I hope that Mastodon folks who like to scold newcomers will realize how off-putting -- and damaging -- that behavior is.

Please be helpful, not scornful. Let's reduce the genuine risk of poisoning fediverse growth, and thereby giving social-media oligarchs indefinite control over online discourse.

Having said that, Mastodon/fediverse could/should do more to make users' experiences more gratifying.

Read this essential post from @kissane to understand more. https://erinkissane.com/mastodon-is-easy-and-fun-except-when-it-isnt

@dangillmor @kissane what are they scolding about?
@Qacdefeej @dangillmor @kissane Endless variants on "you aren't doing Mastodon right". You boosted a cool post that had no alt text in the image. You mentioned politics and didn't add a CW. You favorited when you should have boosted. You said Mastodon instead of "the fediverse". You mentioned racism but some Europeans insist that racism is solely an American problem (ignore our fascist parties), so CW with USPOL. You described the issues you face as a woman or a trans person but I, a cis white man, insist that you explain in detail to me why you said what you said because I don't believe you. And on and on. Now, I have been on Mastodon long enough to know that people who engage in that kind of thing should just be ignored or blocked, but newbies may just conclude that this isn't the place for them.
@not2b @Qacdefeej @dangillmor @kissane this is a very helpful reminder. Mute / block sounds like common sense and yet it’s not reflex. It’s meant to be an empowering tool but for some it can be worrisome.
@not2b @Qacdefeej @dangillmor @kissane
These tone policing idiots are probably blocked by many people. Mastodon should implement a feature where people who are blocked by many people are blocked from being seen by new users for 3 months.