Mike Csees @mikecsees@qoto.org

@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. 😂 🔪 😾

I should share that I was an advisor briefly to Post.news, asked to put together an advisory board. I withdrew for various reasons -- disagreement about another advisor and about federation -- and have no ties to it now. I received nothing. I like Noam, its founder, and respect his work (Waze!). I'll watch Post. But I'm much more engaged here and want to study and learn about the potential of federation -- ActivityPub, Bluesky, Scuttlebutt -- as a model for public discourse.

I get a sense that #Twitter is about to become like this town:

"The town that went feral...This is the so-called Free Town Project, a venture wherein a group of libertarian activists attempted to take over a tiny New Hampshire town, Grafton, and transform it into a haven for libertarian ideals—part social experiment, part beacon to the faithful, Galt’s Gulch meets the New Jerusalem.... And then the bears moved in."

https://newrepublic.com/article/159662/libertarian-walks-into-bear-book-review-free-town-project?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

I've seen plenty of discussions in recent days over the network structure of Mastodon and whether it can remain decentralized as large commercial players begin taking an interest in the fediverse. I am neither an engineer nor an economist, but I do research the way media and information get distributed and I have some thoughts on this. A thread…

Good morning!

This was a beautiful misty dawn photographed by my husband at Bembridge on the Isle of Wight.

It's always a bit of a gamble when you're not naturally an early riser, but you're hoping that the weather forecasts are accurate - fortunately they were on this particular day!

In response to criticism of the Fediverse I've read today, and to some very uninformed comments I've read on Twitter from Musk supporters about firing most of Twitter's employees, I want to talk about what I know about the technical side of running a social service.

The short answer is: it ain't easy and it ain't cheap.

Even Crimethinc (play on 1984 thought crime) was trolled out. See original post on this thread ⬇️

I am just dying right now! ☠️

HOW was this done last year- and I missed it? 😳 #StarTrek #AllIWantForChristmasIsQ #Christmas 🎄