@aral I love this. Humanizing spaces is the mark of good work as far I’m concerned.

@aral hello! I knew I was missing people from my old bird account.

Also I agree!

@aral I’ve never understood the hate for “users” as a term.

It emphasizes the agency of the people using the technology. They are using it, to achieve their goals.

I suspect this is all fallout from the War on Drugs.

Just call them “tooters” if you really need a new word.

@aral This makes it sound so much better! When you use "user" in a sentence it makes the person sound like a object or something unconscious.

But take using the word "people" or "person" make it sound so much more alive. So I'm 100% with #peoplenotusers

@aral Agreed. Also, sorry, I cannot call posts "toots". I gotta stick with "post" or "tweet". 🙂

@aral there is zero implication in the word that the "user" is not clever, it's a functional word, as in "people who use the product", irrespective of whatever other personal capabilities they may have. Such us vs them, the clever vs the not-so-clever, perceptions you might have imho come from flawed perceptions and communication habits in whatever IT companies you worked at and does not come from any colonial background.
#peoplenotusers #peopleareusers

@aral you're forgetting bots

@aral I like this. We dont use the word “users” much either for the same reason, but not occurred to me the impact this has on a social media community.

@aral the fuck is an “instance?”

@aral unless, of course, they’re a bot! 😀

@aral Big disagree! Viz. Olia Lialina: http://contemporary-home-computing.org/turing-complete-user/

@aral I would prefer Tooters!

@aral I mean, it's there to differentiate between people who use the service/network/machine/whatever from those people who administrate but, yes, it does sound a lot nicer.

@aral you said 42 and that just made me smile! I like it hear already

@aral
Also:

‘place’ not ‘nation’
‘citizens’ not ‘consumers’
‘homes’ not ‘properties’

@aral
I like your idea, we lose enough of our selves with the tech we use.

@aral YES!!!

@aral Iike to call my people peeps.

Calling @Chartodon ...

@aral

@aral ...maybe add 'and/or bots' as bots are allowed. Just to keep it real.

@aral May I respectfully disagree? Context matters. When I'm eating I'm a diner. When I'm speaking I'm a speaker. When I'm with my doctor I'm a patient. And when I'm using software I'm a user. All of those roles are aspects of the person that is me. None make me anything but human.

@aral eu sempre me incomodei com isso, realmente, linguagem importa!

@aral users seems more descriptive to me. The fact that they’re people is implied.

@aral -Love it

@aral I prefer 'persons' to 'people.'
Language matters.

@aral I fight this fight at work all the time.

@aral Not every account is run by or represents a person, and not every person limits themselves to a single account.

@aral Users simply means users if the software/system, nothing more. Perhaps this is a bit techy, but nothing wrong with that as jargon often finds mainstream consciousness. User is more accurate actually, and don’t forget that a user is a person. Any negative connotation of this term in this context should dissolve in time.

@aral I have used, variously, "people," "users," "members," and "accounts" in different contexts.

There are accounts here that are not people, although people are the majority. We are members of instances if we contribute--posting, boosting, helping others, or financially. And we are users.

I have not yet settled on one or two words that perfectly capture every situation, but "people" and "members" are in the lead.

@aral on the server i've joined, we are all creatures, & i love it 😂
but yeah, agree, no nore "users"

loving the kindness here 😊

@aral When I toot in french I love "personne" which is non gendered (épicène). User is for on line services, ok but 1) it's utilisateur / utilisatrice (too long) or utilisateurice - utilisateur·trice (help, call immediately the French Akademy, french language is attacked by wicked wokists !!!) (still too long) in french and 2) as you say (I'll try to put it short) humanity matters :-)

@aral
We are the human race
Turning into robo sapien
https://youtu.be/4x5YDCj-wiE

@aral
Thankyou . Language is key to everything at the moment. In the uk we are facing something truly terrible where the far right have started dehumanising desperate asylum seekers. So keeping watch over language is so vital . We can’t have people being described as invaders ( SB our Home Secretary)and the use of pictures of asylum people using nazi style imagery in a right wing rag The spectator.

@aral i went out with a girl who was a user once. She had fine resources though.

@aral sounds like pronouns-war

@aral yes I like this .

@aral I think I’m going to start insisting on this in the new code I write.

typealias person = user

Should be all downhill from there.

@aral and offend the bots?

seems dangerous.

@aral Brilliant point. I will change my language moving forward.

@aral This. It’s what separates #mastadon for other social media sites.

@aral how dare you. There are dogs here as well!!

Joking aside, YES. People > Users

@aral very new user here. What’s an “instance”? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@aral When I wrote the Outreachy website, I used the word "comrads" instead of "users". People is a good word too.

@aral love this idea

@aral I like: this instance has 1000 members, and 20 people online