vga256Feb 24

i have a weird idea that i'd like some input on from fellow canadians specifically about mastodon/the fediverse. boosts very much appreciated!

i grew up in the 80s and 90s canada. there were rules about the % and types of "canadian content" broadcasted on tv/radio.

partly because of that, and federal-provincial funding credits, i got to grew up with canadian-produced tv series like the Beachcombers, The Friendly Giant, Mr. Dressup, The Raccoons, North of 60, The Elephant Show, Degrassi Jr/Sr High. it's a big list, and i'm sure you remember a lot more. some of it was great. some of it sucked. but all of it was very weird and canadian.

there was nothing i was fiercely prouder of than being canadian, because it was all around me.

and the in the 2000s some of that changed. cancon weakened. american productions got a huge foothold here, and suddenly we became inundated with american pop tv and music. i watched teens/adults become infatuated with US pop lifestyle, mostly because - i think! - we just didn't produce anything worth watching or listening to. even cbc.ca is 50% american headlines now, and it's painful

here's where mastodon comes in. i'm seeing that process happen again on masto. canadians posting endlessly about american politics and pop culture. i just checked the live feed of the largest masto instance in canada, and it was 100% american news opinions.

what i don't see - and please correct me if i'm wrong - is a cancon-oriented masto instance or fedi presence. one that *specifically* is organized around boosting/organizing/frontpaging canadian stories with canadian people in them.

i want to talk about our utterly unwatchable modern canadian tv series. or just how lame cbc radio 1's pop culture interviews are. or how heartbroken i was to see the team canada women's team lose a nailbiter.

i love that the fediverse was built around internationalism, but i've watched two generations of kids grow up with weak ties to their local weirdo canuck culture. they deserve a place where canadian stuff is front-and-centre, even if it sucks and we know it. i want to know the local news in coal harbour and fort st john and churchill.

what would that look like on the fediverse? would it be a masto instance? or something else?

feel free to reply here, or just write something up and tag with #canadaverse

#canada #fedizen #canadaverse #yeg #alberta #bc #saskatchewan #manitoba #yukon #nunavut #quebec #novascotia #ontario #newbrunswick #newfoundland #nwt

Show threadGlen MalleyFeb 24
@vga256 Well, unfortunately the very public flame-out that the US is going through is dominating news and discussion pretty much everywhere. It sucks, but like most trainwrecks, people just can't look away.
That said, I dunno if you are talking about mstdn.ca specifically, but I definitely see plenty of Canadian content on it daily.
Was there something you wanted to see that isn't around? Maybe start the discussion.
Show threadvga256Feb 24

@glen_malley that's the current front page. imagine this being your first exposure to a masto instance signup, and this is what you see as being representative of a canadian instance

i'm not pointing any fingers, because the specific instance doesn't matter. this is a fediverse problem, not an instance problem.

Show threadGlen Malley
@vga256 I'm not really sure what you expect anyone to do about this. What people are talking about is what trends. You can't very well enforce that people can only talk about Canadian things on Canadian instances. You can't even programmatically define what constitutes "canadian" enough content.
Feb 24 at 5:44amWeb
Show threadvga256Feb 24
@glen_malley okay, well - thanks for your input!