Phillip Winn @pwinn@qoto.org

It’s Friday! It sure is.

For #FollowFriday during #BlackHistoryMonth, I’m recommending people I follow and find interesting. Today we’ve got filmmakers, marketers, and nerds, my favorite.

You Five Fantastic Friendly Friday Follow recommendations are:

@hipcinema Nadine Patterson
@NoraBurns Nora Burns
@majorlinux Marcus Summers
@jentrification jenifer daniels
@BigAngBlack Ang Black

Follow them all!

#blog #BlackExcellence

Mastodon’s federated nature makes it highly-resistant to takeover by oligarchs, and even more highly-resistant to destruction, but it does have its downsides.

One is localized shutdowns. A very popular mastodon server (mastodon.lol, 17k active) is shutting down completely because the owner is tired of dealing with the messages he’s been getting, and doesn’t want to pass control to anyone else, since he pledged absolute privacy for existing members. Another popular server (mastodon.au, 6.5k active) announced a shutdown, but has apparently been rescued by someone who is operating it in what he calls “no-new-users mode.” In both cases, three months notice was given, and mastodon allows people who move from one server to another to take their following/followers list with them, but not their post/comment history.

So that one is a negative with some positive aspects (90 days notice, partial migration options).

The other is defederation. Again, there are positives and negatives to this. More positives than negatives overall, but definitely negative for me personally. On the one hand, it’s very easy to block bad actors at a high level so that individual users need not even be aware they exist. On the other hand, server owners can defederate from any other server at any time for any reason, and there is no recourse or appeal for anyone involved. I happen to be on a server with an admin who seems to rub people the wrong way. While some very active blockers acknowledge that my server shouldn’t be blocked on that basis alone, others have decided that since this server’s admin doesn’t defederate as much as they would like, he should himself be defederated.

It’s clear that this server is an edge case for some people. Strict policies against racism and hate speech and so on seem to be enforced, and nobody can seem to point to any examples of bad actors whose accounts haven’t been suspended, but the owner insists on using the “academic free speech” label, which is one word longer than a label used by people fond of hate speech, and his attempts to get people to look closer and realize it’s a well-moderated server sound suspiciously like the sea-lioning people fond of hate speech frequently engage in.

A more principled person might stand their ground and insist that right is right, and pressuring people into defederating is intolerant bullying, but honestly, if I had known it was going to be such an issue, I’d probably have switched servers before writing and boosting 850 posts, many of which are longer than the maximum length allowed by most mastodon servers.

Now I’m in this spot where, during Black History Month, I’m boosting @mekkaokereke’s daily posts about white history, but he doesn’t know that, because his server limits mine. I’ve recommended that people follow him, but I myself cannot, because he is set to approve all followers, and he’ll never see my request because, again, his server limits mine. I’ve posted comments in response to his posts that have picked up some engagement, as people have starred and boosted my comment far and wide, but he’ll never know that. In fact, although qoto.org does not actually appear on the hachyderm.io list of blocked (defederated) servers, it’s clear that server has limited mine. That means that I can see his content when others boost it, but he can’t see mine unless he follows me, which he won’t because he doesn’t know I exist.

I noticed just today that one of his recent posts has five responses I can see on my server, including my own, and also has five responses on his server, including one I can’t see on my server. His server doesn’t list my popular comment, but does list a comment from another server that completely blocks mine.

And that’s weird! It’s confusing if you don’t understand what’s happening, and a definite downside that people who probably agree on everything are blocked from seeing each other because of disagreements at some other level out of their control. I do have some recourse: I could switch servers. I probably will someday. But that recourse is not without downsides itself.

I could switch to a single-user instance, and then I would be nobody’s mercy. But I would also have to work hard to build up the view I have now, since my local feed would be only me, and my federated feed would reach no farther than the servers I already know about. I could switch to another big instance, but even they don’t seem to be immune to shutdowns or defederation, as mastodon.art (8k active) blocking mastodon.social (146k active) demonstrates.

I could have picked a different starting server, but I was told over and over that “it doesn’t really matter,” and this one has a lot of upsides along with this downside.

Ultimately, the federated web is messy, and I don’t think there’s a solution that doesn’t make things worse for those on the receiving end of targeted harassment. I’d rather deal with this than be subject to the whims of a single owner, but at least I’m aware – and now you are aware – that there are some downsides.

#blog #nerdery #mastodon

I think my predilection for reading books the last few years might be the result of how easy it is to track reading books. I spent many hours listening to the History of Rome podcast by Mike Duncan, but at the end of it, it was only the fact that I then went on to read his book based on all of those hours that was recorded for posterity.

I finished an audiobook recently, and marked it as completed at Bookrastinating. Then I started a podcast that has been recommended to me repeatedly. If it were a podcast with an unknown number of episodes that went on and on, I might not even think of the two activities as similar, despite both involving spoken audio I listen to in the same personal contexts (mostly during exercise). But this podcast is ten episodes long, with each episode about an hour long, so it is very, very much like starting a ten-hour audiobook.

At the end of these ten hours, I might know more, or be more entertained, or both, but I won’t have anything to record the event and look back at later, no trigger for memories in years to come, like I will with the audiobook that preceded it in that personal time slot.

Although I had not actively considered it before starting this post, both the podcast season and the novel are the first entries in a trilogy. At least for now. It might be more likely that the podcast produces a fourth season than the author writes another book in that series, but there are a number of series of audiobooks that go on for many volumes. I count 48 “seasons” of Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct available for me to listen to, for example.

So why is is a seven-hour audiobook a “book,” while a ten-hour podcast season is not?

So now it is.

https://bookrastinating.com/book/428813/s/blowback-season-1

It turns out to already be a book on GoodReads, but BookWyrm relies on user-generated content, and I might be the first BookWyrm user to listen to Blowback Season 1, making it my job to add it to the database. If, as I suspect I will, I decide to listen to season 2 later, I’ll add that then.

#books #blog #personal #bookstodon #Bookwyrm #Bookrastinating

We are already in the second half of Black History Month, since February is short.

Today, let’s visit some more Black people worth following here on mastodon.

@rosanita Rosanita
@airadam Air Adam
@Atmvn Atman
@eosfpodcast Rod Faulkner
@Diva2022 Diva2022

Some humor, some politics, some culture, and some nerdery, there’s no consistent agenda here, just interesting people worth following.

#BlackHistoryMonth #BlackExcellence #blog

Today I saw two things online within the same 30 minutes, and I can’t help but contrast them. First up was a screenshot of a tweet from someone who claimed that “major biblical” issues for Christians were firstly, defending the value and worth of white people against teaching that white people are by nature morally corrupt, and secondly, defending the unvaccinated.

Second was a paragraph in the middle of an essay on either skepticism or Ivermectin, depending on how you think about it, in which the author says, having not mentioned Christians up to this point: “I side with the Christians. There may be people so far gone into the outer darkness that they can’t be saved, but you are forbidden from ever believing with certainty that any specific individual is in this category. Act as if everyone is one good deed away from falling to their knees and acknowledging the light of Jesus.”

The first post was from someone with a Masters degree from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, right here in Dallas, Texas, where I know they teach original sin, which states that everyone is by nature morally corrupt, including white people. One might agree with that or not, but someone claiming to represent conservative Christianity definitely affirms that, so to reject it but only for white people is something, but it’s not Christianity.

The second post was from an atheist, an avowed rationalist, who needed a way to state unequivocally in an essay why he spent so much time addressing arguments other rationalists said he should have ignored or even mocked. The example that came to his mind for that “never give up” approach was that of the Christian gospel: that nobody is ever beyond the grace of God, that there is limitless forgiveness for absolutely everyone.

How is that the atheist understands Christianity so much better than the SBTS grad?

Is it possible that these are issues with diversity initiatives crowding out the message of “Christ. crucified” in the church? Of course. There are definitely issues with “white supremacy” and right-wing political extremism pushing any consideration of Jesus to the back, so I’m sure it’s possible that somewhere the reverse is probably also true. The former is clearly a larger problem than the latter, however, and more than anything, I’d say the issue is that churches ought to focus more on their founder and less on political power. The church is repeatedly reminded throughout the bible to focus on helping the defenseless, and those who can’t take care of themselves, usually described as “widows and orphans” in that cultural context. The unvaccinated are hardly defenseless, and are more often the aggressors in any situation. Also, the best way to help them, ironically, is to provide vaccinations.

#blog #politics #Christianity

Here’s a wypipo confession for you: when I first bookmarked today’s playlist for Black History Month, I thought: this one will be interesting, Black history from one of the whitest sources around. But then I had more thoughts, and began to unpack some nonsense that had lurked in my head for years.

Is TED “white?” Well, yes. Right? Founded by a white person, run by a white person, I don’t have the exact numbers in front of me, but I think the numbers of lectures delivered by white people is probably outsized relative to the population. But why? TED claims to be devoted to “ideas worth spreading,” and it’s hard to imagine ideas more relevant and more interesting than Black history. As already discussed this month, most Black people know more than most wypipo about large swathes of history, and often think differently about societal issues in exactly the way TED claims to be focused on. I follow many Black people I’m pretty sure could give better 18-minute-max lectures than the average TED lecture.

TED-Ed, specifically, is about “lessons worth spreading,” and again, it’s hard to imagine better lessons than those about Black History. Which brings me to:

Hidden Figures: Black History, from TED-Ed
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJicmE8fK0Ege5CYPbAS4QlvZQw7hbm5C

These 23 videos, including two added just this month, match up with what I think TED-Ed ought to be. And they help to bring my mental image of TED closer to my mental image of education in general.

Anecdotally, my most well-educated friends are Black. As already discussed this month, many Black parents do a better job educating their children about life as it really is than most wypipo do, in part to make up for failings in the school system to do so. Even today, I’ve already boosted @mekkaokereke providing the basis of what would be an amazing TED lecture about Black cowboys.

If TED is “white,” then that’s a failing of TED. If it’s not, then my perception is off.

Since I fear I’ve libeled TED with baseless speculation, here are some bonus links:

11 Powerful Black TED Talks to Watch
https://itstheblock.com/11-powerful-black-ted-talks-to-watch/

50 TED Talks by 50 Talented Black Women
http://twentytentalent.com/50-ted-talks-by-50-talented-black-women/

#BlackHistoryMonth #BlackExcellence #blog

Fellow wypipo, if you think supplying or consuming a seemingly-endless series of links for one month is exhausting, try living in a country whose entire existence claims to be predicated on a lofty ideal but has in fact spent its entire existence acting as if that lofty ideal didn’t apply to you, but instead required your blood, sweat, and tears to make that ideal happen for other.

To a small degree, most of us have! But this isn’t a month of posts about how wealthy Capitalist exploit the working class, it’s Black History Month!

https://youtu.be/H0RaJDqZKqI

Black History Matters, from the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjVRz5S5oJ59kuWH_LAOiH0A6Yw7qsK7d

In addition to the intro video above, the Abolition Museum provides 25 videos of interviews and education about why Black history matters, and even how much voting rights are being restricted today.

Yesterday we were all able to see Rihanna deliver a stunning performance, an absolutely celebration of excellence, and it amazes me how this country can celebrate Black people with one hand, while expanding its oppression with the other. Joy and sorrow together.

#BlackHistoryMonth #BlackLivesMatter #BlackExcellence #blog