Dave T-W @davoloid@qoto.org

One thing that was super common on Mastodon / Fediverse prior to this mass migration was adding image descriptions to help be accessible to our many blind and partially sighted users here. Many people won't boost posts without them.
Please consider adding alt text to your images when you can.

Seriously though, fedi was *built* by furries, trans and queer folk, disabled neurodivergent people.

This is *the reason* the culture here is what it is. Why CWs are a thing. Why image descriptions are a thing. Why privacy matters here. Why moderation tools not only exist, but are usable — and used.

If you had joined and asked yourself "wow, how come this place is so chill and kinda… nice?" — that's thanks to all the nice people from communities some people call "weird".

So #KeepFediWeird.

We worked with arkisites (https://arkisites.co.uk) to investigate structural barriers for Black students and staff at #UCL Computer Science. Based on the recommendations, we launched a new EDI action plan.

More info here: https://ucl.ac.uk/computer-science/news/2022/oct/ucl-computer-science-launches-new-edi-action-plan-after-external-audit

Full report:
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/computer-science/sites/computer_science/files/university_college_london_-_department_of_computer_science_-_arkisites_report.pdf

My colleague Julien Deswaef explains why organizations should run their own Mastodon server, so that they can control their own channel of communication

https://martinfowler.com/articles/your-org-run-mastodon.html

Westminster Voting Intention:

LAB: 46% (+2)
CON: 28% (=)
LDM: 8% (-2)
GRN: 6% (+1)
SNP: 4% (=)

Via @OpiniumResearch 2-4 Nov.
Changes w/ 26-28 Oct.

Monday #mondaymotivation

The #ethics and limitations of AI image generators. #StableDiffusion #dall-e #midjourney
https://waxy.org/2022/11/invasive-diffusion-how-one-unwilling-illustrator-found-herself-turned-into-an-ai-model/

New study into online violence against female journalists. I imagine the same holds true for female politicians.
“Academics who interviewed over 1,000 female journalists in 15 countries found the vast majority of journalists who took part had suffered from online abuse and threats. The authors of The Chilling are calling for governments, as well as the news industry and the giant tech corporations, to do more to tackle what they say is “a crisis of online violence towards women journalists”.

As technologists and tech-adjacent people interested in building new communities and a better Internet, those of us with the bandwidth maybe also have a duty to hospice the broken one -- not just by helping ppl do technical transition stuff, but the soft social part too. Anyway, so consider injecting some radical positivity and sharing over there if you can -- or, as I wrote about here, occupying Twitter with love for a while https://link.medium.com/oVo1o13YKub 😍 ❤️

Looking at Twitter, a lot of people in and outside the tech world are getting very anxious about losing their informal networks. The mood there is a drag at the moment, everyone fretting about the Edge Lord etc.

I wonder if people who are still there might consider actively sharing and promoting the good stuff for a while? Supporting people who are worried about losing their personal and professional communities.

Tip for the new folk:
Often Mastodon’s features work the way they do because it was first populated by people who had been harassed on FB and the Birdsite.

For instance (not sorry), you cannot search Masto for a simple term. Only #hashtags. Say you’re having a private conversation about iguanas. Anti-iguana trolls will not be able to search for “iguanas”, find your conversation, and drop into it to say, “Iguana luvers suck!”

But if you are wanting to connect with new iguana fanciers on Mastodon, slipping an #iguanas hashtag somewhere into your posts will allow people to search for and find them.

#TwitterMigration #Twitter

The Spirit of Christmas

sad times

#6 Bird migration

#WildExploits #Comic #DigitalEthics

Published: October 30, 2022

https://wildexploits.axbom.com/6

Researchers in digital technologies, law, policy and society in the Fediverse/Mastodon, fill in the form to add your handle to the spreadsheet, and consult the results to see if there are people you'd like to follow! (Inspired by @konrad's effort to gather historians)

Form: https://forms.office.com/r/mPLptbqccP

Results: https://liveuclac-my.sharepoint.com/:x:/g/personal/ucqnmve_ucl_ac_uk/ES11jfqXsNVNpd1roXFokNkBzRux6n2xThtV4CsgqpSj8g?e=rKrajY

(I tried to host the form on my NextCloud server in federated spirit, but forms there don't support sharing results live yet).