Is #mastodon becoming an echo chamber? This post from @carnage4life has me questioning our community. The Mastodon team is finally getting some traction, the product improvements are increasing, The #UX is improving, yet people posting on multiple platforms are making comments like this. It's confusing.
I *know* people here don't want this to be a classic social media-clone but we'd *like* journalists to be here right? They aren't coming with examples like this!
Scott Jenson
in reply to Scott Jenson • • •As this conversation is spiraling a bit I want to make a few things clear:
1. I'd like Mastodon to be MORE inclusive and bring in more voices
2. Some people don't seem to want that
3. This is core problem to solve: How do we let more in, but not "pollute" your feed?
4. The solution is NOT "gatekeeping", revelling in the fact that AI journalists aren't welcome
5. This is the same reason we lost "Black Twitter" when it came over in 2022
Yes, a lot of you don't want AI posts in your feed (or pick any other topic) but the solution isn't to keep "AI People" from joining Mastodon, any more than it is keeping marginalized communities off of Mastodon.
Eugen Rochko
in reply to Scott Jenson • • •Scott Jenson
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •@Gargron That is a personal choice and one which I totally respect. But I do think Mastodon should be big enough, and open enough, to allow an "AI community" to form, even thrive.
Too many people in my replies don't seem to agree with that.
James Bogosian
in reply to Scott Jenson • • •@Gargron I just came back to my Mastodon account and one of the first things I see is people who have an interest in something being compared to puppy-killers by the "head" of Mastodon.
<turns it back off again>
Eugen Rochko
in reply to James Bogosian • • •millennial fulcrum
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Wouter 🇳🇱🇧🇷🇧🇪
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Jef Poskanzer
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Matt Wilcox
in reply to Scott Jenson • • •@Gargron It already allows that. The culture simply isn’t permissive of it. But that has nothing to do with the technology.
Mastodon is a system which attracts certain audiences because of its values and choices. Those are different to other systems. That’s perfectly fine. That’s good.
We don’t need to seek an audience with the same make up as other services. We need to work on systems that have the values we care about. Nothing more.
Scott Jenson
in reply to Matt Wilcox • • •@mattwilcox @Gargron But that is a slippery slope. I realize this might seem contentious but I believe it's is exactly the same mechanism that chased away black twitter in 2022. If we celebrate our culture, to the point that we are happy we are excluding others, it can cut both ways.
"Being inclusive" is like being "ethical" it only matters when things get hard.
Sharp Cheddar Goblin
in reply to Scott Jenson • • •Eugen Rochko
in reply to Sharp Cheddar Goblin • • •hko 😷🪁
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •@Gargron As a general observation, I think asking for "civility" is often the equivalent of a "code smell":
Sure, there are cases where it may be appropriate in the current context. However, I suspect that more often than not, it's a sign that one is brushing aside some oppression-related complaint (often from a position of relative power in the situation).
I think it's a good idea to always pause before writing about "civility", and let the matter bounce around in one's head for a while.
Matt Wilcox
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Keith
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Cap Ybarra
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Regendans
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Jari Komppa 🇫🇮
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Colman Reilly
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •cmdr ░ nova ⸸ :~$ 🏳️⚧️
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •Em
in reply to Eugen Rochko • • •