I know you think I'm ruining this place for you. Let me offer some solutions that work better than telling me how, or about what topics, I should post (which works very poorly):
- Don't follow me
- Mute me
- Block me
These also work if you replace "me" with any other accounts you find irritating or uninteresting.
If these fail, you can always complain to my dean, who definitely wants to hear your thoughts about how faculty use social media.
That's George Mason University. Operators are standing by.
Another weird complaint I frequently get here (in addition to not using enough hashtags, failing to content warn about ordinary, innocuous comments, and posting insufficiently chromatic art) is that I have too many followers.
This is cited as evidence that I must be some kind of parasitic Mastodon billionaire, cavalierly flying around social media on my private Internet jet using up followers that needier users should have instead.
I’m serious. I don’t get it either.
@mattblaze I’ll have you know had to unfollow an unnatural number* of other, lesser accounts just to follow you! ;)
(Zero is, according to many sources, not one of the Natural Numbers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_number )
@mattblaze Man you get your fair(?) share of nonsense…
I'm sorry this stuff is happening to you.
Glad you're still not fed up with the bunch here, I really like what you share with us.
@mattblaze “Mastodon Billionaire” is pretty hilarious, actually.
If you’re the kind of person who thinks that followers = status, I can see insecure people trying to gain status by going after a high-status person. The practice is as old as primates.
@mattblaze I've been waiting to unleash my righteous indignation upon you!
- You don't post quite enough radars/radar sites. This is my personal interest, and I wish you'd do a better job catering to it 😤
- Your posts are too informative, beautiful (photos), and interesting, which causes me to pause my quick-scrolling through the feed and actually learn things at times. Very inconvenient, and quite presumptive of you to assume I want to see thought-provoking content.
@mattblaze Seriously, though, please keep on sharing the things that interest you. And your gorgeous photos.
Many of us really love seeing what you share and learning tidbits that we'd likely never see elsewhere ❤️
Hey, you told me to complain to Sam Houston Institute for Technology.
I guess you transferred, congrats!
@mattblaze I wonder if trolling the dean qualifies you as a faculty at George Mason University too.
If they won't start sending you paychecks, I'd ask at least for a joint appointment 😜
Edit: hello latecomers. This post is a total misunderstanding of what the problem actually was, entirely my bad and please disregard it.
@mattblaze Hashtags and the ability to subscribe to them are one of those social contract things. Yes, you can piss in the communal pool, there's no law against it but don't expect people to sympathise with you when someone points out you're spoiling it for everyone else.
@woe2you all good. I appreciate your apology.
For reasons I don’t really understand, I’m frequently lambasted and dog piled here for imaginary offenses like failing to include enough hashtags, failing to use content warnings on discussions of common and innocuous topics, or posting black and white photos (really).
I’m kind of fed up with this bullshit, as perhaps you can imagine.
@mattblaze Yup, I completely misread it and it's absolutely my bad. I don't understand those reasons either and I assumed your beef was with complaints that I had experienced myself. Mea culpa.
I've seen folks CW food, I don't do that (or oxygen). There's a middle ground to be found. Checking your profile, apparently you have a bunch of followers so you're likely exposed to more vitriol than I am. I can understand why you came out swinging when we completely missed each other's points.
we should consider that kind of tagging, when it's understood as very unlikely to be appreciated, as harassment. same as replying with "you're dumb etc". of course most of this will require a bit of a judgement call.
harassing replies are the main problem on decentralized social networks because most will never see the worst shit posted, like we don't see the Nazi websites that exist. there's no algos or ads and nobody we would follow links to it.
this is how we grow if we want to.
I appreciate your B&W photographs, especially your descriptions of how you took them.
@mattblaze @woe2you take downs for things that are not really relevant to anyone. Attempts to discredit your influence, possibly by demoralizing you. A social reaction when NTs think someone has more influence than they deserve.
Respectful advice, you should probably block more people. I block easily as many as I follow, overwhelmingly for disingenuous arguments or repeatedly misinterpreting me. Influencers and media people don't block because they need the follower count, so they just mute.
@mattblaze @woe2you 😆
Once I block people I don't even think of them again (I check their recent history and give them the benefit of the doubt before blocking).
I even try not to say anything snarky before hitting block, because they probably won't see it, and it is not a good look.
But after a block, they won't ever think of me again. To each other, it is like we no longer exist.
Most times a block on Mastodon is so effective I wish I could have that IRL.
@mattblaze I spent a while scrolling up and down your feed trying to work out what triggered this outburst, and I eventually realised the reason I couldn't see it was that I already had the offender muted and blocked.
I really need to get better at leaving those notes explaining to myself why :)
Keep up the good work.
I always tend to leave notes incl. links to the poasts to recheck & re-evaluate!
@bencurthoys
+1
I, too, appreciate the note feature so I understand why past me was irked enough to block. If I can’t bother with a note, then it’s a mute.
(@mattblaze )
@oscherler Because other people may have the same question or the answer may be applicable to them.
It's one of many ways I use this wrong.
Ways* @mattblaze uses Mastodon wrong:
-too few hashtags
-too many hashtags
-hashtags used poorly
-B&W photos (and not including a content warning that the photo is B&W)
-not including alt text
-describing said photos
-describing how said photos were made
-not staying in his lane about subjects that are absolutely in his lane
-boosting his replies
-boosting other people’s replies
-not adding content warnings for subjects for which his account regularly posts
-discussing subjects for which he is an expert, having written papers/given talks on those subjects, been invited to give evidence on those subjects, or teaches those subjects
-posting jokes
-posting about serious topics
-having any opinion at all
-including too much detail on a complex subject for which many readers need help understanding
-owning crypto.com
-selling crypto.com
-objectively and constructively criticising Mastodon
* not exhaustive 😮💨
@dezz for the record, I always try to include meaningful alt text with images. That actually helps people.
What I try not to do is pollute my posts with meaningless hashtags or promote warning fatigue by hiding innocuous discussion of current events behind unnecessary content warnings.
@woe2you @mattblaze as someone who regularly uses the hashtag subscription feature, I don’t feel that my experience is at all spoiled by someone not using hashtags.
Whose experience has been spoiled, exactly?
Matt Blaze
Steve Bellovin
Norman Wilson
Mark Whybird
Tobias
Alex Hoffmann
Michael Stanclift
Wendy Nather
Jack Linke 🦄
ftg
maco
j-r conlin
Marco Minutoli
John W. O'Brien
Dr. Cassone
Phil Wolff
woe2you
Wouter Hindriks
TotallyObvious 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🇺🇦🇵🇸
william.maggos
Bava
Abhijit Menon-Sen
Eric Evans
Urban Hermit
PandaChronicle Resists
MidgePhoto
Ben Curthoys
Kevin Karhan 
Raederle
Ölbaum
OnlyMe
Michael Wyman
Adam Shostack 
ben