Jürgen HubertOct 3, 2023

I've seen a lot of voices saying that " #Mastodon does not need to grow to be successful", and "we don't need to put in more effort to welcome new users", and frankly this attitude is pissing me off.

"The reason that social media did not work as promised is not because we misunderstood the nature of the internet and the possibilities of digital connectivity, but because oligarchs took over the digital space."

If there is any chance of using social media as a force for democracy, we desperately need a system that _cannot_ be taken over by the oligarchs. And, right now, the #Fediverse is the best candidate for this.

Thus, there is homework that needs to be done. We cannot just rest on our laurels and proclaim that the tech is already good enough, and that the #Fediverse tech approach somehow magically solves all the problems of other social media platforms. We need to get away from the overwhelmingly white male European/North American user base and look for ways on how to increase #BIPOC user participation - not to mention participation of users from Asia, Africa, and South America.

If we try to maintain the Fediverse as the home of a small, incestuous group of people with a particular tech slant, the oligarchs will win.

https://www.vox.com/world-politics/23896050/protest-decade-2010-revolutionary-handbook-vincent-bevins-arab-spring-brazil-occupy-hong-kong

The 2010s was a decade of protests. Why did so many revolutions fail?

Journalist Vincent Bevins grapples with grassroots movements from Egypt to Brazil to Hong Kong.

Vox
Show threadNate GaylinnOct 3, 2023

@juergen_hubert Why do you assume that we need one, unified social media space for the whole world? We have never had that. Twitter pretended to be that, and caused at least as much harm as good in the effort. Are we sure we want to try again?

Maybe what we need is many smaller, more intimate communities of people who actually care about one another? Maybe authentic connection means more than volume? When people say Mastodon doesn't have to be big to be successful, that's what they mean.

Show threadJürgen HubertOct 3, 2023

@ngaylinn Oh, I'd be quite happy with multiple large social media spaces - as long as they are not run by oligarchs.

But, right now, the #Fediverse is the biggest non-oligarch-run social media alternative, with #Mastodon as its biggest application. Thus, I am in favor of pushing these as much as possible.

Show threadNate GaylinnOct 3, 2023

@juergen_hubert I just don't believe that bigger is better. Or that Mastodon should "win" at social media.

I get wanting to further reduce the influence of oligarchs on public discourse, but I wouldn't assume that Mastodon is the solution. It wasn't meant to be "the new Twitter," and many long time users are worried about what will happen if others try to make it that.

It's a bit like a bunch of folks from the big city relocating to a farming commune in the country and declaring "this would be a great place for the next metropolis." It was meant to be a refuge from all that, where things work differently.

Show threadVulcanTourist [MOVED]Oct 3, 2023

@ngaylinn @juergen_hubert

It's not likely that the Fediverse could even be bent into something resembling Twitter. It's fundamentally a different species from the network protocol on up. If it scaled to meet the needs of every human, it would have so many "owners" that we couldn't mentally visualize them all.

Show threadJürgen HubertOct 3, 2023

@VulcanTourist @ngaylinn

There are other examples of large social media networks. Twitter was never the biggest one - just more influential than most.

The Fediverse should very much be its own thing - but it needs a much bigger user base, _especially_ of people from backgrounds that are underrepresented here.

Show threadBodhipaksa

@juergen_hubert @VulcanTourist @ngaylinn I completely agree that the user base is too small. I'd argue that those who don't want this place to grow are coming from a place of privilege. What's it like to be the speaker of a minority language and not be able to use it here? Or not to be able to find solidarity here with others from the same ethnic minority?

With the current user-base, this place will remain comfortable for white English speakers, but isolating for many others.

Oct 3, 2023 at 4:53pmWeb
Show threadNate GaylinnOct 3, 2023

@bodhipaksa @juergen_hubert @VulcanTourist I see the point you make about needing a larger community to include everybody, but that's just one way to think about DEI. It's kind of a "gotta catch 'em all" model, where success means including enough examples from every category.

What if we flipped that around, though? I think we want for every person to have some place where they belong and can get exposed to many perspectives different from their own. If we take that definition of success, we don't need every kind of person in every community. We don't need very large communities, either.

Not that there's one right definition of diversity or inclusion. Multiple perspectives are valid.

Show threadVulcanTourist [MOVED]Oct 4, 2023

@ngaylinn @bodhipaksa @juergen_hubert

The whole point of the current model is that anyone(s) with the nominal skills, resources, and motivation can create a Fediverse node of their own to serve an otherwise unaddressed need. That assumes that one doesn't already exist with sufficient overlap of purpose (and scale). Perhaps advertising the diversity of existing nodes and roles could be better addressed. I couldn't decide which one to join and made the easy choice.