@Anabelthe1st I think the no ads thing is great here. Also everyone here seems authentic and more enthusiastic about making a good first impression in order to make this work. Very exciting. I think it’s the people and not celebrity status that make a community. Everyone is starting over and learning something new which is humbling and fosters a sense of trust out of need. We’re on the precipice of something great I think.
Okay! Seems like I’ve got a decent audience here, so let’s do an old-fashioned #ff Follow Friday. Reply here if you’ve just come over (or come back) to Mastodon or the fediverse, so people can find you.
Hello all! I have newly arrived from the wilds of Twitter and am trying to find my people. I am a reporter and I post about #journalism #texas #deathpenalty and the shitshows that are #prisons.
And sometimes I pose in cemeteries in front of hearses.
Re: "Twitter is bad for us"
Most people only know to engage with the internet via the primary monoliths; Facebook, Twitter, etc. Anyone who's been active online before those platforms existed knows much better on how high-quality an online community can be.
Look at Reddit. The large subreddits are broadly cesspools; they're more targeted by spams/trolls/brigades, they attract the worst actors, and they're much harder to moderate effectively.
The small subreddits are often excellent communities, since they don't attract the nonsense, and can be moderated more effectively just because the numbers are lower.
So many people can't even begin to grasp this because all they know about online interaction is their experience with the top-down walled gardens.
The monoliths can exist, but using them exclusively (which most people do!) just feed a bunch of garbage into your brain.
It's the equivalent of having only eaten fast food when you eat out. It sucks but if it's all you know, it's still food you didn't have to cook yourself so cool. But there's much better food out there with some effort!
Lotta talk about replacing Twitter.
The better dialogue is how to get people to re-evaluate how they engage with the internet.
Personally, I'm convinced of two things:
- You can't 1:1 replace Twitter unless it's a similar top-down walled garden.
- Most people probably shouldn't want a Twitter replacement, since Twitter is bad for us.
Instead of finding/molding/creating a replacement, we should encourage people (and ourselves!) to focus on what they like most about internet interaction.
So here's what I've learned.
Mastodon isn't Twitter.
And that's by design.
You've grown used to things designed to give you that anger rush.
Mastodon is very deliberately built to avoid that.
The temptation is to replicate your Twitter experience.
Picking arguments, amplifying trolls.
Please don't.
This isn't your house, people here put time into building it.
Content warnings, ALT tags.
Don't turn it into a replica of the mess you just left.
If you miss the fights, the birdsite is still there.
KEEP IN MIND! #Mastodon doesn't work like #Twitter!
Have you just made the #Twexit or the #TwitterMigration?
Favorites ⭐ - they're not "likes". They don't "elevate" posts, they just the poster know you liked their post.
Boosts 🔁 - these push someone's post into your friends feeds (and help discovery).
So if you ⭐ my posts, that's great (and I love you too)!
But if you 🔁 posts, then more people see them!
OH! - #Hashtags are how you search!
Help me find more #BIPoC Accounts, for me, for you, for everyone on #Mastodon
If you're #black #indigenous or #peopleofcolor feel free to comment, if you like you can comment who you are and/or what you do, so other people can follow you more easily
I will report everyone who dares to comment something hateful or attacks anyone here
Please boost
So, is there a #BlackMastodon fully up and running on here yet?
Broke philanthropist. Escaped them mean Twitter streets.