
@mechmouse as was I! I think @amtiskaw is enjoying the many modmail opportunities
@mechmouse @davidgerard Same here. My one concern is that M* currently doesn't seem to be super-welcoming to BIPOC and I have zero idea how to go about fixing that. (Then again, I am one of those suburban NIMBYs that joined in November, so...up I shut.)
@thelaughingmuse white suburban bloke here smug in my house in leafy E4
@thelaughingmuse @mechmouse @davidgerard This falls under point #3 "Picking your instance is super important." Some instances *cough* hire (as in "pay actual money from user community fund set up for this and other purposes") BIPOC moderators for this specific reason. It's not perfect, but it's a step.
@thelaughingmuse @mechmouse @davidgerard What would "super-welcoming to BIPOC" look like?

@miasmo @mechmouse @davidgerard I have no idea. I've only a) seen few of my #BIPOC mutuals from Birdsite migrate here and thrive, and b) seen comments from BIPOC saying that they don't feel welcome here. I like @hellsop mention of specifically finding BIPOC mods/making sure your modstaff is not all of one mold, but building & maintaining MastoCulture shouldn't just be left up to admins/mods.

All I personally can think to do is, follow tags and boost stuff. And listen more than I speak there.

@thelaughingmuse @mechmouse @davidgerard @hellsop Plenty of white people probably try this site and give up too. I guess I'm a little skeptical that there is a real problem. But I try to stay open-minded.
@miasmo @davidgerard @hellsop @thelaughingmuse @mechmouse Respectfully, because I’m not interested in an argument today, white people replying “I don’t think that’s a real problem” when told there is a problem is part of the problem.
@Infinitefreetime @davidgerard @hellsop @thelaughingmuse @mechmouse I expressed curiosity about something that I don't understand. Would you rather I lie and pretend to agree? Or just shut my mouth?
@miasmo @thelaughingmuse @davidgerard @mechmouse @hellsop You actually should shut your mouth and listen, honestly. White people don’t get a say in whether something is hostile to people of color or not. It’s not up to us.

@Infinitefreetime @miasmo @thelaughingmuse @davidgerard @mechmouse

I have read posts by white people saying they feel unwelcome here and leaving. I have not read any posts by white people saying they are unwelcome here because they are white. I have not read any posts by white people being harassed because of their ethnicity, reporting the harassment posts, and then having their own posts deleted by moderators and being told to be more tolerant of people harassing them.

And that’s not a technical problem, it’s a moderation problem. And the only solution is more diverse moderators and for white moderators to ask for help from the others when they might just be reflecting privilege.

Note: you may substitute heterosexual or cisgendered for white in the above paragraph, but it seems like LBGTQIA+ folks see less harassment here. Probably because at least 2/3 of the people here are trans, gay, furies, or at least two of the above (possibly a biased sample set in the people I follow).

@miasmo @Infinitefreetime @davidgerard @hellsop @mechmouse If you want to actually learn, then stop talking and listen.

People who have been through repeated trauma don't owe it to strangers to teach what they've been through. You can learn by honestly reading/listening. No, it won't be quick. They're people, not reference books or search engines. But if you're interested in learning, the only path open is the slow path that requires regular introspection.

Good luck on the path.

@thelaughingmuse @Infinitefreetime @davidgerard @hellsop @mechmouse I'm not contradicting any of that. But "shut up and listen" in response to a sincere question is not going to move anyone down any path (except perhaps a path to crabby resentment.) I'm listening and not hearing anything concrete beyond "shut up." To be fair, you attempted to earnestly answer, but your answer was very vague. It was however better than nothing, and I appreciate that.
@thelaughingmuse @Infinitefreetime @davidgerard @hellsop @mechmouse As an aside, I'm pretty sure most people don't know what "BIPOC" means. I've seen it before, but had to look it up to remember what each letter stands for. I think assuming everyone knows that term is being in a bubble to some extent. Not that your views are wrong, but a lot of morally good and morally average people just don't know all the jargon.

@miasmo @Infinitefreetime @davidgerard @hellsop @mechmouse It has very little to do with you being a bad person, and a lot to do with all of us learning not-great to bad habits and needing to unlearn them.

If I (or anyone else) could be more concrete about it, we would. That would be a much faster fix for society. But not everyone learns the same less-than-good habits or has the same thought process behind them.

It's work, being part of a society. It's worth it, though.

@thelaughingmuse @miasmo @mechmouse @davidgerard Right, it shouldn't be up only to administration/moderation efforts. But what's changed at Twitter to make it worse IS moderation efforts; specifically the lack of. And the previous Twitter community members that have fled Twitter, some to fediverse (here).

In favor of "administration" the resources for not having to put up with the shenanigans of deplorables does largely depend on administration. Entire servers, or whole domains of server-hosting networks can be filtered, limited, suspended
So the key steps are to rebuild one's follow list by using the available twitter-to-fedi migration tools, and then find an instance(server) that DOES do the kind of moderation that fosters the kind of community one wants, and then move there (also via the available tools to do so).

@thelaughingmuse @miasmo @mechmouse @davidgerard People could probably use a bit more help in the "how to find an instance/server that's right for you" area. That's currently a yawning gap and "join mastodon!" guides largely focus on interest and hobbies and .... those are rather irrelevant to finding a comfortable place to be. (Ever met someone that shares a hobby with you who is just an utterly intolerable person otherwise and in spite of? I certainly have.) That's a very novel and new skill needed that monolithic Twitter didn't require of its users. Reviewing the policy documents and terms of service, lists of servers it has blocked and why if available, skimming the profile director if available, and any published goals that the instance publishes will help make that selection quicker, but sometimes one will just need to sign up, read the local timeline for a bit without following anyone in particular and see if the vibe is overall good for one's state of mind.
@davidgerard Frendica also supports quote-tweets. And federates with Diaspora as well as Mastodon. I'm checking it out from Helsinki.
@resuna I expect all the software will converge on Mastodon-but-better.
@resuna @[email protected] @adrienne Hopefully they will get together with the Treehouse people to make sure it interoperates, ahem, ahem.
@davidgerard wonderful, perfect, unparalleled account. Three of five stars, and you can pry it from my cold (alive, I just live in winter land) hands pretty easily probably but I’ll be sad. Ish.
@davidgerard --
(I joined in Nov...) It sucks. I like it.
@emuziek as did I. a social media site is good when you learn how it sucks and lean into it.
@davidgerard @emuziek I’m having fun with the magical hide/seek pastel gradient sensitive content button. Not a bug but a feature! https://mastodon.social/@voidmstr/109565194655324271
@davidgerard I think I can safely say, with minimal knowledge of most of what you discuss, that this is some quality shitposting.
@mrawdon the truth is the universe's shitpost
@mrawdon @davidgerard its a perfect shitpost really. Complete with people whinging about the shitpost even though it had a warning expressly for complainers. 😂
Except there seem to be several prominent non-whites users who would like to have QTs for various reasons that seem quite legitimate—at least to this relative newbie of a couple months.
@elight yes, I'm ungenerously characterising Website Boy's reasoning about them
@davidgerard I don't speak your vernacular. Website Boy == Gargron?
@davidgerard ah, sorry. I didn't process the lampooning in your original post until now.
@davidgerard Though the combination of useful information with lampooning is both somewhat lost on and confusing for at least this migrator.
@elight at the end of the day, most people want QTs to dunk on people. Call and response is just dunking. If you don't want dunking then you probably don't want qts. If you don't care then whatever
@elight oh who are these non-whites you're talking about? *checks self* Oh you mean, people like me? Nope, not all of us want it, and in fact many of us detest it.
@liztai I've got no skin in this game; I'm seeking to understand and connect conversations.
@elight a lot of people are using the "but minorities/black twitter/marginalised want this" argument. But they are not asking said groups if they do. That's the problem. It's a particular thorn for me. Sorry, it's getting to me!

@liztai I'm sorry for inadvertently causing harm. ❤️

I would love to see more passive protections. Filtering is too reactive. I suffer this too, at times.

@elight and I'm sorry for being so reactive. I think the QT conversation has been unnecessarily combative and has put me on an edge. I think this thread is a really good way to get educated on online harassment and why Quote toots are such a concern for some: https://hachyderm.io/@liztai/109579790937151212

Believe me, I used to QT to call out people. Then I realise the real damage it causes. I do not want to do it to anyone else ever again.

Elizabeth Tai :verified: (@[email protected])

Content warning: Quote Toots

Hachyderm.io

@liztai ... Fuck.

Cultural anthropology background had me nodding my head while cursing along through the whole read.

The abstract: We're damned careening out of control in the iced virtual hell of social media most any time we engage in anything even vaguely resembling as human discussion.

It makes sense. The internet turns other people into abstractions. Humans evolved for tribes of people they relate to in person. People who are ideas are "other". Evolution wires most of us so that "others" default to threats. It takes concentrated effort to overcome this programming, e.g., something akin to a significant ongoing habit of loving kindness meditation.

Even when not threat, an "other" is far easier to objectify. Studies show humans, on the whole, feel less empathy for people who are not part of their "tribe", like them, than those who are.

I'm a meditator and even so I still struggle with the above more often than I'd like to admit.

I keep coming back to: social media is Pandora's open box. 😞

@elight yes! Such an insightful comment, and thanks for reading it. I doubt many do when I send it to them lol.

The way social media is structured kinda stokes tribalism and some features like QTs and even retweets are adding fuel to the fire (desire to gain popularity, points etc)

I'm SURE QTs can be used for good. but ... I don't know, just too many opportunities for it to be misused.

@liztai As the article noted, intent doesn't factor into it. We can mean well yet still cause harm.

See my messages earlier that caused you pain, for an example.

One person may receive support whereas another apprehends a source of attack.

It's almost as though we weren't made to communicate and reason at this scale...

That's often what frightens me about technological innovation. We evolved to be this recursively complicated tool user. Biological evolution cannot keep up with our technological evolution. The tools we build are guaranteed to have unintended consequences.

@elight Yeah, if you read books like Jaron Lanie'rs Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now and Stolen Focus by Johann Hari that social media is set up in the way to push our biological buttons, and how our behaviour is changed without even you realising it. It's terribly subtle, which is why it's scary.

@liztai @elight

I used to QT a lot to relay important but inanely-worded news, or just takes the original poster didn't consider (or have room for). Almost always agreed w the person I was QTing, except when they bury the lede.

QT is also a nice way to tack-on to your own thoughts... Ppl don't see disjointed sentences over several days, they see the whole thought in their TL.

@liztai @elight thanks for sharing! I see this a second time now, and it is extremely useful for my own processing. Grateful you have documentation! /me bows and poofs.

@liztai Struggling to find the message/thread and the tooter at the moment. 😅

I do understand the concern. It often leads to dogpiling behavior on other place.

@davidgerard I love trash. Is Mastodon right for me?
@AmateurResearchBizarre currently diving into the junkpile with great glee over here

@davidgerard

This should be a musical. Just please don't involve the *Hamilton* guy.

@xenophora all the songs will have this music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTKCKBu8CLI

The Fall - Repetition

YouTube
@xenophora @davidgerard i think the style of repo: the genetic opera would be a better fit.
@davidgerard @darnell there is also Pixelfed!
@Iamgroot11 how good is it at being Mastodon-but-it's-not-Mastodon?
@davidgerard if you like the grams look then it’s a perfect replacement, only downside is that you don’t see text only posts in timelines. It still seems to be in early beta, but it’s come a long ways!

@davidgerard These are also the reasons I have been avoiding Mastodon while building my own system. But the collapse of the cooked bird site creates new dynamics.

The core axiom of the Mathematical Mesh (my system) is that everyone owns their own account and can take it anywhere they like without penalty.

That is possible in the Mesh because everyone has a cryptographically based identity. So, if you have the right private key, you can sign an assertion to move your shit somewhere else.

It is also possible because the cryptography being used is rather more sophisticated than the stuff I helped dump on everyone in the 1990s when I helped build the WebPKI at VeriSign. This is using Threshold and structured cryptography but doesn't come with a built in Ponzi scheme.

Given where we are, I am thinking it is better to work out how I can use the Mesh to make the absolute best client for Mastodon/Twitter/Facebook rather than focus on providing new discourse forums at this point.

But when I do, I can support end to end encrypted forums where the hosting site has no access to any of the content. I can even make content disappear after a pre-set interval or place it under an embargo till a pre set date.

https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-hallambaker-everything-00.html

Mathematical Mesh 3.0 Part X: Everything

https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/mathmesh/ Discussion of this draft should take place on the MathMesh mailing list ([email protected]), which is archived at .