Talk about the thing itself: annie.micro.blog
@Annie As usual, smart and sensible! I recall, back in ummm the 70s, someone explaining that people don’t change until it’s easier to change than to stay the same. That was in the context of feminism, but I’m sure it applies everywhere.
@Annie This is so good, and a great explanation of why I so quickly abandoned Mastodon. When the loudest members of a community value “being right” over everything else, there’s no room for the grace required to actually learn.
@gregmoore it’s funny: I have been an early but light Mastodon user. Overall it’s a pleasant experience but can be clunky when trying to follow someone. That varies a lot.
@Annie Thank you. Making people feel dumb or bad about themselves does not work. My pet peeve is the reaction “What? You never heard of/saw/read _____??” So not helpful. We can’t all know everything about everything, and if we could, life would be boring.
@Miraz Certainly seems to apply everywhere. As much as we’d like people (and ourselves) to change because it’s the right thing to do, change takes energy and we all have different priorities to juggle. Lots of things in my own life I’ve been very slow to change even when I knew it was needed.
@gregmoore yeah, it’s an issue for sure. I enjoy Mastodon & many people have been quite helpful and welcoming, but there’s a loud chorus of dismissive voices as well.
@jean amen! and i love learning from folks who have other areas of knowledge than I do, that’s part of the beauty of human interaction. It’s wild to me that we’d be dismissive of/demeaning of folks who simply have different interests than our own.
@Annie @ronkjeffries I shouldn’t generalize Mastodon as if it’s one thing. I’m sure lots of instances have good people when you can find them. I just experienced a lot of purity tests and gate keeping early on.
@Annie early adopters are all too often excited about the technology, not the community. Then the community becomes about the technology and that hinders actually building a community. Rinse and repeat.
The only good (inclusive) spaces are filled with people just being people with each other. The rest should disappear for most people most of the time.