While many people have commented on how much better it is here on Mastodon than it is on the birdsite, you should be aware that minorities (LGBTQ+, BIPOC, Jews) have been the targets of abuse here.

Also, trolls have started to set up instances to attack scientists, for example: https://fediscience.org/@ct_bergstrom/109371920177171488.

Let's not kid ourselves; we are in a (relative) honeymoon period before the assholes show up. Yes, we have tools to deal with them (muting, blocking, even defederation), but we need to do more.

I'm blind and I've never uploaded photos here before, so hopefully I've done it right. If I have, this is my contribution to #caturday, with bonus #BlackCat content. The gray and white cat is Bandit and the black cat is Morpheus.

Bandit isn't usually very interested in toys, but he had a rare playful moment and thankfully someone was there to capture it. #cats #CatsOfMastodon

I have a request.

Bad actors will soon figure out - if they haven't already - that setting up impersonations of important organizations now will allow them to set off an explosion of chaos and confusion at a time of their choosing.

So if you run an account for an organization (especially #LGBTQ), please set up link verification between your Mastodon account profile and your organization's website.

If not, please boost.

Instructions are here under "Link Verification":
https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/profile/