Okay here's a real toot that you can actually boost without people looking at you like you're crazy.
https://medium.com/@alliethehart/gameingers-are-dead-and-so-is-mastodon-705b535ed616
The past few weeks (okay, ever since the schism) I've felt kind of disenchanted by Mastodon and especially its development environment, and I wrote an essay about why that is. It's long, but if you're interested in Mastodon's history or politics you should give it a read.
For a long time, people who stuck with Mastodon through all that did so because they were a part of the community and felt represented by it and they were hopeful that things would get better and change. And a lot of things HAVE improved. But I think some of that hope is dying out and proving to be a little naïve.
Anyway, you can read the article for more. Sorry about the length lol.
@u2764 thanks for writing this; I'm afraid my worst fears have been realized
@u2764 Allie I am queer and disabled and still trying to for an assessment of Mastodon. I guess I'm wondering, is it possible to separate the technology from the creators? Especially on a federated system.
@u2764 In other words, who cares who has been an asshole? If the tech works, use it, steal it, shour it from the rooftops. I've been specifically telling RL friends (techies and non techies) about Mastodon. Wonder if others are doing the same.
Any community where everyone agrees all the time is a cult. That's not to excuse bad behavior just to say that this is the best shot I've seen at non corporate social media in 10 years.
I feel like that's worth something.
@u2764 Not necessarily worth giving anyone the benefit of the doubt or being quiet, contented worker bees. More worth staying actively involved and trying to bring your own communities here or forge new alliances. Cheers.
@u2764 As a trans dev who's been involved heavily at periods on and off since... November I think? I really don't know how to feel about this.
@u2764 also fwiw, masto the project has been around since at least april, though it was only october that the features started coming with the big influx of queer users.
at first garg couldn't see the point of wanting your posts to be unlisted, and the day i arrived the sensitive content toggle wasn't there – that was two days after (idk if i was the one who got it going, but i asked "is there a sensitive content toggle" and he said "soon, so pls just hotlink lewd for now")
@u2764 your article was good, and i'm glad that you sort of brought it all togther. a lot of my circle talked about these problems a lot during the first few months so it's nice that, like. someone from not-this-circle brought them up too
@dolljoints October is the date that I've seen cited in articles, so that's kinda what I've been using as the de-facto starting point, although I knew at least the Github project went back way earlier.
It's really interesting hearing about developments from before I got on the platform, though—most of what I wrote was just my own personal experiences. Part of the reason I wrote the essay was to help prevent that history from being totally lost.
@u2764 yeah, i def appreciate that. i only know that there was a v small number of ppl using the service at least as far back as april bc you could scroll back to conversations that long ago on garg's account when i joined (no one seemed to use it very often at that point though)
@u2764 great essay!
@u2764 but i mean... i am crazy! (like legit MI stuff)
@u2764 that's a lot better phrasing to explain this than my usual "fuck gargron" thank you
@u2764 This shit makes me so frustrated. There's so much potential in Mastodon-the-software to support diverse communities and let lots of different groups set up a communication platform that they get to control and use how they want... But the project is not thinking about the needs of its users in advance, as you said, and now it's becoming even less receptive. I want it to be good, I still think it can be good, but the atmosphere is suffocating...
@u2764 Thank you for writing this.
@u2764 Thanks a lot for taking the time of capturing and sharing this! History of community/collab projects often get lost, with a lot of valuable lessons and inspiration. As a new user who discovered Mastodon in the past 2 weeks, it is totally important for me before I chose to invest more time and community building energy in it what you captured here. Many thanks!
@u2764 This is my way of trying to contribute to a follow up: https://mastodon.social/@shalf/3887492 cc @shel@icoshaedron.website @nolan
@u2764 Thank you for your article.
I'm curious, are you planning on writing a follow-up on what exactly you think needs to change within the development effort and what you could see as possible remedies?
Because I would be interested in hearing your side as to what is "going wrong" (priorities, code quality, participation level etc) right now and what a different model/structure might look like
@moritzheiber I might write a follow-up; I haven't really decided and it depends how things go I guess. I definitely have opinions but I'm not sure that they're clear enough yet to explain to other people lol.
@u2764 Of course, absolutely understandable. I'd be curious and interested to learn about them once you think feel comfortable enough to share.
Part of my job is helping organizations transition and transform in the same way I think Mastodon will have to at some point in time. And I would love for this transition to have everyone on board, not just whoever held out the longest and has had the loudest voice.
@u2764 btw, if you think you could use a second pair of eyes/ears to bounce ideas and thoughts of .. I'd be happy to be of assistance 😊
@u2764 Thanks - Even though my account dates back way before the "goldrush" (Dec/Jan) I wasn't really part of this initial community you describe, and it's great to gain some insight about it. Still, I think the rumours of Mastodon's death are exaggerated. Gargron and the other admins seem to try really hard to preserve some of the "Communist Manifesto and Fursuit" attitude which is what sets Mastodon apart from the rest of the "Fediverse", and I hope for them to succeed.
@u2764 Thinking hard about this essay, having been quietly here for a while with a group of strong supporters of the ethic you describe, but not necessarily your core community. I suppose you could say we came as critical educators looking for similar values. We came by accident, following a friend, found ourselves here, and we've been working since to think through what it means to be marginal but hoping to be useful.
We are still here.
Thanks for writing this. It has further confirmed and clarified my feelings about the of this space. It has also for me increased the need to research and learn from what has developed here and helped clarify what maybe that research might look like. Thinking maybe such a project is a way in which I can be useful?
@u2764 I've addressed this (from the PoV of an April, 2017 joinee) as "The Normal Invasion".
https://mastodon.cloud/@dredmorbius/1058991
(I hope to properly rewrite this into an essy, but this is the present format.)
Remember: Facebook was once /literally Harvard/. And whatever you think of either institution, that's no longer the case.
@dredmorbius the word "queer" doesn't show up even once in the entire tootstream so i'm not sure you've really addressed this. if anything it's an example of the kind of erasure of historical context that
@u2764 talks about.
@u2764 there was a GitHub issue where Eugen called someone out for calling him out and now I can't find it. Do you know what I mean? Have a link?
@u2764 hello...
I read it all, and I don't really understand. it is well written but I don't understand what you grieve exactly?
@u2764 to quote you: "It is the nature of software development that the historical contexts from which features emerge are often erased", I think you hit the nail on the head, except I'd say this goes for pretty much every meaningful human endeavor, except maybe poetry, sometimes and not very often. I've joined Mastodon within the last two weeks like most other folks here nowadays, and I'm awed by it. I'm very happy to have found it, and I didn't mean to spoil it, same like probably most others.
@u2764 I'm not saying you implicated we somehow intended to do it, which you didn't - your post is very thoughtful. I'm just hoping we can continue to coexist on it and moreover find meaning, and that it will somehow be a part of a wider movement towards healing the rifts between peoples, rather than simply losing its soul and becoming a mere Rails + React codebase.
@u2764 reading further, thank you so much for the detailed history of the project! (I apologize for not being patient enough to read the whole thing before posting comments - I'm like this in RL too, I got it from my mother :grin:). It's amazing, and you've saved it from oblivion. When it comes too "far from being the product of enlightened and planned foresight, new features were added to Mastodon generally after their moment of need first arose", again, this is true for almost any larger SW.
@u2764 done. Wow. Thanks. I hope you get the tools you need. Furthermore, let me reiterate my hope we can find ways to coexist in the fediverse. Peace.
Reading this drives home that, as much as I use this as a "safe space" away from mainstream social media for listening and talking to fellow educators, many folks don't get to choose a "safe space". I remain grateful for what @Gargron has contributed to get Mastodon going, but I need to recognize those who have sustained this community as well.
Thank you, Allie. I am listening, and I am considering. @u2764
I briefly go into detail about a lot of history stuff that we don't really talk about anymore, although it's not necessarily the focus and there's more to say. Mastodon's history has been one of a LOT of turmoil and I swear it seemed like every two weeks there would be shit going down and people complaining and either leaving or getting run off the site. Nobody talks about that so much anymore, or ever really did.