dogtraxI remember sitting on the floor, as my older brother took trumpet lessons and my dad sat, waiting, drumming out beats on his knees. When the lesson was done, the trumpet teacher and his wife, an elementary music teacher, came up to me, age 7, and asked, what instrument will you play when you are old enough? I didn't even hesitate: the saxophone. And so it was, with the trumpet teacher's wife - Mrs. Pontecorvo -- my first favorite teacher, the one who taught me how to make music. #smallstories
Tellio@dogtrax a music origin story, cool, now intermediated, intercogitated, and interpolated: https://youtu.be/gBWPjP_7K3c #smallstories @katebowles @Algot @Nomadwarmachine @sensor63 @taniasheko
Tania Sheko@taniasheko @tellio If you write one, we'll honor your writing, too. No pressure, tho. Just reciprocal thinking
@taniasheko @tellio I'd be lying if I said I knew all the rules (if there are any), other than to try to use the hashtag #smallstories I've been doing small slices of life.
Kate@dogtrax @tellio @taniasheko Here's the credited version of my thoughts on your thoughts. Interestingly I now can't remember why I gave it this title. But I'm thinking about hearing stories. So here it is. #smallstories https://mastodon.social/media/lcz5ZBjx7MpDATDvAfE
@katebowles @taniasheko @tellio Intriguing title. Is this due to the act of listening? (listening without sounds of the voice of the writer as auditory element?). I like the title and appreciate the craft of your piece.
@dogtrax @tellio @taniasheko I made one for @lauraritchie but I'm cautious about file size of all these videos. I wonder about a #smallstories remix repository. I know several here have been thinking about storycare. Me, I'm just loving this slow craft, like beading. @Tdorey @econproph @ShorterPearson
@katebowles @ShorterPearson @econproph @Tdorey @lauraritchie @taniasheko @dogtrax Perhaps the simplest repository would be a YouTube playlist? Yeah, I know, sucks, but perhaps one of several digital spaces, redundancy and all.
Tanya **moved**@tellio @dogtrax @taniasheko @lauraritchie @econproph @ShorterPearson @katebowles . Starting a YouTube channel for now so as to not lose everything might be a great start.
Working on ideas for a space for these pieces which might involve uploading to YouTube and then embedding in Wordpress. I *think* we'd be able to feed in stories written here as well. Might also serve as a "way in" to Mastodon for interested folks.
@Tdorey @katebowles @ShorterPearson @econproph @lauraritchie @taniasheko @tellio ok. I did not host a few in my YouTube because I worried about who really owns the story. Hmmm. I shared them here as native video files because it felt more intimate, small.
@dogtrax @tellio @taniasheko @lauraritchie @econproph @ShorterPearson @katebowles
Great things to consider.
I don't love the YouTube option, but also don't currently have another suggestion for larger video files.
@Tdorey @katebowles @ShorterPearson @econproph @lauraritchie @taniasheko @dogtrax Did you see the Zotero Group option: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1430691/smallstories/items Here is the RSS feed as well: https://api.zotero.org/groups/1430691/items/top?start=0&limit=25&format=atom&v=1 Just to add---I love the freedom of 500 characters. I know it is a bit arbitrary, but...spread yer wings little mastotoot.
@tellio @dogtrax @taniasheko @lauraritchie @econproph @ShorterPearson @Tdorey This came my way on Twitter. http://www.theperennialplate.com/episodes/2017/06/episode-171-the-women-of-achill-island/
It's beautiful in itself, but also had me thinking about simple Wordpress options for storycare. Here is their rationale. (I'm sidling around the FB aspect for now.)
http://www.theperennialplate.com/episodes/2017/03/kickstarter-resistance-through-storytelling/ #smallstories
It's beautiful in itself, but also had me thinking about simple Wordpress options for storycare. Here is their rationale. (I'm sidling around the FB aspect for now.)
http://www.theperennialplate.com/episodes/2017/03/kickstarter-resistance-through-storytelling/ #smallstories
@Tdorey @ShorterPearson @econproph @lauraritchie @taniasheko @dogtrax @tellio For me this gets close to something about this galvanising year, this sense that politics, industry, environment, capital are all breaking in their capacity to provide sustaining care. So we are starting quite surreptitiously to care for each other.
Mastodon appeared at this juncture. I don't think that's coincidence. It's a bit like the emergence of crowdfunding at a time when social care is collapsing.
@katebowles @tellio @taniasheko @lauraritchie @econproph @ShorterPearson @Tdorey "caring for each other" -- yes, and caring about each other, too. The trend of "get big" (ie, MOOCS, etc) seems to finally be reversing (get smaller, know the people you are interacting with, share stories). Can Mastodon serve this need? That's still a question
@dogtrax @Tdorey @ShorterPearson @econproph @lauraritchie @taniasheko @katebowles We can try to make it work, but that is often inelegant at best inside that particular 'machine'(Twitter, G+, FB, WordPress). I am hearing you ask whether Mastodon is one of those tools or one different in kind, one with a more humane structure that values the commons it creates? (BTW, you know you have arrived with Mastodon when you know longer misspell it. Never sure if I spelled misspell right ;)
@tellio @katebowles @taniasheko @lauraritchie @econproph @ShorterPearson @Tdorey So much returns to the art of curation (no matter the platforms of convenience or moment), and how best to add layers of context and reflection to what we curate. OK. I need to check out Zotero now? Another platform jump ...
@dogtrax @Tdorey @ShorterPearson @econproph @lauraritchie @taniasheko @tellio The question of whether mastodon can genuinely be different is interesting. To me, it does genuinely seem to be. Its smallness makes it fragile: it takes very small scale absence for it to falter, whereas we don't affect Twitter at all by not being there.
I am so appreciative of Laura who has often stated here and called us gently back. That's what makes it different for me: care for community.
I am so appreciative of Laura who has often stated here and called us gently back. That's what makes it different for me: care for community.
@tellio @taniasheko @lauraritchie @econproph @ShorterPearson @Tdorey @dogtrax This is also something @clhendricksbc does. She forages and finds people. I love watching this skill at work.
Christina Hendricks@tellio @taniasheko @lauraritchie @econproph @ShorterPearson @Tdorey @dogtrax @katebowles It was easier when Mastodon was smaller to find people. I would read the federated timeline and find interesting people and follow them. Now I only manage new ones through what those I follow boost from others. Big timeline too big! But I love that I have a diverse group of connections here.
@clhendricksbc I think this is when the cell divides and you create a new instance.
@tellio One can do that, but then you focus on the voices of a select few in your instance. I'm part of a small instance called scholar.social (about education), and it's nice in many ways but few voices. They're all connected to fediverse so you hear more there, but then that's huge.
Then again, all instances, even this one when it was small, are limited to a select few. Impossible problem. Want more voices so more diversity, but then too "loud" to hear.
@clhendricksbc And if waht you want is a little tribe maybe a proprietary tool like Slackm is best. Or minds.com
@tellio I'm not looking for proprietary tribe, but rather finding new people I couldn't find in a small bubble like I have on Slack or a small instance here. And the federated timeline here was great for that in the past because it was something you could scroll through and find people to follow you never would have met anywhere else. Loved that and made some new friends here. But now that timeline is so big it's harder to scroll through with that purpose.
@clhendricksbc I sympathize. I made new friends here in much the same way. Hasn't our instance instantiator (uggh, sorry, can't remember name) closed new membership to this instance in April? Not saying that is the answer. I have read some arguments that tribal doesn't scale, that smallest federated experiments collapse as they reach some critical mass of the folk. Maybe your observation is indicative of this collapse? Good conversation might be abt how to prevent? @Algot
Algot (Still)I am connecting from a different server. Unless it dies, I can reach you at .social even though it is now "closed" (partially to keep it from being "the" instance).
I'm feeling no loss of connection or prestige by being on the .cloud server.
@Algot @tellio Yeah, one of the things I like about Mastodon is that it can be pretty invisible who is on what instance. It doesn't really matter b/c we can all talk together. You just can notice if you look at the address next to someone's name, but sometimes names are so long you can't even see that. To me it makes no difference at all which instance one is from (unless it's an instance that has history of abuse & so is blocked...& then I wouldn't see it anyway!).
@tellio @Algot The person running the instance is Gargron, though I can't remember his real name! And yes, he closed new signups awhile back and I think that was because it just starts to get too unwieldy from a server angle. Need to keep it stable and running well. And plus, the idea was never to create a single instance but to encourage federation of multiple instances.
Bᴬᴿᴼᴺ Vᴼᴺ WᵁᴺᴰᴵᴮᴬᴿMastodon.social is open to sign ups again, I'm pretty sure, and has been for a while. After the initial closing, infrastructure was upgraded to allow for more accounts.
Gargron has since started a service to maintain other instances too as a way to help fund his ops and commitment. (Give to your server admins.)
There's a .social bot you can follow that toots account stats every hour. The number steadily climbs.
I moved away from .social as my main account recently when the flood of Persian/Arabic accounts arrived. On top of all the other langs I can't read (except FR), it was just too much visual noise in local, no different from federated, and the lang filters didn't (still don't?) work.
I think the best model of use is to have at least 2 accounts, 1 on a big instance, and 1 on a small.
Use the small as main account for focused inner-circle exchange.
Use the big to cherry pick interesting people, making sure to follow them from the smaller account.
This is also good if your small instance has a theme, because for everyone you follow, others on your instance will see their instances in federal.
Interesting way to think about it! Right now my small instance (scholar.social) is a little too small for the local timeline to be much use. what I don't understand is that on the federated timeline there it's much smaller than on mastodon.social, even though it federates with mastodon.social. I thought it would pick up *all* toots on mastodon.social on the federated timeline there.
@clhendricksbc @wion I think it's the people followed by people on your instance. It's not the whole fediverse, but a networked selection. I think. #makingitup
Yes, that must be more accurate, what you see in fediverse are remote accounts connected to who you follow.
That's even better for smaller theme instances, IMO, because, if you're only following people of like interest — and assuming they are too — then your timelines will be more focused overall.
It just takes one popular maverick to dilute the pool, however.
@clhendricksbc
@katebowles @wion That would fit what I'm seeing over there. Just when I thought I understood federation, I realize how much I don't understand. Pretty much true of most things in my life, actually!
@tellio @Algot What's interesting about Mastodon as a small federated experiment is that it can still be small to some extent. You have different levels: the home timeline of those you follow, then the local instance timeline, then the timeline of all instances yours connects to. The latter is too big for mastodon.social, but the local instance is still somewhat manageable. Still, even that, for finding new people, is a bit hard b/c both too big and too limited! :)