Lately I’ve noticed a growing number of #News accounts on #Mastodon, and honestly, it feels a bit overwhelming. I don’t use the #Fediverse to get breaking updates, I have other sources for that.

What draws me here are real #People, authentic #Experiences, and thoughtful #Conversations with like-minded individuals.

#Social platforms shouldn’t just mirror traditional #media, they should amplify #humanconnection. Let’s keep the focus on community, not just constant newsfeeds.

#Mastodon #Fediverse #FediMeta #FediThoughts #NewsFatigue #AuthenticContent #RealPeople #DigitalCommunity #OnlineInteraction #FediverseDiscussion

I think, we have to turn it upside down - don't tell people "it is like Twitter, but you have to choose a server", tell them:

1. It is like email: you can choose any server you want
2. It is like email: you can chat with anyone who has an address (unless, of course, they blocked you)
3. It is not like Twitter where you can't chat with anyone who is not on Twitter
4. It is not like Facebook where you can't chat with anyone who is not on Facebook

#FediThoughts

I think one of the things that I like best about being on Fedi is the idea of starting with a small community and building my social graph here from the ground up based on essentially word-of-mouth due to how federation works. I got exposed to a bunch of new people in my local instance, got to know them, and through them was able to branch out and find more and more people to interact with.

And finding a small community - and participating in it - is a lot easier than people think (and we generally haven't done a good job explaining that to new folks as a whole). It just takes a little bit of work and maybe an application and a waiting period to get accepted into that instance.

But every other social media that I've ever used has had the opposite model - get blasted in the face with everybody shouting from everywhere and whittle it down to your "community", which is what I think most people are now trained to accept, and maybe why they don't like the fediverse paradigm.

But for my money, I prefer to build my network from the bottom up, warts and all. It feels so much more like "communicating with" than "being shouted at", if that makes sense. Maybe that's why I love my instance so much - I took the time (and risk) to find one that looked like a group of people I would vibe with. :bec_wink:

#fedithoughts

#fedithoughts listening to Emanuel Goldstein talk on Off The Hook recently, about being chastised on Mastodon for not using a content warning then whining about having to self police his speech, caused me to think that his privilege of speech has lead to the belief that everyone has to uncritically experience his thought stream and any problems are fully with the unwitting observer.

To me this was privilege writ large. Not just freedom of speech but expected platforming. 🧵

eeesh ... so I'm thinking of restarting my mastodon instance (machine501.com) ... not sure why ...

#fedithoughts

I feel like this is an amazing time to live in but nobody acknowledges it.

Many proprietary platforms are dying at the hands of investors.
Meanwhile, open source is flourishing and building up an amazing ecosystem that (at least for me) takes out the need for most proprietary software. The only proprietary stuff i use (besides broadcom drivers) are discord and video games.

#FediThoughts

I'm not even sure if Legend of the Red Dragon was a good game. It was a time and place. The community and feel of those BBSs in the 90s. In a way it kind of reminds me of the feel of the fediverse now. Small communities loosely stitched together. I'm not sure how to recapture the gaming aspect of that though.

#bbs #fediverse #fedithoughts #gaming #retrogaming

@alexhaist @tara I also feel hesitant at using hashtags because they feel like awkward pandering to me, like I'm begging for attention. Also because I have to think separately "okay, where can I add hashtags?", because I have zero sense for what should have hashtags.

For example, should I hashtag #hashtags in this message? What about #awkward? Or, if I'm feeling particularly shameless, what about #psychology, #fedithoughts, #mastothoughts?

Or maybe I'm just #shy...?

Would it make sense for Mastodon instances to have a "federates with" or "top sister instances" list?

This could display on the About page but can be auto-generated unlike the blacklist. Just thinking, because now while browsing instances it's so easy to get a list of *bad* instances; not so easy to get a list of *good* ones!

#FediThoughts #Fediverse

I wonder if I should do a test of my Jitsi server by opening up a fedi link for everyone to test out on this weekend and tomorrow morning when I wake #fedithoughts