 Seriously though, fedi was *built* by furries, trans and queer folk, disabled neurodivergent people. This is *the reason* the culture here is what it is. Why CWs are a thing. Why image descriptions are a thing. Why privacy matters here. Why moderation tools not only exist, but are usable — and used. If you had joined and asked yourself "wow, how come this place is so chill and kinda… nice?" — that's thanks to all the nice people from communities some people call "weird". So #KeepFediWeird. 249 comments
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 @allenstenhaus @rysiek so many folks I know are getting Autism diagnoses in adulthood. I sometimes think there’s a good chance I’d get one too if I asked about it. I hope your diagnosis is serving you to understand and appreciate yourself better! @mycorrhiza @rysiek The confirmation has sure made all the difference. Once I can pay the bill, I get the official report. Should allow me to get some accommodations at a job so I can stop doing DoorDash. My medical issues & medications treating them are making it harder to drive. I need to get off the road for everyone's safety. @allenstenhaus @rysiek @mycorrhiza wait until you learn about the autism / adhd overlap. Got diagnosed autistic at 19, it took me until nearly 30 to realize I’m displaying adhd traits too. Would never have figured that out without help from the neurodivergent crowd online  My autism always made me feel like an alien. Never belonged anywhere until I ran away and lived with a bunch of misfits and rejects. Found a family for the first time. I just learned the about difference between Disney and The Muppets, and it's beautiful: Disney: we should all be the same so that we can get along Muppets: we're all different and that's why we get along @tal I'm still struggling (being neurodivergent and disabled) and I feel like I don't fit in anywhere, despite my many attempts. I just want to belong. I think most of us do. But so far the Fediverse has been really nice to me. So that's a nice change. Oh and I'm definitely a Muppet. @rosiesocosy I'm there myself right now too. The family that I found in the post above only lasted about 9 months until we had to go our separate ways when life got in the way. I don't expect to ever find it again due to my disability and age, but I still hope to! The Fediverse is definitely the next best thing I've found. Although it is a bit of a firehose and I do get overwhelmed. I think your artwork is gorgeous, by the way. @tal Thank you! I'm sorry to hear about losing people, that's always tough. I have lost many people I thought were (good) friends, and often I don't know why. But there's always hope. At least I try to hold on to that. In the meantime it's nice to be able to connect with others through shared interests. @rosiesocosy story of my life! but I have been learning to let go too. I'm just glad I got to know what it feels like, and that it is possible to feel like you belong. @allenstenhaus @rysiek Congrats on your Autism diagnosis! 😄♾🌈  @rysiek the vibe i get is cosmopolitain, not repressive. moderation to remove jerks, not rules for rules’ sake  @rysiek I hope us refugees don’t swamp you (well, on US railroads, the term was) old heads. It does have a very special tone. But also, open source usually does, in my (limited) experience. @wndlb it's up to us old heads to educate with empathy, and up to the newcommers to help keep this place what it is. Together, I'm sure we can manage.   @rysiek As always, making things accessible doesn't just make it accessible for people who _need_ accessibility, but also everyone else. You may not have debilitating PTSD that gets triggered by various stories, images etc. but I betcha not getting them in your face all the time is working to lower your stress levels, etc. @pettter the Curb-cut effect is what we're all benefiting from around here, yes.  @rysiek It's just like the internet in the early days. Until the day "the Others" came ...   @rysiek May I be invited to the “weirdest” of spaces and places to chill. With love and gratitude, to all those who’ve been building such a beautiful place. You are ALL appreciated. I will soon fully shower and cleaner myself of the “other place” soon. ✌🏼 #KeepFediWeird @rysiek As a brown, queer, disabled, mentally ill, brain-broken Twitfugee, I am extremely grateful for this wonderful community. A lifetime of abuse, targeting, othering, hate, and general horribility has me wondering how this place came to be and being invested in keeping it this wonderful. Thank you so much. @thepoliticalcat thank you for being a part of this community. :blobheartcat:  @rysiek Seems nice so far. And it has way fewer distractions, doom-scrolling and attention sucking suggestions. It reminds me of Usenet back in the day. I do fear that, like Usenet, individual server operators will become exhausted with it all though under threat of being sued for taking down/not taking down various posts. (Remember Godfrey v Demon case?)  @rysiek guess that explains why I so quickly felt comfortable enough to make mastodon one of the few places where I actually put "nonbinary" in my bio @rysiek I still remember Wil Wheaton being run out of town, so it's not all roses on the fediverse. Real example of shooting your allies in the back.   @rysiek am I right to assume that "fe" is pronounced like in "federation" and "diverse" is pronounced like in "universe"? And if one wants to make a statement (I see what you did there :apartyblobcat:), one can choose to pronounce "diverse" like in "diversity"? :blobcatcomfywave: @rysiek mom told me that I was clinically diagnosed with mild autism during my childhood. Despite of this, I'm glad that I've met plenty of people who were born different here. I'm not alone, at least... :pusheenhi: @the_etrain so you're saying the weirdness makes you moderately content? :blobcatwink: @rysiek I unfortunately have seen a lot of gatekeeping already which is sad. I would like to see the nice and chill place everyone talks about. @TiiaAurora I've seen some shitty comments, and I called some out. Humans are complex, we all build this space together. I found calling out works pretty well around here, but that's of course emotional labor not everyone has energy for. That said, for those of us who had been here for years, these waves of new people are both exciting and scary. Keeping the vibe going is hard work. The only way we succeed is by working together with empathy. @rysiek It's actually really nice to get away from the nastiness of other social media sites for once. And if there's a problematic server you can just block the entire domain. Such implementations allow for a convergence of diverse groups to create equilibrium. it is similar to how most forums work, the only difference being that these servers are self-hosted, which may be good or bad depending on who you are and how you look at the overall prospect of an open source solution to social media @beyond9thousand One potential negative is that if you're trying to look up a followers posts and follows/followers. Not all instances/servers directly talk to each other directly so while you can see the number of posts/follows, etc, you may not necessarily be able to view the actual content. 1/3 @beyond9thousand For example when I look at my recent followers follow list, and it says 30 posts I can only see those that talk to the specific server/instance I've joined. In my case, mastodon.online. So it shows like 2 posts out of the total of 30. It is the same across all activity of a specific user. Fortunately there is a way to see all posts/follows/followers by just opening up the profile on the instance that user is part of. 2/3 @beyond9thousand As an example you can go to my profile via mastodon.online/@KowloonGhost in your browser and see all of my activity. Unfortunately if a users profile is private there is no way to see all of their activity unless you are also separately a member of the same instance they are on. That's the nature of totally decentralized social media tho. It would be nice if you could centralize that one very thing. 3/3 this bit is actually important as it preserves your privacy up to a certain extent (albeit weird, but understandable) @rysiek It’s also what happens when a system is created for communication, and not capturing eyeballs for advert views. There’s no “so and so commented on this clickbait, go read it and get angry too!” on here. The chill emptiness is how the Internet used to be, before algorithms started categorising us and showing content that keeps us engaged, regardless of how it makes us feel. @rysiek And they all have my thanks for how they put this together. Amazing what you can do when you leverage lessons learned. @rysiek I'm brand new to this place as of today. I'm already feeling more welcome and safer than on that other place. @rysiek Some counterarguments. Obligation to hide something fundamental like a political view behind a CW, is not good for #freespeech. There is always a risk of some kind of totalitarianism when people want to create a ideal (virtual) world. #Privacy is actually a concern at #Mastodon. Amateurs running servers can be a risk. Is data like e-mail stored encrypted? DM's are readable for admins.  @rysiek Are you telling me ASD built this? My people, I have arrived. Grandfather, father, son and I all on spectrum. Finally a world built with reason, logic, kindness and very little fuckery.  @rysiek how do I do visual description thing please I click on a photo but nothing happens. Yours neurodiverseky R x  @rysiek As always, the people who are harassed the most make the world better for everyone.  @rysiek lol i was on the fediverse before they all showed up with mastodon. btw i was the one who made the sensitive image plugin for gnu social. and CWs were just renamed from the RSS subject field in OStatus. there was extensive debate on how to implement it but it was basically just gargron deciding to do it.
@rysiek This is a lovely thought. I work with many “weird” kids - kids with cognitive and emotional disabilities, kids with trauma from abuse, kids with a plethora of issues that make navigating the real world a challenge. And when I began exploring this digital space, I thought - this will be a safe space for my students. What a rare special place! I hope it stays that way. @rysiek being on Mastodon since November 5th after years of using Bird site and others. I can definitely tell already that here it is the most interesting, kinda chill and enjoyable Social Network I've been using and trying.. Mastodon is my new living room. @rysiek I'm a straight white neurotypical (I think?) conservative guy but I'll be darned if there's a single thing wrong with what you're saying. #KeepFediWeird @rysiek us weirdos lead the way We’re the ones exploring the unknowns and possibilities in ways normies can’t even imagine Yes my brain is fucked for the normal world but I see things you don’t @rysiek And it will be interesting once the right-wing realizes that the advantages that accrue to those mentioned above also benefit cultural dissenters from the opposite side of the spectrum. @rysiek None of those descriptors applies to me and I agree with you completely. TBH I'm a little concerned because I want the Fediverse to "win", but I don't want it to change, and having gone through the Eternal September when I was young, I'm not sure that's possible. 🤔 @rysiek As a very new migrant, I think it's pretty good! But... really needs quote-tweets. I don't get the aversion to these. @rysiek This is so good! I was in a meeting some years ago about introducing an employers stammering network at my NHS trust (I have a stammer) and the comment was made that if we get spoken communication right for people who stammer, then spoken communication improves for everyone. This is the same - getting social media right for those who socially interact differently means social media is better for everyone. Loving the chilled out vibes here! So very much this. The next big challenge the :fediverse: Fediverse is going to face is gentrification. Like all other systems before it. Systems always start out weird and get normal as large groups seek to make them comfortable for the multitude. Most fediverse tools were/are built to help and favor diversity, but it will take all of us working to protect the under-protected, like always. @rysiek I literally, not two minutes ago, described Mastodon as "so friggin pleasant." @rysiek You have to label "Content Warning" or hashtag it or is there something else you have to do? @rysiek How come my first experience has been constant slurs and rape threats then? I think maybe only your part of this place is nice, outside it there are terrible places on the same system. @rysiek ok furries still confuse the hell out of me…. Not in a bad way necessarily I just haven’t had enough exposure or a chance to have a conversation so I still find it slightly off putting. Also because I see the out there stuff about litter boxes in schools (but I’ve heard that’s a hoax)  @rysiek ah I was a bit confused at first since I don't know of any furry #Fediverse devs, but rereading this it seems like you're talking about the community, not the code. You're right. @rysiek I don’t understand the visually impaired feature. What’s the best way to use it? I’m unfortunately quite ignorant in this area. @rysiek I'm finding this such a relief, like my best pair of fluffy slippers. New lovely contacts already, as well as some of my familiar ones |
Gregory's Server
@rysiek I've always been most comfortable with the weirdos. Last month, just after my 40th, I received an autism diagnosis. Now I know why I like the weirdos. I am one too!