mcneely @mcneely@librem.one

A week ago, I thought it would be quite some time before I'd spend more time in mastodon than twitter. And yet... I'm pretty sure I have today and that may continue.

Crazy.

I do think @cfiesler's is the best analogy for Mastodon and the #fediverse. It's like when student clubs have stalls set up all around a gymnasium: everyone's still in the same school and interact with anyone, but they also hang out in interest-based groups. If you joined one club and want to leave to join another, go for it. You'll lose the work you did (ie, your posts) in the first club, but you can retain all your friends (followers). #TwitterMigration

Having a “curb cuts” mentality about a11y features is so important. We found at @elementary that people will complain that an existing feature is missing without even looking in a11y options because they don’t consider themselves disabled, but if you put that feature right alongside your other features suddenly it adds tons of value. A11y is a core part of your product’s usefulness. It is not an optional bolt-on

https://twitter.com/mekkaokereke/status/1589086982529232896

Quite in-depth Time interview with @Gargron: https://time.com/6229230/mastodon-eugen-rochko-interview/

I am trying very hard not to get overwhelmed by the number of people now showing up on Mastodon.

It’s amazing and also worrying and anxiety-inducing—how will this system function with this many people, will old hierarchies reassert, will the bad actors destroy, will federation and decentralization weather this hurricane?

Looks like I've never done one of these, so here's an introduction:

I'm a GNOME developer at Purism.

I've less and less idea what my gender is, but I use pronouns they/them, though he/him works too.

I'm autistic (self-ID), possibly AuDHD.

I support 🇺🇦🇦🇲🇵🇸

Otherwise I'm into video games. Currently mostly Touhou, previously Zelda, Crypt of the NecroDancer etc. I usually CW game-related posts.

I can also talk about languages, though I almost never post about them.

#introduction #introductions

Hey folks, just a reminder that Mastodon isn't meant to be encrypted end-to-end. Even your DMs. Proceed with caution when sending any information on here, and practice proper opsec.

Don't send your phone numbers with abandon on DMs, and consider having another form of private communication that you can safely share through Mastodon direct messages.

#opsec #infosec #mastodon

Early worries I have as a journalist using Mastodon for #journalism:

1) Subpoenas & source protection: You're at the mercy of whoever operates your instance. I'm guessing most smaller instance admins aren't also lawyering up to protect newsgathering.

2) The owner of your instance can read your DMs. Be careful.

3) Publishers could effectively verify journalists by running instances from their official domains. They could surveil their journalists there too. Not every publisher is ethical.

This was significant. Ending the plausible denialibilty of ordinary white ppl who expect the benefits of white supremacy and are prepared to call police when Black ppl do not follow their commands - was a critical contribution to the understanding of how racism works in the U.S.

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 :) ]