mcneely @mcneely@librem.one

i’m starting to have a lot of doubts about the continued viability of a globally open fediverse.

between having to squash bigot-run instances on a daily basis, determining if new instances are run by known threat actors, and being defederated by so called “allies” because our candid conversations rubbed their white tendencies the wrong way, i just don’t see how safe participation in the fediverse for marginalized communities is sustainable.

and that’s sad. it’s sad because whiteness has ruined yet another idea with great potential.

Hello!, friends! There are lots of great resources out there about using this site, but here are 4 things about 🐘 that have made the difference for me, with details on each in my replies:
1. Finding the right server (Terms of Service crucial!) for you.
2. Following people as you would elsewhere – being curious and intentional about what you want to read in your feed.
3. Using the different feeds.
4. Patience!

fedi, for all its problems, has proven the value of the structural advantages of a decentralized system built on public standards and open source software. it is immune to capture and sabotage and monetization alike, in ways that corporate services can never achieve. we design distributed systems like this not only because it befits our values of autonomy and free association, but because it works, it scales — it fucking wins

We're hiring a Staff Frontend Engineer for Glitch — an extraordinary role, because we intend to keep innovating wildly on the frontend experience of Glitch, and because the team is deeply caring & thoughtful. The role is U.S. remote, salary is $169,000 to $245,000, I've found Fastly's benefits to be exceptional, well-managed & inclusive, and we have a warm, collaborative ethos within both the team and community. Consider joining us if you want to make something wonderful!
https://www.fastly.com/about/jobs/apply/?gh_jid=4732318

Then along came Elinor "Lin" Ostrom and her 1990 work "Governing the Commons." In it, Ostrom presented game theory approach to commonly owned resources, explaining how people as self-interested rational actors could avoid the logical trap of over exploitation. And then she did Hardin one better: she detailed the workings of actual extant commons which, according to Hardin and every neoliberal since, should not exist.

Ostrom illustrated what anthropologists and people in stateless societies have known for generations: people are perfectly capable of working out rules to sustainably manage shared resources. In her book, Ostrom detailed one common pasture in Switzerland that has been in continuous use since the 1500s. She also described shared fishing rights in Turkey, shared agricultural and forest land in Japan, and shared irrigation systems in Spain. There is no tragedy.

6/

#BlackMastodon When I started off in engineering, I told a senior colleague that I wanted to have a career a generalist instead of specializing in one area of expertise. His response was dismissive "Jack-Of-All-Trades. Master of none."

I've since come to find out that the actual full quote is:
"Jack of all trades is master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one."

With respect to all the specialists, don't let anybody shame you for being a generalist.

The #RespectForMarriageAct is good and I’m glad it passed and will be relieved when it gets signed by POTUS, but let’s not forget that 169 Republicans voted against protecting gay and interracial marriage today. There is more work to be done, more battles to fight.

Just realised that I can use :has() to lock page scrolling under modals and menus without toggling classes with JS. Handy!

People who use the #accessibility stack on Linux, do you use anything other than Orca?

I'm trying to map out unused code paths in at-spi2-core, and so far I'm considering orca/dogtail, but I'm sure I'm missing something.

#Union #BlackMastodon #Strike #Solidarity

Union staffers at the NY Times will be on strike all day tomorrow (Thursday). Please don't cross digital picket line. No clicks!

"The historic work stoppage is set to go in effect at midnight on December 8 and last for an entire 24 hours. Instead of filing stories, employees will be seen picketing outside The Times’ offices at 1pm, with prominent journalists such as Nikole Hannah-Jones set to speak during a solidarity rally."

https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/06/media/new-york-times-union-negotiations-reliable-sources/index.html

I’m seeing some posts decrying Apple’s decision to implement end to end encryption, and to move away from client-side scanning. Yes, CSAM is harmful, and massively problematic. That’s not in dispute. Neither is seeking to protect fundamental rights and to avoid mass surveillance, any indication of tolerance or acceptance of heinous activities. *Please*, turn your energies to seeking solutions which don’t entail mass surveillance, or infringements of fundamental rights.

When I participated in approving the Cryptographic Autonomy License, the only FOSS license that provides users guarantees of data portability, I thought that this conversation might start to shift. That we'd recognize that running distributed systems at the scale of what users have come to expect cannot be performed by individuals, and that we needed to shift the conversation towards how we can protect users' digital autonomy and inherent rights without them needing to become systems administrators.

Yet there has been no forward progress. I just can't associate myself with "software freedom" while it cares more about software, a tool, than the rights of people, the only reason the tool exists.

Humans have lived and thrived in communities since time immemorial. We specialize because it allows us to scale; no one person can master everything that allows us to have a happy, healthy life.

You may be able to self host a few pieces of software meaningful to you, but hosting your entire digital life by yourself? Well, we already recognize that we can't write all the code, or build all the hardware ourselves---that's why open source is important. So then why the fixation on trying to run everything ourselves?

When software was far simpler in decades past, that might have been a feasible goal! But it hasn't been for years.

The USA is not really a democracy, because there has never been a nationwide election where it was as easy to vote for white voters' as Black voters.

Most US school children are not really taught about the Reconstruction and post-reconstruction period of US history. This was after Black folk got the right to vote but before racists did the above math. Black Southerners won elections!

Then they got Jan 6th'ed and ran out by violence. 🤷🏿‍♂️

Y'all can start warming up your "epic takedowns" and "scathing dissents" of the impending decision.

I don't believe in "States rights," because most all of the time, that just means "States' rights to be racist to Black folk."

About 50% of all white US voters reliably vote for the more right wing candidate.🥲 50% vote against. About 90% of Black voters vote against right wing candidates.

Who wins an election depends on how many Black folk vote.