david wolfpaw • 27 Nov 2024 • Reading time: 8 minsOne thing that I am not immune from, as you may be shocked to hear, is responding to criticism online.
You would think with that after close to eight years of managing tech.lgbt, I would have the thickest of skin. It’s certainly better than it used to be! But I am still a person, even if I’m a dog online. I’m still subject to my feelings and emotions. I even wrote a whole thread about this stuff last week, because I’m kinda tired of miscommunication with folks who it feels like they purposefully twist everything said.
I’ve done plenty of things that I regret. Including a few decisions made last week regarding moderation. But I do not regret the stance of our mod team, and sticking with our ideals over the noise of the discourse.
So basically, where I’m at: I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the state of moderation in federated spaces, and I’m working on a few things relating to this. Mainly research and writing, saving the building of tools for others. The only thing that I could contribute there is likely a bit of discoverability and report handling. There are a lot of tools missing from mainstream fediverse platforms that could be a big help.
While preparing for a good Friendsgiving and some days of sharing space with some of the most important people in my life, I’m considering how I bring more of that offline self online. It’s hard to approach someone as an emotional, complex, feeling being when all that you see is a tiny profile thumbnail and a bit of text on a screen, maybe a link or two. Being able to otherize is a skill that lets us dismiss the things that we wish not to hear from others.
I don’t have good answers to any of the questions that have been raised to me, or that I’ve raised in myself over the past week. I know that there are things that I can change about myself, and there are changes that I can (and will) be making to moderation after a lot of discussion with our team.
What I do know is that the status quo isn’t working. That’s why we’re in these alternate spaces at all, right? Because we know that a centralized social media is not what we want. Now we just need to not pretend that we’re trying to duplicate the singular mindset in our decentralized, federated social media.
For those of yall with a few extra days off this week, spend them with your loved ones. I’ll see you next week! 
📚
Here’s the thing about you. You know something nobody else does. You have a perspective that nobody else does.
I’ve often said something like that to get people to speak at our Meetups, and to remove the idea that you need to be very skilled in something to be able to help others with it. You know things that other people don’t and wish that they did. Share them!
This feels like it’s verging a bit onto the “blame minorities for Trump winning” territory. But the part that I want to highlight is that I do not at all fault already marginalized people prioritizing their self care and safety over the extremely thankless work of organizing others.
Sure, it was a planned test. But hey, if the robots wanna leave, who’s to stop them? They are literally the means of production!
This is pretty interesting! Not very useful for me at the moment, but I guarantee that it’ll lead to someone coming up with something even cooler that gets spun off into a tool for less tech-minded folks to be online, and that’s a good thing.
Remember when a CD could just straight up jam up your machine to the point that you can’t even fix it via reboot? Ah, those were the days.
I’ve tried these tools for fun, but I’m not paying just to see what kind of garbage I’d get out that wouldn’t even help me parse a PDF.
🎥
Anyone who has met an American anime fan knows that what we see on TV can shape our personalities and interests. This is just that, but more wholesome for children.
Hey, at least Illy got to go through it. We didn’t spend much time actually studying for Confirmation in class, and I didn’t end up getting Confirmed, so I’m a bad Christian. Shocker 
Does it need a defense? I guess for some folks it does, but not me. Bring on the cozy baby! I don’t want or need fighting and world-ending madmen and the like all of the time. Slice of Life is where it’s at.
Not a shock that you get more interaction on paid plans, but interestingly he got more useful interaction on his free accounts. I wonder what that says about how these apps work…
This feels like too real of a dystopia that could happen, oof
If I could truthfully add “Former International Fugitive” to my LinkedIn, I probably would too
🎧
The ideas around moderation and ownership of your social self are finally getting a real hearing and level of investment in technology now, and I am looking forward to a diversity of approaches.
I haven’t played Stardew Valley, so I’ll take your word for it Arin!
If you made it this far, why not share this newsletter with a friend? Or share with me some of the things that you found that you liked this week. Either way, I’m thrilled!