the minimum dosage

For Mastodon to not only supersede Twitter but to thrive in its own merit, it needs to not only listen to the vulnerable among us, but implement changes for a better Internet culture. The tools have been there, and so have been their highlighted shortcomings.

Now what will they make of it?

Background Radiation

I wrote that about two years ago. And how are things now? Well...

The racism still persists.

Suggested features to further community have been ignored.

Concerns are met with a "just fork it yourself if you don't like it."

Member safety is still an afterthought.

Onboarding isn't intuitive, explained, or convenient enough.

So when Twitter finally pissed off enough people for a more permanent mass exodus, they all flocked to BlueSky-- which is just Twitter with the future promise of ActivityPub integration. And has the same pitfalls, too, if the Singal situation is any indication. Some people (read: techbros) were flabbergasted at this development. I may have been angry at people for staying on BlueSky (and I still think I brought up a good point), but I still wasn't surprised, really.

Mastodon, frankly, has done Jack and Shit to earn new user trust since 2022. It is an elitist project so narrow in scope that it doesn't have room for improvements or user-friendly anything. It's a reputation justly earned, in my opinion.

I remembered why I left Mastodon for the first time (around 2016? 2017?): it was not welcoming. It was gross. It was so Overwhelmingly White, the biggest Black-owned instance received so much vitriol for just existing. I went back to Twitter because it was, at least, the poison my body grew used to. And all my peers were there, anyway. But it was still toxic to me. When Muskadoo bought and reshaped that platform in his own image, only then I considered giving the fediverse another go.

You can say I've been advocating for the IndieWeb every since. Or at least diversifying your platforms. But for the people I was nigh insufferable about, pestering to get on Mastodon, because we need off those fucking platforms[1], because we need better for ourselves, damn it...

sorry.

But I've since outgrown that because... it's hard to convince people when the new option is basically the Same Ol' Shit-- if not worse. The few that looked into Mastodon did not like what they saw, or shortly abandoned their accounts. It was true in 2017 and it is true now. I haven't stopped recommending it as an option, but with a lot of caveats, guidelines, and invites to Actually Decent Servers due to my experience on the platform. And I am a lot quieter about it. Because it still sucks.

But why am I still there?

Because I curated my Mastodon space. I made it mine. With work, I found an instance I was happy with (and seemed stable enough to not shut down to the whims of a tantrum-ing admin)-- their values and moderation concerns aligned with my own. This particular instance is also a fork of the official project, so we circumvent more of the troubling aspects. With this culture of stability ("echo chamber," ROFL) I was able to better connect with strangers on a genuine level, no matter how casual, and I've found myself among people determined to make online spaces accessible and safer for everyone.

I also block. A lot. The Block Game is strong.

And I remember more vividly when I came back. I logged into my .xyz account, and two familiar faces were still fighting the good fight. It showed me at at least somebody was giving a fuck, and I could learn how to be better.

So I stayed.

It took me years to get this content (enough).

Ideally, it shouldn't have to take that long.

they obviously care if they are even bringing it up. be more concerned when people are silent!

--something I've said, about something else

[1] I still stand by this, but it's not going to be easy. We may have to go as far as build what we want. Let's take it one step at a time.