It's also important to recognize that like any large change to a social space, and like other such migrations before, this is making many of us old-timers here somewhat anxious.

Plenty of fedi people had quit  to find respite from the toxicity. So, a social contract of sorts emerged here.

It includes things that might be unfamiliar to the new arrivals — like broad use of Content Warnings ("CW" under the edit box) and expectation that images have alt text for the visually impaired.

But even though they might seem unfamiliar or perhaps a bit peculiar, these social norms are important. They helped make the Fediverse the cozy, blooming garden in the first place.

I think, and I hope you agree, that it's worth keeping it that way.

So please, don't take it the bad way when someone asks you to put a CW on something, or add an alt-text to an image. These are small asks. And with the post (hah!) edit function you can even fix it afterwards.

Let's be excellent to each other. 💜

To help #NewHere folk find their way around here, over the last few days I was boosting people liberally.

I will now be a bit more picky.

I will look for posts with a Content Warning when that's appropriate. I will avoid boosting posts with images but without an alt-text or image description in the post.

Again, it's nothing personal. I had to go through this myself: learn when to use CW, get used to writing alt-text. I am still not perfect in this, nobody is.

But we need to get a bit better.

Just to be clear, CWs and alt-text *are* extra work. And we all run out of spoons sometimes. That's okay. Don't feel bad if you genuinely cannot find the energy for them.

Also, different people will have different expectations what should and should not be CW'd. That's also okay, as long as it's a conscious choice.

What's not okay is deciding you just can't be bothered with any of this.

Fedi is a communal garden, we're all gardeners. Let's keep it cozy and blooming.