@angusm I would like to make one correction to the information Dr. Jonathan Flowers shared in this podcast All of Black Twitter was not simply a "call and response" community addressing issues. There is a small nook of #BlavkTwitter that behaved as disability Twitter. The BlackandSTEM portion of Twitter is organized around nodes within the platform. I was one of the nodes in this community and was hoping that Mastodon would allow me to help rebuild the community here. I must rethink this plan after learning about Mastodon's anti-Black history and technical structure.
@Binder @Shauna Wow thank you! I Mastadon the same way I twittered, TikToked and IG'd. Same username on all of them. #RobotSlamPoetry #NoireSTEMinist #MySTEMIsForTheStreets #BlackInEngineering #BlackInRobotics #BlackMastodon #BlackTwitter #BlackFedi #BlackAndSTEM #Blerd
This piece on "The Whiteness of Mastodon" is worth reading:
https://techpolicy.press/the-whiteness-of-mastodon/
One of my hopes was that if particular communities like #BlackTwitter could emerge & flourish on #Twitter -- which was not exactly built to encourage that kind of thing -- then it would actually be _easier_ for the same thing to happen on a nominally more open platform like Mastodon. This piece makes it clear that it's not that simple, & explains why.
@angusm This podcast episode was excellent! I am a new user of #Mastodon and did not know the history of racial oppression in the #fediverse. *very heavy sigh* This podcast made the ugly history clear & technically understandable.
I'm disheartened that it appears Mastodon won't be a place in which I can rebuild my #blackandstem community without experiencing significant irrational & harmful gatekeeping by instance owners. The social justice aspect of many BlackandSTEM discussions would result in unwarranted & unfair content warnings.
I'm also frustrated that Mastodon isn't behaving like a true public commons although many Mastodonians says that it does. Having listened to this podcast, I better understand this disconnect. It's surprising that this kind of disconnect exists in a time when web3 and web5 are also being developed. This shows that we humans have not truly advanced in our thinking of "community", "equality" and "inclusivity".
I realize that my response will receive a *flag* for its racial content discussion. I don't care. The truth of a situation can't be understood if sunlight isn't used as the disinfectant. This podcast puts sunlight on the inherent nature of Mastodon and is the platform's truth.
7 black pioneers in computer science [infographic] | New Relic
a really great article and Infograph about pioneering black folks in computer science. #BlackMastodon #BlackTwitter #BlackHistoryEveryDay
https://newrelic.com/blog/nerd-life/black-history-month-computer-science-infographic
Almost finished in-app registration in the #pixelfedApp
My goal is to make it as easy and frictionless as possible to register and onboard new people!
Shipping soon! #pixelfed
For all of you out there who have been dreaming of such a job !.
Ill pay drinks from time to time at shore.
---
RT @maecotox
🚨Dream job alert🚨
18 months contract for an "onboard biology engineer" on the next @TaraOcean_ expedition: Traversing European Coastlines (TREC) https://www.embl.org/about/info/trec/
I would apply myself if I didn't just start a new job :)
Application details are in the job offer (pics):
https://twitter.com/maecotox/status/1595330489388351488
1/7 With all the talk about moderation on mastodon, most of the discussions I’ve seen have centered on the work and experiences of paid commercial content moderators. But volunteer community moderators have done this work for a long time! I’m going to share some of my favorite papers about the experiences of community content moderators. Apologies to the authors if you’re on Mastodon and I didn’t tag you! And please share your favorites!
An interesting discovery of HAQERS (pronounced "hackers) in human DNA:
https://today.duke.edu/2022/11/human-evolution-wasn%E2%80%99t-just-sheet-music-how-it-was-played
Discussion of racism on Mastodon
@jerpirate Agreed. This is on us white people to fix. I think those of us who are trying to be #AntiRacist or #accomplices or even an #ally should commit to the position that if the instance where we landed doesn’t work for #BlackMastodon or other #BIPOC then it doesn’t work for us either. None of us are free until we’re all free.
I've seen a lot of white folks suggest new Black users change instances if they have a bad experience on their first Mastodon server.
Why should that be the default expectation? I understand that bad actors will always be there to create accounts and instances to harass folks.
It is incumbent on us, as anti-racist white folks, to find ways to prevent these bad actors from making our spaces unwelcoming to new Black users. It's a failure of imagination otherwise.
There were two notable moderation incidents on mastodon.social and mastodon.online in the past 24 hours that I would like to address. In the first, a post was wrongfully removed due to a report claiming it contained a dogwhistle, and in the second, a person was wrongfully suspended due to a report claiming it's an impersonator. Both were undone and apologies issued.
The moderation team is bigger than ever and so is the amount of reports we have to process. We're dealing with unprecedented growth despite having closed registrations on these servers weeks ago. Some false positives are unavoidable, but we understand these mistakes are upsetting and unacceptable, and we are trying to do better. Luckily all moderator actions can be appealed and reversed.
Tried making lists of people in different topic areas using the #Mastodon #Lists featured, but it apparently doesn't work that way. Seems like you can make a list of people and then see all the posts they make in a unified timeline, which is nice. But it doesn't work sadly to just share a list of accounts or even to share the timeline to others.
If you see someone claiming that “immunity debt” from masks and #COVID19 isolation is responsible for the current rise in respiratory illness, please share these maps. Do the states suffering the worst (in purple & deep red) look like states that wore masks and locked down?
Friendly Mastodon Tip of the Day 🔟
You don't have to choose a big server. Bigger server doesn't mean better experience.
On big servers, the moderators have to spend more time dealing with reports and can't work with too many queries from users.
Admins and moderators on small servers usually have more time for their members, so the community is closer and friendlier.
Follow me and 🔁 for more daily tips.
@acjay it would be interesting to see this mapped against significant events in your life that drove you to seek out podcasts, if applicable.
@mattlaschneider @raygan @darius Thank you for rooting this.
A former Research & Development executive with a focus on understanding the quantitative and qualitative advantages of a worldwide technology community embracement of Black expertise and leadership.
My focus is on data analysis of #BlackandSTEM, #BlackinSTEM, #BlackinTech, #BlackinX, and #BlackinSTEAM activities inform my comments and shared info in the areas of economics, business, society, academics, and geopolitics.