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.
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.
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)
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.