mastodon - Link to source
Every time a newcomer posts an introduction and somebody tells them they shouldn’t have joined Mastodon.social and need to move to a different server, an angel loses their wings.
in reply to Ciara

mastodon - Link to source

Ciara

Ditto:

'Why are you still on Bluesky too?'

'But did you *delete* your Twitter account?'

’You said you switched to Proton mail too, oh that’s bad, once someone at Proton said something’

It’s nice to see new neighbours move into the Fediverse. It feels unwelcoming to see people immediately interview them about the purity of their intentions. Or telling them You’re Doing It Wrong. They've just arrived on a journey away from Big Tech. Maybe they'd prefer to be offered a seat and a cup of tea.

in reply to twigs

mastodon - Link to source

Bleistifterin

@Primavera @rgarner lol!

Once upon a time I used to work in a very fancy German delicatessen. They served loose tea and included a pretty little timer on the tray.

My English/British friends laughed an explained that you could easily tell if the steep was long enough by the stain on the cup ...

Same with my Japanese friends: they have vending machines selling cans if hot blackt tea with milk and sugar ("Royal milk tea") at every corner.
Tea culture my a...

@twigs @Russell Garner
in reply to Ciara

mastodon - Link to source

BeeCycling

That "someone at Proton once said something" sums up so much. There is no winning with some people. We know everything is problematic if you look hard enough. Short of going off grid and living in a cabin in the woods, we've all got to work out our own compromises until things improve.

And some people keep their Twitter accounts so nobody else can use the name and potentially impersonate them. I see no problem in that. I deleted mine, but I see why some people don't.

in reply to BeeCycling

mastodon - Link to source

Ciara

@beecycling Agreed. I wince every time I see someone attempt a purity test or a Gotcha! on someone who has chosen The Wrong Open-Source Solution for some extremely niche problematic reason that the complainer has worked hard to find in the weeds.

Good point about reasons for not deleting previous accounts. And some don't delete them because they've lost easy access, maybe it was created with a long-gone mail address, so it's easier to just leave it there, unused and defunct.

@BeeCycling
in reply to Ciara

mastodon - Link to source

Stooryduster

Ha. The instance I first landed on, on arriving in the Fediverse, was so inclusive yet protective of its users it was a severe culture shock and left me reeling. I was left to find my feet and when I moved to less protective environments more to my taste I had the fullest Fediverse etiquette training you could get. I’m not naming them cos there’s lots of vulnerable people there that prefer to feel safe.
in reply to Ciara

mastodon - Link to source

Mikill

I left my first instance and considered leaving Mastodon behind entirely because I eventually grew tired of frequent admonitions from moderators about how to avoid offending perceived vulnerable minorities. It often felt like they would actually prefer you to wrap every post in a content warning, no matter how innocuous the subject.

Of course, you shouldn’t be a jerk. But I also don’t want to feel like I have to weigh every word with extreme care just because it might offend someone.

in reply to Ciara

glitchsoc - Link to source

André Polykanine

To be honest, this harassing culture is far beyond that. "Stop using this", "stop using that", "you're a fascist/nazi if you use this" — absolute awfulness. Like, "Go Linux now!!" — "I can't, even if I wanted, I'm blind and Linux accessibility is mediocre" — "Okay, first go Linux, and then we'll probably make it accessible some time in the future" — "It's not a question of comfort, I can't work, it's like taking the monitor and the mouse from you" — "Ah, stop it, you just don't want open-source and you're a GAFAM-paid fascist".
And on and on it goes.
To be honest, I'm here mostly because lots of people from the accessibility community came here (and this is because Twitter prohibited third-party clients by closing their API).
in reply to Ciara

hometown - Link to source

Human 3500

And some people need their twitter account. I need twitter to contact my ISP via DM. Without twitter, I would need to use the phone and I'm not doing that if I can avoid it.

Plus, I have deleted all my posts, likes, etc. and changed my profile to encourage everyone to leave. I just sit there as a dead account. Maybe they count those as active, but at this point, anyone advertizing over there is doing it because they are nazi adjacent and don't really care about normal things.

in reply to John

mastodon - Link to source

Annika Backstrom

@johnlorimer It's impossible to effectively moderate such a huge server, so you have this catch-22 where the server is a vector for spam and harassment, but can be seen as "too big to block" because such a large percentage of the network lives there.

Overall it's bad for the health of the Fediverse, so some block it regardless and advocate for folks moving off and the server closing registrations.

@John
This entry was edited (1 day ago)
in reply to Annika Backstrom

mastodon - Link to source

Ciara

I'll never find it welcoming to tell people who've just arrived, literally just joined Mastodon, that they're on the wrong server when it is not a server doing something actually despicable & egregious. I often see people going into the replies of Hello, Mastodon! introductions to give the newcomer unsolicited instructions to move server or questioning the way they are moving from Big Tech.

Edit to add: I know you didn't do this! You just answered an asked question (thanks)

This entry was edited (1 day ago)
in reply to Rachel E. S. Lösche

mastodon - Link to source

Ciara

@resl Ah, it was. Thank you. I found it.

'AI is the asbestos in the walls of our technological society, stuffed there with wild abandon by a finance sector and tech monopolists run amok. We will be excavating it for a generation or more."

@johnlorimer @annika

theguardian.com/us-news/ng-int…

AI companies will fail. We can salvage something from the wreckage | Cory Doctorow

AI is asbestos in the walls of our tech society, stuffed there by monopolists run amok. A serious fight against it must strike at its roots
Cory Doctorow (the Guardian)
@Annika Backstrom @Rachel E. S. Lösche @John
in reply to John

mastodon - Link to source

Mycotropic

@johnlorimer @annika

After Something Awful died I undocked from social, I was already kicked off of FB for pointing out so much toxicity (but also using it to track those Malhaur assholes which was awesome). That banning also took Insta of course and then pre musk Twitter banned me for trolling conservatives during trump1. I'm even banned from Reddit because, before they sold all of their users content to train LLMs, I used a cool little script to replace everything I'd posted over like five years with identical, pointless text! They didn't appreciate the gesture apparently :pumpkin_flushed:

At some point after that I tried masto and stayed here. It has none of the toxicity (well kind of none, looking at you Babka) and at least some of the old SA community feel.

I'd invite pretty much any of you out for coffee, beer or to shoot arrows at targets, that's not true for those other sites.

@Annika Backstrom @John
in reply to John

mastodon - Link to source

Ian Malcolm

@johnlorimer

Gen X Australian here, this thread and your post in particular resonated with me.

Arrived in Jan 2023 and encountered the "You're On The Big Bad Server" anti-welcome committee.

I get the arguments but it seemed to me there are better ways of mitigating than *checks notes* insulting new arrivals for choosing the default server.

It was enough to drive most fellow refugees to Bsky, but I dug my heels in instead. 🤷‍♂️

PS Am on Bsky too, but mostly here.

@CiaraNi @annika

@Annika Backstrom @Ciara @John
in reply to Ciara

mastodon - Link to source

Dusk to Don

@imalcolm @johnlorimer @annika

Fully agree that we should celebrate folk for trying out Mastodon, and avoid shaming or complicating things re: "oh no you picked bad instance"

I also agree with the many issues and problems with mastodon . social

I try to do a little "actually-welcoming committee" by having # introduction + # newhere as part of my 'advanced interface / deck / homepage', that does not include instance judgement.

todon.eu/@dusk/114699673477597…

Dusk to Don :raccoon: (@dusk@todon.eu)

Attached: 2 images Hey Fedi! We ARE the algorithm. But that also means it can take a little extra work to get the feed that works for you.
Dusk to Don :raccoon: (Todon.eu)
@Annika Backstrom @Ian Malcolm @John
in reply to Annika Backstrom

mastodon - Link to source

Dr. Unabart

@annika @johnlorimer End user should be moderating what they see. They shouldn’t have anyone telli g them what they can or can’t look at. Defats the entire purpose. Looks like spam? Block it. Racist motherfucker? Block it. It’s not hard… the tools are right there. Fuck the nanny shit. Let people do what they want, ignore those you don’t like. To enforce your will is tyranny, to accept is slavery.
@Annika Backstrom @John
in reply to John

mastodon - Link to source

contrasocial

@johnlorimer
Alternative supplementary explanation; certain instance owners don't like that there's such a large instance that doesn't enforce their particular sensibilities and preferences when it comes to what people can talk about.

It's problematic for those admins/mods because mastodon.social has so many users that blocking it is more like punishing yourself, rather than punishing all the people on mastodon.social. It's a power thing as much as it is about spam (which does exist)

@John
in reply to John

mastodon - Link to source

Ben S.

@johnlorimer for me the big issue is that it creates confusion - lots of people don't understand that the instance and the platform are even two different things.

Having somewhere between 25 and 50 percent of the entire platform's active users on only one instance really runs counter to the idea of federation, and gives a lot of people a highly skewed impression of what the platform as a whole is like.

@John
in reply to Ciara

mastodon - Link to source

BeeCycling

It's so annoying. Give people time to figure stuff out. I joined on the general UK server, and I'd have been quite annoyed to be immediately told I was Wrong™. After a few days of figuring stuff out I moved to a different, smaller, one - which was good training wheels for my recent move to my current one, with a much more mature account. Sweaty palms moment.
in reply to Ciara

mastodon - Link to source

Brett Edmond Carlock

Ah yes, when I finally joined Mastodon.Online after nuking my Twitter and much deliberation (and no knowledge of Fedi) chose it because it was a large instance (find lots of folks fast!), had a good policy/values statement, was run by the org, and seemed most likely to stick around and have dedicated resources for maintnenace and moderation.

Got my share of ugh, why that server did you know X thing about it, etc.

Why no, I didn't, I just fucking got here and know nothing of the inside

in reply to Brett Edmond Carlock

mastodon - Link to source

Ciara

@Brett_E_Carlock Sorry you got such an unwelcoming welcome. I think a lot of people choose the bigger 'official' servers for exactly the reasons you describe. That's their free choice, they can move later if they want to, no need to badger them on arrival.

The 'why that server, did you know X thing about it' questions often seem to be in the weeds. They're usually about fairness things like the ethics of big servers in a federation, not crisis things like 'there are fascists on it'.

@Brett Edmond Carlock
in reply to Ciara

mastodon - Link to source

Brett Edmond Carlock

Yeah, I appreciated the Mastodon onboarding page for allowing me to filter servers by code of conduct, region, etc.

It did miss, as you noted, a lot of the internal fedi cultural notes that, yes, are important, but people simply can not be aware of beforehand as they are not a part of the community.

To be fair to folks, larger instances can trend under-moderated, so all the isms do happen on/from these instances as well.

The Bad Space project from are0h would be excellent to know b4

in reply to Ciara

mastodon - Link to source

franco_vazza

Indeed, that's unbearable and I see it all the time.
this might also in part explain why mastodon felt and still feels complex, elitarian and not so fun to many people, when they had to decide where to go after "the diaspora".

(also no the best to assault people explaining how they should make their post, why they are using # and alt-text and content warning wrong, etc... 🙄 )

reshared this

in reply to franco_vazza

mastodon - Link to source

Ciara

@franco_vazza Agreed. It does seem a bit elitarian, like people gatekeeping. And agreed, very much agreed, about people badgering others about alt text and content warnings and the like. Newcomers tend to pick up the idea of using Alt Text naturally after a short while, in my experience, because many people 'lead by example', not because they harangue one another about it.
@franco_vazza
in reply to franco_vazza

mastodon - Link to source

millennial fulcrum

well you can and should post what you want. it's not as though there isn't a surplus of militant well meaning alt text zealots eagerly waiting for new things to angrily describe to a broader audience. we can all support each other where we are at, this does not need to be a place where policing is prioritised over self-expression
This entry was edited (1 day ago)
in reply to Ciara

mastodon - Link to source

Le Notaire

I'm glad to read that. While I've not introduced myself yet (this might count as such), I am joining the fediverse not by running away from other alternatives but as first experience overall. As it's patently obvious, I'm on the "default" server for two reasons: learn how all this works and to avoid encapsulating in a community where I might not feel well around. Mind you, I have diverse interests and some servers seem to frown upon joining if you not share, as its main, theirs
This entry was edited (1 day ago)
in reply to Le Notaire

mastodon - Link to source

Le Notaire

I can understand why a tight-knitted community server would not like to have newcomers who do not share their philosophy, however I am still figuring things and not sure which of my interests I'll share or develop here, and entering a given server but being more prolific on another topic, by reading some of their rules, will be disliked, and I don't want that. That's why I am in a "everything but no main topic" server. Given time, I might move on, but hell, I'm only a week old here!
in reply to Ciara

mastodon - Link to source

Corb_The_Lesser

I signed up on mastodon.social because it seemed the obvious choice, and because the explanations of servers and "instances" were invariably written from an unhelpful technical point of view with no explanation of why any of that had any impact on me, and because I could find no information about the support capabilities and average lifetimes of individual Mastodon servers.
in reply to Ciara

mastodon - Link to source

Markie 🤸

(I'm having matcha 🍵) I understand smaller instances need to prevent bots etc and minority communities especially need some screening before registration. But when I made my general purpose account, I didn't want to write a little essay about myself and be vetted on whether I can exist there. So the social it goes. especially when I don't even introduce myself to people in real life lol. I now just have multiple accounts on multiple instances for different stuff.
in reply to Ciara

mastodon - Link to source

Kotking

I joined mastodon.social after Reddit decided that only their mobile app should be viable and alternatives must die. Afterwards explored Fediverse and made few other fedi accounts on different places (I like Misskey a lot but it's a hog for resources so Mastodon better for my phone while Misskey for fan art searching and boosting).
Later on saw discussion about how open registration services have provided good breeding ground for harassment and some were vile, sure they only gone for big people (aka who have big following) but that didn't sit with me right. So later decided to move to blorbo. I didn't know what blorbo means then (and still fuzzy) but I knew a good person from there so decided to move my account from mastodon.social . It was less painful than I expected while losing post history felt bad but think it was worth it overall. The good or bad is the loss of endless scrolling of (Trending) tab, mastodon.social you can scroll and scroll and scroll but it's not a thing on blorbo.social.

I kinda agree with both sides about move and not move. It's easier to move while you don't have big post history and didn't get comfy, but finding good new place is really hard. Recommending someone else perfect fedi instance also a hard task. Having so many options means there also many different attitudes that they might've loved one option but they gone to mastodon.social and treat it as everywhere is the same.

So I mostly try to point out options without telling what you have to do, sometimes expanding someone horizon is enough but getting buried with terminology is also a thing. Honestly people should have several accounts and then stick with what they like, having spare account on big instance means less headache if your small instance closed up suddenly.

in reply to Ciara

mastodon - Link to source

Dr. Unabart

@BenGleason The people who do this should go start their own phpbb walled garden community of excellence, where they can go fuck off, away from the rest of us who don’t give a dimpled shit which instance you use.

The Mastodon HOA, who patrols looking for missing hashtags, alt-text and non-trunctaed YT links, can go fuck themselves in the face. Go back to moderating Reddit, blowhards.

So, there!

@Ben Gleason
in reply to Ciara

mastodon - Link to source

Common Sparrow

I am not a tech savvy person at all. Came to computers late in life, don't know how they work under the hood. I didn't come here from some other social media because I didn't use social media then. Heard about Mastodon in a news article, and was curious.

Since you don't have to sign up first in order to explore, I just lurked and explored for a few months, cautiously, since I'd heard bad things about social media in general. But I liked what I found, and finally decided to sign up.

I had jumped around exploring without ever noticing there are different servers. So when I decided to click on "sign-up", it just signed me onto whatever server I happened to be reading a post on at the moment. So sheer chance. But I'm happy enough with where I ended up.

in reply to Ciara

mastodon - Link to source

B's wild, wild world 🌱🐛🎼

Sensitive content

@stux⚡️
This entry was edited (1 day ago)
in reply to delve, antifa supersoldier

glitchsoc - Link to source

cwicseolfor

@delve If someone explains compassionately and entirely without prescription or judgement the rationale for why another person might want to do so that may be helpful (I think I’d have appreciated it too had I started there), though for some people just signing up in the first place maxed out their energy and they’ll bounce off and be slow to return.

There seems to be a subculture that’s a lot more performatively judgmental, akin to being snooty about someone’s “poor taste” choosing a low rent neighborhood on moving from abroad, a sense of “if you don’t already know everything about us AND share our opinions about how to do it right we don’t need or want you here.”

@delve, antifa supersoldier
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