"I’m on Mastodon, begrudgingly.... My harassers are also on Mastodon; some have multiple accounts. The blocking feature is like horror house anxiety game- I block when I see their new account, hoping I’ve now blocked all of them but knowing I probably never will. Because it’s a federated system, and you can have accounts on multiple servers, it means there’s multiple accounts I have to block to create some digital safety and distance."
-Caroline Sinders (🔗 next post)
HT @jdp23
Wait, just this? No other context? This is from 2022. No "how it started / how it's going"? Who is @carolinesinders? Or @sinders? I'm supposed to just know? I guess I'm not clued in enough to be a follower. 🫤
Ok, having milked what I could from the article before being prompted to log in, yes, whiteness is an issue. Yes, the luxury... wait...
Whiteness is a problem *everywhere*. Are we singling out Mastodon?
Oh, I get it. For not being the exception. (Not being sarcastic.)
Yeah, we always think we're the white knights. (Um... <embarrassed eye shifting gif at unintended pun (who needs 1,000 words?)>)
Maybe I should just go back to Twitter?
Huh. It sure seems to me like @inquiline's replies has the context, for example:
"I''m posting Sinders' quote today because I'm continuing to reflect on architecture here, not least due to experiences I continue to have with targeted harassment."
And for how it's going:
"I cannot in good faith recommend Mastodon to anyone who's likely to be targeted--and folks who use this place comfortably may want to think about this, as well"
And while harassment is certainly a major issue I also hear a lot of complaints from women about other cultural issues here. So it's worth thinking about your response and how it contributes to the climate here. Do you want Mastodon to have a reputation for being the kind of place where a woman posting about harassment gets a hostile reply from a guy who hasn't even bothered to read the thread?
If so, well done! But if that's not how you want people to see Mastodon ... consider a different approach.
it certainly might be a client issue, or just some of the weirdnesses of federation. In general before being snarky about lack of context, it's worth going off to check the thread on the original account's profile. That's all the more true when there's a race, gender, etc power imbalance!
Your account says you've been here since 2017. Is this really first time you've realized that you don't always see everything in a conversation without checking the original profile?
At any rate, the thread is there, you didn't read it, and you could have by making a few clicks. So let me rephrase my previous statement:
It's worth thinking about your responses and how they contribute to the climate here. Do you want Mastodon to have a reputation for being the kind of place where a woman posting about harassment gets a hostile reply from a guy who hasn't read the thread, and then when it's pointed out to him that his response was problematic doubles down on how it's not his fault rather than apologizing?
If so, well done! But if that's not how you want people to see Mastodon ... consider a different approach.
Ok. So, this is Masto in a nutshell.
Technical competence required, diligence required, if you don't, then you're just another example of white privilege and we don't want to talk to you, go away.
Honestly. I didn't get my Captain Midnight decoder ring.
Maybe on your well-connected instance this is obvious, and too bad for the people on less well-connected instances. They deserve what they get for... lack of diligence.
I can see the forces at play here, driving ppl apart.
tools for commensality 🧿
John Lusk
Jon