Scott Jenson3d ago

Is #mastodon becoming an echo chamber? This post from @carnage4life has me questioning our community. The Mastodon team is finally getting some traction, the product improvements are increasing, The #UX is improving, yet people posting on multiple platforms are making comments like this. It's confusing.

I *know* people here don't want this to be a classic social media-clone but we'd *like* journalists to be here right? They aren't coming with examples like this!

Show threadScott Jenson3d ago

As this conversation is spiraling a bit I want to make a few things clear:
1. I'd like Mastodon to be MORE inclusive and bring in more voices
2. Some people don't seem to want that
3. This is core problem to solve: How do we let more in, but not "pollute" your feed?
4. The solution is NOT "gatekeeping", revelling in the fact that AI journalists aren't welcome
5. This is the same reason we lost "Black Twitter" when it came over in 2022

Yes, a lot of you don't want AI posts in your feed (or pick any other topic) but the solution isn't to keep "AI People" from joining Mastodon, any more than it is keeping marginalized communities off of Mastodon.

Show threadEugen Rochko3d ago
@scottjenson I’m not interested in following any “AI people”. That doesn’t make it an echo chamber. We don’t need equal amounts of people who love puppies and want to kill puppies, not everything needs to be equally represented.
Show threadScott Jenson3d ago

@Gargron That is a personal choice and one which I totally respect. But I do think Mastodon should be big enough, and open enough, to allow an "AI community" to form, even thrive.

Too many people in my replies don't seem to agree with that.

Show threadDemian3d ago
@scottjenson @Gargron “AI people” are not a protected class. It seems much more important that we focus on being a welcoming and inclusive platform for protected classes, particularly actual marginalized communities.
Show threadTzimisce Flesh2d ago
@dgodon @scottjenson @Gargron I would suggest against using "protected class" in general community discussion. I understand you mean it as a shorthand for various marginalised communities, but "protected class" is a legal term and makes your concerns sound more legalistic and dry than they should.
Show threadAdriano2d ago

@flesh @dgodon @Gargron @scottjenson

I think the time spent suggesting this would have been spent better by suggesting Scott not say "This is the same reason we lost "Black Twitter" when it came over in 2022" because it's absolutely not.

Show threadTzimisce Flesh2d ago
@adriano @dgodon @Gargron @scottjenson I'm sure there are enough people willing to tell Scott just how wrong he is.
Show threadScott Jenson

@flesh @dgodon @Gargron @adriano

uh, yeah, slightly more than one ;-) For what it's worth, I've apologized for the inappropriate comparison.

Apr 6 at 3:15pmWeb
Show threadDemian1d ago
@scottjenson
While I took issue with some of what you said or perhaps just the way you said it, I didn’t mean to attack you if it came across that way at all. I really appreciate your presence here especially as it relates to improving Mastodon!
@flesh @Gargron @adriano
Show threadScott Jenson1d ago

@dgodon
Thank you! I agree with you that how I communicated that could have been better. But I do think a lot of good discussions came from that exchange.

Of course I did get death threats so there is that....