Erin KissaneApr 6, 2023
It’s great to see mastodon showing up meaningfully for things like the Texas Observer, but it seems—from my subjective POV—super uneven. Making a really strong case for the best parts of, for example, bookworld/literary twitter to put down stronger roots here is going to take active support and community-building, especially when most journalists are still not active here (and are frequently reviled for being journalists at all).
Show threadErin KissaneApr 6, 2023

Right now, a lot of fedi advocates are asking authors and artists to leave the social media sites that have allowed them to get by, but without doing much/anything to support those newcomers once they arrive here—even leaving aside the old-guard pushback against “self promotion.”

And idk, “staying on twitter for your work makes you the object of my disgust,” is maybe not the persuasive tool a lot of people here seem to believe it is. 🤷🏻

Show threadErin KissaneApr 6, 2023
Please definitely post here with your favorite counterexamples and thriving zones, I want to be wrong in my cranky feelings!
Show threadAbandoned AmericaApr 8, 2023
@kissane can't tell is this is sarcasm or not, if not I'd be happy to but if it is I'm sorry the experience hasn't been as rewarding here as Twitter. It frustrates me from time to time too, mostly for the lack of search but I digress
Show threadErin KissaneApr 8, 2023

@AbandonedAmerica Zero sarcasm! I love to be wrong, especially when I’m grumpy.

I love a lot of mastodon, myself, but loads of my favorite writers and researchers and artists haven’t made the jump yet, and I feel like it’s not going to happen without more effort from this side of the fence. And I’d be willing to put in some effort to help make it easier.

Show threadPauxlll KruczynskiApr 8, 2023
@kissane the fact that many artists from twitter haven't made the jump to mastodon is why I often think mastodon feeds feel more awful & dire...besides the world actually getting more awful & dire, of course. I'd love to help that effort too.
Show threadCoolBlenderKittenApr 8, 2023
@paulkruczynski @kissane
I don't understand that at all - I have so many great artists and so much beautiful art in my timeline, much more than on the dead bird site. Maybe you just need to look around a bit more...
Show threadErin Kissane

@CoolBlenderKitten @paulkruczynski Fwiw, I think responding to people who are having a worse time than you with things like “I don’t understand that” and “you need to look around more” is both super common around here and wicked unhelpful.

(This is a problem with requests, like mine, for kindness—civil but IMO unhelpful fedi behavior like telling people to try harder or explaining hashtags again tends to flourish.)

Apr 8, 2023 at 4:05pmWeb