mcneely @mcneely@librem.one

The posting of cell phone videos of brutality and murder by police which challenged “the official story” has forever changed the narrative and created space for reimagining what public safety can and should be. And that is the first step of real transformation.

one thing I think that might be lost on newcomers is the fact that this past week has been BANANAS for everyone who's been on the site for years, and if you feel like people are being snippy or pushy about social norms, that's probably why.

on a normal week when people talk about "hey please CW that" or "please don't spam your tweets here with a crossposter" or whatever they're more likely to do so patiently and explain the reasoning behind why we do things that way but on a day like today things are more likely to get a little snippy or terse.

don't take it personally! the old timers are trying to maintain social norms in the face of a flood of change, and they're worn out. keep that in mind if you think to yourself "hm; this place doesn't seem that friendly". give it some time to get back to normal before you bounce.

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.

Anyway Twitter was a great and useful social network for me. But the part I liked the most on a day-to-day basis was being exposed to really smart hackers and whatever they were doing. We are all going to be worse off if it gets destroyed, hoping this place can fill the gap.

This is a recreation of a Twitter thread of my response to someone who said re: scientists moving to Mastodon: "Leaving the global community to enter a silo makes no sense."

I think this represents a common misconception about Mastodon! The entire point of federated social media is that it isn't a silo. On Twitter you are in a Twitter silo. On a Mastodon instance you can interact with anyone on ANY instance.

[thread continues :) ]

Any disabled people here on mastodon? Don't know if anyone will see this...

@ScottMStedman A list of journalists I've found on Mastodon. Would love to know more!

@emptywheel
@joshtpm
@skrishna
@alexismadrigal
@klillington
@dell
@justinhendrix
@ElectProject
@mollyjongfast
@ianbetteridge
@mmasnick
@adamdavidson
@wilf
@clive
@katiephang
@Sheril
@JoyceVance
@tony
@rachelmetz
@kvanaren
@Crecenteb
@keribla
@couts
@palafo
@sepinwall
@mikeyslezak
@robinsonmeyer
@andylevy
@ryanlcooper
@thorbenson
@benjamin_oc
@kairyssdal
@EmmettMacfarlane
@firstdogonthemoon
@jensorensen

I’ve posted about this on Twitter but I’m really bummed out right now. #twitterstorians means a lot to me. It’s where I found out that maybe, just maybe, I have something to say. And I think I’ve managed to mentor people over there in a way I probably won’t get to because… the job market. My bad ass community of historians means a lot to me. I’m sad that emerald mine dbag gets to mess it all up because… money.

reasons mastodon's "viral dampening effect" is a good thing:

👉🏻 no "main character of the day"
👉🏻 no free text searching for people to get angry at (and harrass)
👉🏻 doomscrolling is *actually bad for you* and not a thing we should be trying to replicate
👉🏻 birdsite's virality is heavily driven by actual paid advertising and bots. You think that "Explore" tab gets its content organically? really? That's not making connections between people, it's about driving sales.

Mastodon is not, and should not be, a 1:1 replacement for Twitter. But it *can* be a new place for you to make valuable connections with other human beings. #twitter #twittermigration

HOLA! We are looking for a Mastodon developer, preferably #indieweb aware (but not essential), to help evolve a new fork (already mounted) with a few tweaks for a very big community from the birdsite.

It's a nonprofit project, but it will soon have real resources after launch from several interested people and groups.

It's a very limited, single mission, paid gig (but not a big one… yet). We need to be up and running PDQ.

I'm sad that the birdsite is going darkside, I'd just managed to curate an amazing feed, full of amazing science and scientists.

Need to curate a similar vibe here.

Any suggestions for #deepsea, #marinebiology, #bird or #fish people to follow?