Last post for a while. I don't think masto is "the answer", we don't have "the answer" yet. I've looked at a few instances in the last few days and the mood and tenor of them all is, "nice people, dull party."

There are interactions I've had on various social media that have translated to IRL spark. People I met on the now defunct MacIDOL, people I met on OKCupid when it was still a research project. (The latter was a social medium more than any dating site. It was AWESOME. The former was pretty effing awesome for an early precursor of soundcloud, too.)

Please take no offence. The boredom I feel here stems from the difficulty I've always had in finding my kind of people. I can't walk into a room and make friends quickly. There has to be that hook, like MacIDOL (hey, we're all would-be songwriters reviewing each other's music!) or OK Cupid (hey, we're getting to meet real matches and helping with psychology research, too!)

Thank you for having me, being gentle with me when my mistakes were minor and firm but gentle when they weren't. Not that there were many. I don't think.

Anyway, I'm off to explore if there might be other, more natural ways to make our online interactions more genuinely social, even less "platformed" (yes, peeps, Masto is a platform), more protocolled, and IRL relationships are protocolled, not platformed - that's the distinction. That's why Twitter has to press buttons and why Facebook has to manipulate. It's false engagement.

Without those pushes, platforms don't generate excitement. Without real human connection our friends won't follow us. So, I'm going to put a time limit on all of my posts and lock myself out of this account and fade away over 90 days. I have work to do, try and find the real solution to the mess that is platformed social media.

Truth is, with my self taught skills, you'll never hear of me again. But I have to try! Somebody does!

Lose ‘touch points’ and you lose the potential for #care. You lose what makes us human. #servicedesign https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/30/billionaires-yearn-for-a-life-free-of-human-contact-and-they-are-imposing-this-on-the-rest-of-us?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

@Kels_316 Actually sounds more early Gen-X to me. They're my people by generation, and I hate these people. The boomers are in retirement villages, their families are doing the selling off of their stuff, that's late Gen X/early GenY, too. Don't buy into class warfare memes brought to you by tech bros and protest (right or left) front lines. "OK Boomer" divides us and we at the bottom need to unite and fight these divisions.

@bohemianchic Reply guy seems buthurt, like it's his pet project, methinks. Rather Cartmanesque, in fact, "YOU MUST RESPECT MY AUTHORITIE!!!" say widdle Cartman.

Scary

#Mastoart #ArtWithOpensource #krita
#twitter #x

One of Australia’s finest songmen, Neil Murray, released a new album, The Telling, in April. The Telling contains some of his strongest songs ever. The songs mainly concern themselves with country, and care for country. “The Murrumbidgee” is an affirmation of perseverance and hope - despite environmental setbacks. The Telling sees instrumental contributions from Bill Heckenberg,(drums) Craig Kelly, (bass) Stephen “Stretch” Teakle (keys, accordian, clavietta), Damien Neil (mandolin, guitar), Jack Howard (trumpet), Shane Reilly (pedal steel) with vocal harmonies from Grace Robinson & Damien Neil.

#947thePulse #Radio #CommunityRadio #TempoOnThePulse #Geelong #Australia #Review #NeilMurray

https://soundcloud.com/john-lamp/tempo-review-neil-murray-the-murrumbidgee

@trib @bohemianchic Too many people see it as a training manual, hey 😞

Never forget which side the cops are on.

#racism #whiteness #WhiteSupremacy #FuckRacism #FuckWhiteness #anarchism #activism #AbolishPolice #AusPol #FuckNazis

Him: so the division sign is a representation of a fraction right?
Numerator and denominator?

Me: sure

Him: so why is the sign for multiplication a drunken plus sign?

Me: because getting drunk is how you end up multiplying

😐

I'm shocked

Police are not primarily crime fighters, according to the data | Reuters

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/police-are-not-primarily-crime-fighters-according-data-2022-11-02/

> A new report adds to a growing line of research showing that police departments don’t solve serious or violent crimes with any regularity, and in fact, spend very little time on crime control, in contrast to popular narratives.

@riosfrnd @petersuber @kissane I'm aware I'm touching some sensitive things using this framing. Not everyone had a happy childhood with gentle but firmly supportive parents and some people have trauma associated with the whole concept of manners. With respectful awareness of that, it remains a useful framing for the cognitive style of various instances. Some may see themselves as more "parental" and be seen by others as authoritarian. Others may be "free/open" and seen as chaotic.

This week, I went over to Bluesky and asked people who'd left Mastodon why they left, and lots of people told me. I grabbed the replies and crunched them and wrote up a summary. I think it's really interesting and often kind of wrenching.

https://erinkissane.com/mastodon-is-easy-and-fun-except-when-it-isnt

#meta

“Landlocked Niger often ranks last in the UN's Human Development Index, despite vast deposits of uranium.”
EU, France suspend cooperation and aid to Niger after coup
https://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/african-union-eu-up-pressure-on-niger-coup-leaders/news-story/3807dd15c54180249773d8e0263bfb4d?amp

(note: this is my first attempt at a QB on #firefish, no idea how it looks elsewhere!)

@kissane@mas.to your post was shared in a private Discord server of a hundred or so nerds who've largely known each other for decades. There's been much discussion in that group about the many issues with Fedi, though mostly from a "I don't want to run an instance for $reasons" lens, with maybe 1/3 members active on Fedi, a smaller number on Bluesky, and the rest probably still have 1 foot in Twitter and FB. There isn't a sense of community on Fedi with these people, and most of them aren't posting much, tho they interact a lot in the Discord server.

As a Fedi-proponent since Diaspora, I have a keen interest in what has happened in this space and I'm actually still hopeful. But it's only since #Rexxit that my feelings on this have changed to be MUCH more hopeful. Let me explain.

#Rexxit brought many members of subreddits from Reddit into the Fediverse. As they were able to set up their own communities (based on their former subreddits) on Lemmy/kbin, they were able to establish their own social norms in this new space: subreddits as part of a larger whole have /always/ had a great deal of variation in social norms (quite different to Twitter). It has brought a totally different crowd into the Fediverse, and here's the important bit: they've been able to do it /on their own terms/, and with a sense of safety and comfort. It's been amazing to watch. Many people don't even really realise that they are part of the #Fediverse, as they are focused on their own community, but I follow one large and active community from my main Mastodon account, and it works really well (doesn't work properly from Firefish yet tho) and every now and then people will whinge about Mastodon and I will wave and let them know I'm following & replying to them from Mastodon 😊

I think the reaction against Mastodon that we're seeing expressed in your Bluesky investigations, while currently a common thing, will reduce as other parts of the Fediverse grow. And that makes me very, very hopeful.

RE: https://mas.to/users/kissane/statuses/110793942888550843

Every government’s real policy for the climate crisis

This is the car industry Australia needs - retrofit or restore older cas as electrics, with government subsidies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98mlJ1N50DU&ab_channel=FullyChargedShow

In 1983, two drunk astronomers in Tokyo sent a message into space.

It contained the coded chemical signature for ethanol and the word "cheers."

This is the most relatable attempt at intersteller diplomacy ever, and it gives me hope for the future of humanity.