Mark Mercer @mcmxs@qoto.org

For your first day on Mastodon, just a few humbly suggested steps! Welcome to the party!

1) Consider if you're on the server for you, your hobbies, and your moderation desires. You can always migrate your account, later. https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/moving/

2) Make a profile! These can be longer than Twitter ones - and you can format them with line breaks, italics (using asterix), and loads of emoji. Check the emoji on your server, here! https://emojos.in/

3) If you liked who you followed on Twitter, use https://debirdify.pruvisto.org/ and/or https://fedifinder.glitch.me/ to create a csv of all the people you followed there to upload into Mastodon, using the web menu option Preferences > Import. Now you are following the same folks!

4) Using https://debirdify.pruvisto.org/, you can also export your Twitter blocklist, and import it using the same function in Mastodon.

5) Create an introduction post! Use lots of hashtags to help people find you and your interests, as there's no algorithm or string search function here. Make sure to add the hashtag introduction!

6) Get used to using hashtags in your posts regularly, so that people can find them manually or using the hashtag following function, or the rss feed function.

7) Use CWs liberally, to help people decide what to see. Follow your server's guidelines, but definitely CW those movie spoilers!

8) Use alt text in your images whenever possible, to help people with screen readers enjoy it here, too!

9) Enjoy your new community, and have a lot of fun!

#MastodonTips #MastodonNewbie

Here is your reminder that it only takes a few seconds to say...

• I'm sorry
• Can we talk?
• I love you
• I was wrong
• We can let the family of opossums live in the attic as long as they want and I think giving them tiny hats is a nice idea honestly
• You were right

[WHITE PEOPLE DO NOT REPLY]
if you can't read you're getting blocked

I'm glad we're starting to have a wider conversation surrounding racism and especially anti-Blackness on the Fedi.

But I feel like a lot of it could be better.

I see a lot of white people partaking in the conversation in a way that derails it, centering themselves and their experiences, explaining racism to POCs, and the like.

So please, if you are not Black, don't have conversations with Black folks about anti-Blackness.

However, do call out your friends on their racist bullshit. Do not wait for us to point it out. I don't want to be the only one to say that shit is not okay. It must come from you people as well.

I would also appreciate if you boosted posts made BY POCs rather than by white people. I see a lot of this stuff. It signals that you don't value our feelings and opinions but rather our oppressors' opinions on our struggles

I would also like non-Black admins to take a stand on anti-Black racism by not just suspending racist accounts on their own instances, but also by defederating from pro-cop, anti-Black and generally racist servers.

I want to be happy here.

But my Black friends keep getting banned for doing justice work.

Or just... Existing.

At a much quieter volume than I do.

If people didn’t know me or who I’m connected to, would I be gone by now too? 😔

How do you exist in a world where your cultural norm is frowned upon?

Why do I always have to compromise with the oppression dynamic

or get removed? 😭

It’s painful.

And there’s no reason to it.

And all the “solutions” include bowing to that same dynamic.

@Tinu @haven4books Federated instances are great, but any response (no matter whether intentions were good or not) to your concerns that goes along the lines of “you can set up your own server!” is absolutely the wrong take in this case, when we’re discussing the policies of what’s probably going to be the “default” community.

General relativity has passed many years of observational tests, from Eddington’s measurement of the deflection of starlight by the Sun in 1919 to the recent detection of gravitational waves.

However, gaps in our understanding start to appear when we try to apply it to describe the entire #universe.

The results may finally be getting weird enough to enable finding new #physics behind the general #relativity.

#GeneralRelativity #cosmology #astronomy https://www.inverse.com/science/einstein-theory-gravity

Spotted this guy in the skies above Manhattan yesterday and just happened to have a camera with a 200 mm zoom lens on me. Every turn or arc sent a flock of pigeons zagging in a different direction.

My prediction a few years ago was that the British public would slowly turn against Brexit as the results became visible; that many who voted leave would rewrite history and claim they voted remain. Meaning public opinion would change but there wouldn't be a wave of people admitting they got it wrong.

I think that's exactly what we're seeing.

Let them.

Let them be on our side without recrimination. Let's be united.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/21/most-britons-now-think-brexit-was-a-bad-idea-the-government-just-hasnt-caught-up-yet

#ukpolitics #politics #brexit

You know what social media site I despise most is? Not Twitter. Not FB. Not IG. G+ was up there in its day but no...

It's NextDoor.

#VirtueEthics A while back I went through the New Testament and found every sin list and virtue list I could. I grouped them. The virtue lists are very consistent. I phrase them:
*Humility before God
*Drive for righteousness and restorative justice
*Embrace of truth
*Love
*Joy
*Building community through peacemaking, reconciliation and covenant
*Kindness, gentleness and generosity
*Faithfulness and self-control
*Patience and hope

Every sin I understand seems to just be an absence of a virtue.

Historians in the time of the early church were horrified about this new religion that empowered women and the poor.

How on earth have we taken that reputation and instead insisted Christianity is about being manly and subjugating women? It's beyond me.

I went to my cardiologist yesterday. I asked him how long I had to keep taking the medications. He said, "For the rest of your life...although...some choose to stop a week before."

Many of us will do lots of #shopping this #holiday season, which inevitably means we'll have to contact customer service.

But please remember that those #CustomerService reps not only have to deal with irate callers who tell them "I hope you die," but also conditions that keep them from bathroom breaks, or sick workers who keep trashcans by their desk in case they need to...ya know.

“We’re Not Allowed to Hang Up”: The Harsh Reality of Working in Customer Service:

https://www.propublica.org/article/not-allowed-to-hang-up-the-harsh-reality-of-working-in-customer-service?utm_medium=social&utm_source=mastodon&utm_campaign=mastodon-post

@Robotbeat It certainly feels that way. Jenniffer Gonzales and others in Congress have written to the NSF asking them to reconsider, but who knows if the NSF will listen.

@Robminchin I feel like Puerto Rico is being shafted. Such a disproportionately huge part of their culture and science. I’ve had students from PR and they’ve always mentioned it with great pride. And there is no full substitute for it anywhere, most certainly not in the US. Statehood (if they want it) for PR is essential to stop this neglect.