Mike Csees @mikecsees@qoto.org

“Mercy on me, was ever man before so be-pelted with a child’s talk as I am! It is his desire of sympathy that lies at the bottom of the great heap of his babblement.”

This is inexpressibly sweet https://www.themarginalian.org/2022/11/26/twenty-days-with-julian-and-little-bunny-by-papa-hawthorne/

“These ministers . . . strip the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throng of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form. It is a religion for oppressors, tyrants, man-stealers, and thugs. It is not that ‘pure and undefiled religion’ which is from above.” -Frederick Douglass (such a smart, wise person) @bookstodon #Religion #ChristianNationalism #uspol https://www.mguhlin.org/2022/07/mynotes-christians-against-christanity.html via @oberyhendricks (author)

This week's highlightable delights: Storytelling and the art of tenderness, David Bowie on creativity and his advice to artists, the poetic science of the aurora borealis https://mailchi.mp/themarginalian/bowie-borealis

Good night, #fediverse
Wo kommt denn jetzt plötzlich der #schiffssamstag her? ⛴️

#photography #fotografie #novascotia #canada

@FediThing
Ask yourself this: What is the purpose of a block?

Is it to prevent me from seeing something, to hide it from me?

Or is it to protect me from having it shoved in my face, to harass me?

I’ve been on the net for 50 years now. I’ve seen a lot of crap. I’ve moderated large groups, dealt with a lot of attacks and ban evasions.

IMO, Qoto gets this exactly right. It empowers the potential victims. It doesn’t enable reaching potential recruits. These don’t appear on the federated feed, they’re just not inaccessible.

There’s nothing wrong with a full ban for those who choose to shelter from the threats. You should keep your policy and Qoto theirs. You are both protecting people in different ways.

Those of us who want to keep an eye out for danger, however, cannot if we’re blinded “for our protection”.

I won’t get the harmful content unless I look for it or it is being discussed. I can block it from my feed if I need to. Qoto supports blocking entire domains, and I have done so.

We’re on the same side of the real issue here. Can’t we recognize different people need different tactics for dealing with threats?

A group at Johns Hopkins has created a scrollable, interactive map of the entire universe, from here to the cosmic microwave background.
Extraordinary discoveries at your fingertips for free, unimaginable when I was a kid. https://mapoftheuniverse.net/ #astronomy #space #exploration

@arinbasu @freemo The reason this matters is that the joinmastodon list is not itself federated, but it is what people encounter when they wish to join.

I would not have found it if I had joined a few days later.

And I wouldn’t have been happy with any of the choices I was presented with. That’s not good for the #fediverse, and it’s not good for people fleeing Twitter. Often #qoto is exactly the right place for them.

The Fediverse is the most important revolution in communications -- probably since the Internet has been built.

It obliterates the status quo of how network effects are built.

This is possible due to the open protocols that the Fediverse is built upon.

Mastodon only scratches the surface.

Once people discover the potential for what can be built, it will be a tectonic shift for the Internet.

Who else is excited with me?

/END THREAD

@freemo
Honestly, I probably would have disengaged from the Fediverse/Mastoverse a long time ago - or at best had a mostly dormant account (like I do on the birdsite) - because of stuff like this, if not for #QOTO.

To my knowledge, this is the instance that comes closest to having the culture that Hacker News wants to have:

> Eschew flamebait. Avoid generic tangents.

> Be kind. Don't be snarky. Have curious conversation; don't cross-examine. Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community.

(from https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

So, thank you, for creating an environment for those of us that want to have genuine and curious conversations.

Fall aflame at #UVic

While following a lot of people can populate your Home feed significantly, sometimes people (like me) end up boosting a lot and that can unexpectedly hinder your own experience.

So if you like someone's specific posts and don't want to follow their boosts, you can go to their profile under the [...] button, and select the "Hide boosts from account" button.

There is no algorithm on Mastodon. You have ownership and control over every filtering decision instead of some robot.

#TwitterMigration

Explore 1,100 Works of Art by Georgia O’Keeffe: They’re Now Digitized and Free to View Online

https://www.openculture.com/2020/06/explore-1100-works-of-art-by-georgia-okeeffe.html

If you want to be good a citizen, consider joining your public library board. They are always looking for engaged volunteers. You can ensure anti #LGBTQ initiatives such as toxic speakers and book bans don’t happen. #libraries #PublicLibraries

the downfall of #Twitter is going to be hard on a lot of people who create/perform/post for a living.

we’re losing a lot of our audience who won’t migrate, which means we’re also way harder to find. it can be despairing, and feel like we’re invisible here.

every 🔁 you give someone’s post can brighten their day, because it means someone, somewhere, was interested in their work and wanted other people to see that work in their feed as well. #TwitterMigration #FediTips

Seventy-seven per cent of demonstrators open carrying were right wing. This is Brownshirt behaviour. What this isn’t is open and democratic debate. It also isn’t something that ever happens in Europe. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/26/us/guns-protests-open-carry.html

No cats in my life for now (unless bobcats & cougars count), as coyote population makes it impossible. But in honor of #Caturday, here's a long-ago fav from South Carolina when I had scores--all resulting from TNR of a huge feral population. This pic was taken prob around 2001(?) after some of them discovered infrared heat in the kennel storage room. Glowing eyes were extremely appropriate for this tribe. For a long time all dogs on the place had remarkable respect for cats. 😂 🔪 😾