Adnan @Decad3nce@qoto.org

The first black child ever allowed to attend a white school is only 68 years old now.
White parents pulled their children from school. White teachers refused to teach her.
Ruby Bridges now works as an activist & public speaker
This wasn’t a million years ago. /1

Musk’s reign at Twitter has increased risks to users—especially those in crisis zones around the world who flocked to Twitter for expression during unrest—by unraveling guardrails against misinformation, harassment, and censorship. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/11/twitters-monetizable-users-not-human-rights-matter-most-under-musks-rein-leaving

@mattblaze I'm beginning to think that the federation of instances with their own rules is a better proxy for real life.

It's not practicing balkanization of the internet, it's just allowing for each community of people to have agency over what type of content to ingest or de-federate from - much like your ignoring your racist uncle and their boomer diatribes.

OTOH, running instances and the power that comes with that has a classist barrier to entry that needs addressing.

Settling in here, I'm starting to get a feel for the vibe difference between this and that other place. It's not that there are no jerks here. But the scale is more manageable, and that's everything.

It's like the difference between rolling your eyes at your racist uncle at a holiday dinner and discovering you booked the same hotel that's hosting a Klan rally.

Had to login to a client's Twitter account this morning to post something and I saw Sam Harris asking Elon to let Alex Jones back on the platform and a conversation with Kim Dot Com ensuing about how Biden is a mass murderer.

You have to ask yourself what kind of a person stays on a platform like that.

#BirdSite #Twitter

I don’t miss the algorithm.

This seems like an appropriate first comic for mastodon.

literally cannot describe what it's like being one of these people who were on mastodon before nov 2022. Imagine if you were chilling in a field with like 20 other people and then suddenly the glastonbury festival swarms in

Lots of interesting discussion this weekend about how/when Mastodon should roll out quote-tweets, algorithmic post ranking, etc.

A lot of them seem rooted in arguments that you inevitably need these features in order to "grow." Or "as the product matures," or "in order to reach the most users" etc.

Which makes complete sense, because as an industry and profession we've trained ourselves to value and chase growth above everything.

So this is happening

Musk seems to think that he can solve the problems and conflicts of a forum that serves hundreds of millions of people from every corner of humanity by:

- cutting staff down to a lean team of more "hardcore" engineers

- firing everyone responsible for dealing with social, policy, and legal issues

- chasing away recognized experts and celebrities who've been providing free content

- making the place more welcoming to nazis

Sounds like a plan.

Twitter canceling itself is peak Twitter

I see that a bunch of people have already blocked me. That's great, seriously! If you don't like the kind of stuff I talk about - and I can certainly imagine many people might not - I really don't want to force it on you.

And to my instance administrator: If I'm too much trouble, please just say the word and I'll move elsewhere.

I've turned off seeing all content warnings in the settings. Nothing upsets me. I have no problem with people using them, especially for spoilers of shows I haven't seen yet. But I'll just avert my eyes, for now.

I just got scolded for failing to put a "content warning" on the previous post. Sorry, but no.

I try very hard to be polite and follow norms, here and in person. But politics, policy, technology, and their intersection are not merely topics I find interesting in passing, they're central to my work and identity. If you find those things difficult - and I know some people, quite reasonably, do - you really should unfollow and perhaps mute or block me.

Sorry to be harsh, but I am who I am.