If you try to say that Mastodon can't afford to be more inclusive, or that it's not important for Mastodon to accommodate all the folk leaving Twitter, I'm going to disagree with that, and point out that those talking points echo unapologetically anti-Black talking points.

If you view this as hostile, I can't help you with that.

Let me be clear on what is going to happen:
* Mastodon is going to become a better place for Black users.
* Mastodon is going to become easier to admin for small orgs

@mekkaokereke good post.

Small suggestion, people who have fled real world conflict zones or environmental disasters, and their supporters, have asked if posters can avoid use of term "refugees" for people leaving Twitter.

@InayaShujaat @Kay

With the right perspective, the same exact behavior perceived as hostile by some, is seen as super helpful by others.

I said "Twitter refugees" in the above post. I would have gone on still saying it in future posts, oblivious to the fact that my words are unintentionally hurtful to some of my friends.

Kay let me know that my words might be perceived very differently than I intend.

So I changed the words.

Kay's feedback was very helpful for me. ♥️

@InayaShujaat @Kay

This doesn't mean I always change my words! As I said my goal is not to please everyone all of the time. It's to not be misunderstood, or unintentionally hurtful as I make progress.

Eg some people are upset by the fact that I capitalize the word Black. I sometimes get this feedback. I don't change it. I'm not being misunderstood by capitalizing the word Black.

Some people are upset when I point out systemic racism. I don't stop pointing it out. I'm not being misunderstood.

@mekkaokereke @karenbynight @Kay @oceane This is exactly why words matter. People need to think about the impact it has on those who have actually lived through real trauma. To use words like “refugee” and “survivor,” it DOES diminish the experiences of actual refugees and survivors of trauma.

I doubt anyone suffers from PTSD just because they left Twittter.

@InayaShujaat @mekkaokereke @karenbynight @Kay Sorry, I'm not talking about PSTD from leaving Twitter, I have no experience or competence about it 😅 I'm talking about the trauma of having been through a long-running scam, for several years, which feels like abuse, IMHO. I believe that whenever there's abuse we can also see a scam lasting months or years, it's usually tied, directly or not, to money (how many beaten children would leave their parents if it wasn't for the rent and for the food?).

That's at least my experience with the French school system, Twitter, and a domestic abuser, Kevin, who was honestly 80% as harmful to me as Twitter. Talking about auditive hallucinations with Kevin, but not that bad.

@InayaShujaat @mekkaokereke @karenbynight @Kay Honestly, given how long Twitter has impacted me (8 years), 60%, and that's purely to sound reasonable. I just repeated for the first time when I've housed Kevin, but I'm not even talking about spending a single white night with him, coping with him because he would prevent me from giving an assignment!

But if we isolated both and compared 3 months with Kevin to 3 months being addicted to Twitter, yeah, 80%.

I'm still not, in any way, talking about the use of the word “refugees” – I'm not competent enough on the topic and I'm not comparing anything to it! But I think considering some collective behaviors on Twitter as how abuse victims are communicating could shed some light on phenomenons that are stigmatized in France and, I guess, in the US too – so-called “cancel culture”, “online hate”, etc. I'm not defending in any way the use of the word “refugees” in the context of people coming on the fedi from any platform.