Shoq 🌿Mar 12, 2023

RESEARCH POLL #207

A year out, when the Fediverse is everywhere among business, government, family, school and friends, will you always be comfortable with things like: 1) contacting and discussing personal matters, 2) reaching out to agencies for help, or 3) yammering about a weird interest or hobby in front of your entire social graph of followers? Or will you prolly do what many on Twitter did: use another account just for things you don't want to over-share with your main social network?

I'd want a less-public account for ONLY this.
16.7%
I'd want a less-public account for MANY reasons.
51.8%
Meh. No-issue. I have no secrets—from anyone!
31.5%
Poll ended at .
Show threadShoq 🌿Mar 12, 2023
Not to skew the results any, but please think carefully before you choose option 3 here. Can you really think of nothing in your home, work, civic, financial, medical, education, or spiritual life, that you'd have no reservations about being so public about? None?
Show threadOlav
@shoq I probably should have picked 'don't care' because truth is, there are plenty things I don't talk about on social media. My [current/recent] employer, the names of my kids, etc. Anything actually sensitive shouldn't be anywhere on social media. E2EE chat, email, etc are far more appropriate (and secure)
Mar 12, 2023 at 9:59pmWeb
Show threadShoq 🌿Mar 12, 2023
@olavf "Sensitive matters" are just one category things we might discuss. There's also simple courtesy issues like forcing your followers to mute your arguments over whether one brand of super glue works better than another, or whether your mom's dementia symptoms or bowel habits are better or worse than the norm.
Show threadDavid SlifkaMar 12, 2023
@shoq @olavf I’d love if software let people follow me for topic X but not Y, and I’d love to refine my follows similarly. But totally separate accounts seem like a not-great implementation of this need, I think?
Show threadShoq 🌿Mar 13, 2023

@davidslifka @olavf

It's not, for that need. (But that's actually something I want to want to prototype, too. ) But it's an entirely different issue. I don't want to even think about who is following me or what topics are in or out of bounds, when I simply want engage anyone or anything about things I don't feel are appropriate (or necessary) to share. There is nothing wrong with boundaries, and this costs no one anything. It's zero-sum, for the end user. Their followers are unaffected.

Show threadOlavMar 13, 2023
@davidslifka
@shoq with the caveat that my food website federates new recipes (only, no blog) and v3 photography website will federate it's blog when ready, partitioning social media down to minutiae only sows confusion except for particular things like professional vs personal, and exclusive content like only talking about adhesives. But a personal account can be expected to cover all those things too, at least on a limited basis.
Show threadShoq 🌿Mar 13, 2023
@olavf @davidslifka It doesn't matter why you may or may not need one. It only matters that you might, on any occasion, need or want one. I maintain that most of us already have at least one anyway, even if it's rarely admitted. I'm not speaking of sock puppets here. Merely keeping our lives compartmentalized. I don't need someone's judgments about my politics, if they mostly follow me for inventions, and vice versa. Nor do I want to explain my choices to a crowd. Nor should anyone have to.
Show threadOlavMar 13, 2023
@shoq @davidslifka don't get me wrong ~ I definitely see the need for keeping advocacy separate in circumstances, especially where it can affect employment, etc. But for most people, a generic account is all they need.
Show threadShoq 🌿Mar 13, 2023
@olavf Are these we are using "generic accounts," in your view?
Show threadOlavMar 13, 2023
@shoq "general" would be a better term, and at least mine is. Here I post anything from MH advocacy to the occasional shitpost. But I guess you're right in that I'm moving towards creating an entire instance devoted to shitposts.
Show threadShoq 🌿Mar 13, 2023
@olavf Excellent example. We all have our lanes, boundaries, and preferences. As a technologist, I want to recognize and empower choices whenever possible.
Show threadOlavMar 13, 2023
@shoq if it explains anything, the shitpost community would be almost entirely current and former Farkers.
It's on hold waiting for either Mastodon to support 'groups' or a managed Frendica host for the same reason.
Which solves a lot of problems, but what we both want is Hubzilla's "personas" that has finite control down to the account descriptions people can see. Alas.
Show threadShoq 🌿Mar 13, 2023
@olavf Yes, Hubzilla was really appealing because of that. He clearly understands my points. Sidebar: And yes, as I have said before, I think instances won't be a thing much longer; groups will be. The question is, who pays for the servers if there's a breakdown of "community" value. But even groups require identity,. The basic problem is still the same. WHO chooses to reveal what to a group. It must be a choice.
Show threadOlavMar 13, 2023

@shoq large, centralized instances are bad. Not just hardware, or moderation, but increasing regulatory requirements.

Plus, done right a small/medium instance has a community in the "home" feed. Presumably you'd pick one based on primary interest (mine is currently space-related) and expand from there. Groups otoh don't require being on a single instance, but I don't know if they can transfer ownership. The instance I have in mind would allow for transfer of ownership.

Show threadShoq 🌿Mar 13, 2023
@olavf Some do. But that's a detail and fixable anyway. We're discussing things conceptually right now.
Show threadShoq 🌿Mar 13, 2023
@davidslifka @olavf Maybe I spent too many years being politically active, but in my circles, anonymous or second identities are more the norm than the exception. So I have trouble wrapping my head around why anyone would want to not have opt-in anonymous or secondary social identities for any reason. And that's before we get to workplace issues, where MOST people I've ever known are at least somewhat fearful that their social media will impact their professional lives, status, or opportunity.
Show threadMike MacgirvinMar 12, 2023
We implemented Google+ style "collections" at one point to provide this, but I stopped supporting this about a year ago due to lack of interest. It was a lot of code to maintain given that nobody cared. Most people I spoke with tended to prefer the total isolation of separate channels. Note this is not separate accounts because in our software you can control multiple fediverse channels with one login account.