Brutkey

Michael W Lucas :flan_on_fire:
@mwl@io.mwl.io

@susankayequinn@wandering.shop @8r3n7@mstdn.ca

The fediverse is very non-diverse.

Our moderation tools are poop.

I want open source social media to work, but the folks that manage here still believe in meritocracy and giving everybody an ear.

Should everybody have a voice? Sure. But the fundamental freedom is the freedom to take the consequences, and the fedi offers very few consequences.

I protect my ears. I block early, block often, and I'm a straight white dude. Most active Black users bail on the fedi early, for very good reasons... and the engineers don't care. Or they're puzzled. If the instance you run is blocked by a bunch of queer-friendly, anti-sexist, anti-racist instances, do you sneer or complain? Or do you take a good hard look in the mirror?

This system could be SO GOOD.

But it won't be.

Sue is Writing Solarpunk 🌞🌱
@susankayequinn@wandering.shop

@mwl@io.mwl.io And YOU are one of the folks I love interacting with here because you so clearly get it.

But yes 100% Black users were out from very early and that's always a red flag. I've heard it from women too, from the jump.

I stayed & hoped I could be part of the bulwark that helped get it through the growing pains and... yeah, nope.

Like you say... it's not changing.

It's just so disappointing.

And now my energy seems better placed elsewhere...SIGH

@8r3n7@mstdn.ca

Poligofsky 🇨🇦
@8r3n7@mstdn.ca

@susankayequinn@wandering.shop

It is a shame that the platform failed to work as intended. The whole idea of federation is that groups of like-minded people could build their own smaller communities, and interact with other communities only to the degree they wanted to.

Doesn't have to be based on skin colour or gender identity, either. By now there would be, you might hope, communities devoted to inclusion and rejection of superficial prejudice. Even better, actively supportive of diversity.

The tools are not good enough, probably. Even if it was easy for anyone to start a server or a community, there are other obstacles. And simply starting a community is itself a difficult task. If it's even a think one can deliberately do.

The dream is that communities of like-minded people find one another. But it seems to rely mostly on luck and serendipity, and having some tech person to take care of the infrastructure.

@mwl@io.mwl.io