@couldrynick way too long! Hope you’re well, my friend.

@couldrynick welcome Nick! Good to see you on here.

@eleutheros then again there is one, the norm of consent here in M. But what about power and economic costs to instance maintainers?

@eleutheros I see that. Then what? How do we frame community while recognizing preexisting power dynamics like whiteness? I think there needs to be a way to onboard us bird site expats to do justice for the marginalized and from ourselves while working to fight injustice here. As I think you mean, assimilation reifies preexisting Mastodon white culture. ‘Building community with’ risks our power inadvertently harming. But ‘leaving alone’ further redlines and enables siloing and whiteness.

@eleutheros I’m thinking specifically right now of data costs for instance maintainers. It seems that supporting small instances financially with marginalized communities (e.g., lgbtq or BIPOC) is better than for well funded institutions (or well meaning academics at institutions) to build our own instances? Questions of power also come into play. How do we foreclose the same bird site power dynamics we all just escaped? Perennial question, indeed.

@eleutheros really good things to think about. I’m afraid I’m still learning how the culture & infrastructure here affects these larger concerns. And yes, I see how colonialism frames this better— we come here and try to “do good” without the voices & knowledge of marginalized communities (instances). I suppose this reminds me that bringing resources to build with is better than building for.