David Cooper @cooplogic@qoto.org

HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS

Carl Friedrich Gauß and the story of curved spaces

In May 1820, Carl Friedrich Gauß received an order from King Georg IV to carry out a state survey in the Kingdom of Hannover.

Gauß concluded that the geometry that we operate on flat paper and that we know from school (Euclidean geometry) could not be valid in the landscape.

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@freemo

*The existing problem* that I see, was JoinMastodon unilaterally and non transparently turfing QOTO from its list despite QOTO at all times meeting its publicly stated requirements. On top of that, not having any receipts on how and why when questioned. Really is a violation of trust.
And that drastically effects new signup if JoinMastodon is represented as an authoritative list of where new people could go. When it is seemingly more just some guys friends list and is not actually done on its owns stated & advertised criteria.
There are all the public criteria for being on Join Matstadon then there are the double secret reasons
(some servers, in this case QOTO are excluded because :P<blows raspberry>. )

What is thus needed is a replacement for Joinmastodon, or an improvement in JoinMastodon.
One of the improvements might be that each server must tell us (potential new signups) what other servers on that list they block and why. other UI improvements is how to find server that suits the new user would also be possible.

===========================
As for mandating that servers don't block others. NOPE.
It is perfectly true that I have strong expectation that any @member@QOTO is likely basically immune to radicalization. (we've all met stupid a lot of times before, even stupid dressed up in academic clothes.) And given that QOTO so clearly says it doesn't block instances and has csv files to make it easy for individuals to make their own garden walled.
Then yes we, the members of QOTO are just fine with no blocks and we knew that coming in.

I don't agree that generalises to all servers and people. If someone wants to be on a server that clearly defines itself as a walled garden ... then that is not a second class server, its just one delivering things/features that I don't personally want or need. I do however respect that some people may well want or even need that.

I am even more than happy to make sure all new signups that want such a thing know where to find it.

If you see a random poll, do you take the time to interact with it?

Boost to increase sample size.

Every time I talk to journalists about how ridiculous the effective altruism, longtermism, rationality cults are, I also make a point of letting them know how much I resent having to spend energy explaining why these cults are harmful. Wouldn't have had to do spend all this energy explaining their ridiculous ideologies if they didn't amass so much $$ and influence.

I've been thinking a lot about the discourse around moderation, Black folks' experiences, and the culture here. This is a longer post to dig a bit into how we can discuss and change the culture here to be more inclusive and equitable and just.

First step is to stop doing band-aid solutions. Folks who keep saying "we're a community of builders" in response to social critiques or saying "just make your own server or move" need to take a step back and consider that is coming off as ignorance at best and racist at worst. It's a band-aid solution that doesn't truly solve the inherent problem that impacts the network as a whole.

People shouldn't *have* to move servers. The server ought to change and be more inclusive, which means tackling the culture of that server and how it moderates. And if they do decide to move servers, they shouldn't have to deal with it again there either. It's the overall culture that contributes to the harmful bigotry people may face in a server.

Culture exists everywhere, including in a "community of builders." If you don't deal with the culture that causes harm to some people, then you can't claim your culture is "inclusive" or that there is an "engineering" solution to a cultural problem.

Dr. Flowers (shengokai@zirk.us) made some excellent threads that analyze the situation on Mastodon -- specifically social side of it. https://zirk.us/@shengokai/109380372543079977 Is one of the critiques. Go read them all! He spoke with folks who been here a long time and dug deep for his analyses.

Now, is there a solution to the issues of culture here that have consciously or not caused harm to marginalized folks?

Yes, there can be by coming together and having these discussions.

However, only engineering solutions isn't gonna cut it. Although Mastodon does need some engineering solutions (the moderation can be improved upon greatly with some better engineering. The protocol is wonky that could be improved too), but that will not fix the culture.

What fixes the culture?

Discussions like these. People willing to listen, to be uncomfortable, to confront harmful attitudes, and unlearn and build up new ways of being.

That's part of what being in community IS. We need to unlearn all the time. We need to listen, be uncomfortable, be flexible, be willing to change.

Change is necessary. It is not either good or bad - it's a neutral force that can be weaponized in a bad way (see Elongated Musky's twitter takeover) or in a good way (people building more just, equitable, sustainable, and accessible platforms).

But change is needed. Change needs to be done on a tech level, a culture level, and on a personal level.

So think about behaviors witnessed here -- behaviors you do too -- think about what norms Mastodon users, especially those who helped build it or been here a long time, enforce.

Some of the norms are good. Such as people defaulting to using alt-text for their photos and video screenshots (thank you!).

Others are a good idea that can be weaponized in painful ways

For example the CW: first situation I'll use to discuss this is: its utility to avoid triggering panic or pain for those with trauma is good. This is being mindful of those around us and seeking to create a culture of care.

Second situation: people trying to force Black folks and other marginalized identities to cover their posts because it made the person uncomfortable is harmful. This puts the marginalized person in a position of having to CW all their posts as the oppression faced often colors their interactions in most spaces, so trying to write about their experiences without mentioning it would be difficult. (It's difficult for me as a disabled nonbinary person, and I don't have to deal with the intersection of race too.)

In the first CW situation, the poster makes a conscious choice to be mindful of others - the poster makes the decision and holds agency over it. Their decision is theirs alone.

In the second CW situation, readers with more privilege (thus more power) try to coerce the poster with less privilege (thus less power) into a specific action to lessen the reader's cognitive dissonance and uncomfortable emotions. This is a power imbalance, and if numerous people with more power and privilege barrage the poster, the power imbalance tips into harassment.

If we examine who gets targeted the most for the "put a CW on this" when sharing experiences, we can also see an imbalance where marginalized populations get hit harder - this is a consequence of the power imbalance within the culture itself.

To be clear, for someone with less privilege, they hold less power in these situations. So asking a poster to put in alt-text on an image would not fit the second situation I described above. The less privileged individual is seeking access to what everyone else already has. That is not and should not be equated with someone who seeks to silence or cover-up the story of another regardless of intent.

That power balance inherent within privilege is also a cultural aspect that needs discussed. I used CW as a way to model thinking about how norms within a culture create power imbalances. Mastodon is not immune to the wider cultures of people's home countries, and there are many countries across the world that privilege specific groups over others that can be replicated into Mastodon's culture consciously or unconsciously. That needs examined too.

Norms of how discussions and change ought to go also need examined and possibly changed. Think about interactions here, think about whose voices get heard the most, think about who moderates, who owns servers, who writes the code, etc. All of these factors have a role in building and shaping culture.

And yes, even code can be biased as it is written by human beings, and we're biased beings. (There is an excellent book by a Black author that discusses this actually called
Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code by Ruha Benjamin).

These are important questions if we are to build a community that is equitable, just, consensual, accessible, sustainable.

Yes, this seems like a lot! But that's why we do it through conversations. With actions that build up over time. Nothing can or should be done all at once. Community building takes *time* and commitment.

Make sure to listen to those most marginalized. When we care and uplift our most vulnerable, giving them access and support, then we help all of us.

Thanks for reading!

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

It's perfectly reasonable and possible for *both* of these statements to be true:

* it is better here than on Twitter
* this better *isn't good enough*

Federation and decentralization *as currently and inconsistently and idiosyncratically practiced* while better, are not good enough.

Digging in and saying that decentralization and federation *is* good enough is really, really unhelpful.

Also, the potential for better does not mean the practical experience is better.

My little #Robin friend this morning, looking very heroic in a gust of wind. He has successfully held on to his territory for over two years now, defending it from other Robins and avoiding predators, so he has done very well for himself. #Bath #Somerset #UK.
#Birds #UKBirds #UK Birding #BirdsOfMastodon #Nature #Wildlife #Birdwatching #WildlifePhotography

I want people to look at the responses and how much time it takes to manage repeating the same thing over and over and dealing with all the micro aggressions and ask yourself: is this what Black people should do with our time?

I’m not doing this shit with you guys every day. More power to the folks who have been for years now. We all choose our battlegrounds I guess. Hopefully you see why I am choosing not to volunteer for this before I have to.

And if you don’t? Welp.

What the actual fuck Tracy Chou's (@triketora) tweet was taken down on mastodon.social for "racism" and "sexism" because she wrote.

"for the last few years i've been almost exclusively reading books by authors who are non-male non-white non-straight (or some combination thereof) and i've loved it but now i'm thinking i need to return to straight white male authors to study the psychology of the rich white men who hold power over all of us

I’m wondering if y’all can help me build a community of trans people of colour on the tag #TransPOC as i miss the wonderful people i knew on a different animal themed app.
After seeing reports of racism and bad moderation I guess i’m just trying to find my people. Boosts very welcome.

#Trans #Queer #LGBTQIA #LGBT #BlackMastodon #Black #POC

I'm speaking
@IndianaSciences
Books, Brains & Booze 11/29 at 6:30 pm Ash & Elm in Indianapolis. It will be a discussion of #BlackPanther #WakandaForever science and technology and humanities perspective. #NoireSTEMinist #MySTEMIsForTheStreets @BlackInEngineering #BlackTwitter #BlackFedi EBlackFediverse #WomenTech #BlackTech #BlackMastodon
@BlackInRobotics oin us Tuesday, November 29th, at 6:30pm at Ash and Elm!
https://facebook.com/events/1215126522606235

Sp I wrote a pretty lengthy blog post entitled:

# Eugen Rochko, CEO of Mastodon, Found to Support Nazi's Agenda

Sadly I wish it was clickbait.

You can all read it here:

https://jeffreyfreeman.me/eugen-rochko-ceo-of-mastodon-found-to-support-nazis-agenda/

It is the pinnacle of the recent drama. I will also be sharing it on twitter, linking the joinmastodon account there. I tried to include most of the evidence in the article. Hopefully this will have some positive result

#fediblock #mastoadmin #mastodon @Gargron @trinsec @khird

#ITootFor #AcademicChatter #AcademicTwitter #Academia #BlackAcademics #BlackAcademia #AcademicToots #NoireSTEMinist #MySTEMIsFortheStreets https://www.noiresteminist.com/blog

I'm taking a break from Mastodon and here's why https://twitter.com/IBJIYONGI/status/1590462702983720962?s=20&t=GzgyKW_NTIarqI7mMy1zNw