Trans rights are human rights.
Black lives matter.
No human is illegal.
Love is love.
Their body, their choice.
Science is real.
Kindness is everything.
P.S. If you started following me due to this post, PLEASE look at my profile and decide if it's for you.
Make sure general nerdiness, tabletop roleplay, and other related pursuits are the kind of content you want to see in your timeline.
Our values obviously align, but our interests/hobbies might not. No hard feelings if you unfollow. 
@dragoncrown It breaks my heart that any of these are considered "controversial".
@tabiwritesstuff I couldn't agree more, which is why I am doing this little experiment.
I've seen a lot of comments on Twitter about people being marginalized and harassed in some Mastodon instances.
@tabiwritesstuff @dragoncrown That’s the worry with instances. I think *touch wood* dice.camp is generally frequented by decent people and admin are also decent so they’d call anyone who crossed lines.
Unfortunately there seem to be instances that are not considered as safe, which just sucks.
@dcbradshaw @tabiwritesstuff My thoughts exactly and part of what spurred this little experiment.
@dcbradshaw @tabiwritesstuff @dragoncrown Agreed, but I do think that it's still a better situation than Twitter, where it felt like you had to basically beg the gods on high to get bad actors out of your face.
@iampaul @dcbradshaw @tabiwritesstuff @dragoncrown
Why? Is the block feature broken over there?
@dcbradshaw @tabiwritesstuff @dragoncrown isn't that the benefit of instances though? The more an instance is considered unsafe the easier a target it is for instance-level blocking.
@cmbarba @dcbradshaw @tabiwritesstuff Quite true.
And that requires active and responsive moderators. An interesting thing this little experiment has confirmed is that server rules do a LOT of heavy lifting.
Simply advertising what the code of conduct can preempt moderation from being needed in the first place due to an implied social contract.
@dragoncrown @cmbarba @dcbradshaw @tabiwritesstuff Yeah, and because instances are generally smaller than an entire social network (so far), the codes of conduct are easier to enforce within the confines of the instance.
It feels like it's kind of somewhere between Reddit and Discord, where things are still generally open and available, but the option is there to cordon off the individuals who are just trying to ruin other people's days.
@iampaul @dragoncrown @dcbradshaw @tabiwritesstuff
don't forget that #Mastodon has its "Server Covenant":
https://joinmastodon.org/covenant
A potentially useful thing to be cognizant of when finding unsavoury content.
It's a decent front-line filter for the current primary instance list IF it's being maintained.
@cmbarba @dcbradshaw @tabiwritesstuff @dragoncrown
i mean yeah, it seems that way to us. like it sucks that there are instances that aren't safe on the fediverse, but like... if we were anywhere else, what would we do about it? at least we actually have tools to moderate and create new spaces here that don't rely on invisible corporate drones and impenetrable algorithms
@dragoncrown @tabiwritesstuff What we perhaps need, instead, are white lists and black lists that each instance can subscribe to on a per issuebasis?
@StephenFirth @dragoncrown sorry can you expand on what you mean by white lists and black lists?
@dragoncrown @tabiwritesstuff That is both a fortunate and unfortunate thing about instances, but also an opportunity for the individual.
It is fortunate because you can find a community that will support your viewpoint.
It is unfortunate because some viewpoints are shit.
And it is a massive opportunitt for the individual because everyone can spin up an instance, perhaps on an individual basis, where you can set the rules and own your own corner. And there is jack anyone can do about it.
@tabiwritesstuff @dragoncrown They're not... they are just the ones where the person with the megaphone yells back and forth with someone else with a megaphone and all you hear is the megaphone. Most believe these are all true.
@dragoncrown I do agree with these things, but I have an allergic reaction to any post that says “boost if you agree.”
@Rabbit Fair, but this post is actually to satiate a curiosity of mine, not engagement.
One of my favorite things about this platform is that the engagement chase is not much if a thing here. 
@dragoncrown @Rabbit I mean, you could always do a poll 
@raphaelmorgan @Rabbit Very true, but a poll requires less commitment.
A boost means a public endorsement of the message. That's what I'm really interested in seeing.
@dragoncrown @Rabbit I guess that's fair, but I publicly endorse these all the time with most of what I say and do, so I'm still not going to boost and subject my followers to "if you don't boost the Democrat yard sign that means you don't believe in basic human rights" (not trying to be rude, I just literally have seen p much this exact post as a Democrat yard sign) just so they can go through the same moral conundrum
@raphaelmorgan @Rabbit That's fair. Far be it from me to impose like that. This isn't the bird app.
@raphaelmorgan @dragoncrown @Rabbit Just as a "smile" is free and can cause only positive waves, so too is manifesting positivity by spreading it.The only cost being a decision and tap!
Nature manifests beauty as it's existence by design.
@WizardOfOz this isn't free tho, the cost would be telling everyone who follows me that they're a bad person unless they boost a specific post
I don't want to do that
I'd be fine to boost a post that says all of the positive things without the manipulation, but I don't think coercing people into boosting a post is positivity
no one's stopping you from boosting it yourself, I'm just not gonna boost it and would prefer you leave me alone about it
@dragoncrown @raphaelmorgan @Rabbit I'm more than willing to publicly endorse all those messages, but I suspect anyone who has spent too long on other forms of social media would see a "this is an experiment, please boost if..." as an exercise in increasing engagement metrics. I don't doubt that wasn't your intent, but that's how it can come across. For the record:
Trans rights are human rights.
Black lives matter.
No human is illegal.
Love is love.
Their body is their choice.
Science is real.
Kindness is (almost) everything.
@raphaelmorgan @dragoncrown @Rabbit would a poll allow you to see the breakdown of numbers by instances?
@Mellifluence @raphaelmorgan @Rabbit Funny you say that because I've been wondering how I'm going to parse it all in a spreadsheet. 
@Mellifluence @dragoncrown it wouldn't, but would this? like I guess he could go through the boost notifications one by one and count them but that sounds pretty exhausting
(plus, looking through the boosts would only show who *did*, not who ignored, so any differences could be accounted for by who actually saw the post)
the reason he gave me is fair though, polls don't require a commitment like boosting does
@raphaelmorgan @Mellifluence There is also another corollary I am paying attention to.
One of the things I really like about Mastodon is that its very design and lack of algorithm creates a friction that inherently prevents virality.
It would take a vast, concerted user effort for a message to spread. Especially from a small account. I am interested to see how far it goes.
@dragoncrown sure thing, though particularly within a server, it can feel a bit like a purity test. What does it mean if someone doesn’t boost? Does who they are matter? What does it actually mean if they do?
@Rabbit It only means they didn't boost it. Speculating on the reasons behind why is not productive and I don't believe it to be indicative of the person.
@dragoncrown that’s good.
@Rabbit Yeah I'm not sure what the experiment is about - @dragoncrown was there something in particular you were thinking about? Is there a 'control' post somewhere? Sounds like an interesting idea would be good to know more about it.
@Rabbit @dragoncrown
Agreed.
This often feels like "make my account famous, by any means"
@Rabbit @dragoncrown or "please copy paste this message onto your timeline"...
@Rabbit @dragoncrown I also struggle with this and probably won't boost again. It was a constant on the birdsite and didn't feel great.
@Rabbit @dragoncrown same here, always reminds me of people on Tumblr trying to manipulate people into making number go up
@raphaelmorgan @Rabbit Good thing there's no numbers here to chase after an algorithm. This is merely for my own edification. 
@dragoncrown Always try to be nice. Never fail to be kind.
@dragoncrown Is this supposed to test mastodon?
@juneussell Yes and no.
@juneussell @dragoncrown I believe it’s too test moderation on Mastodon. With the current climate of the bird app it’s just a shouting match and echo chamber of hate and bigotry. This is to see if this is truly a safer, people moderated space.
@tydalwave @juneussell That is part of it, yes.
@dragoncrown @tydalwave @juneussell
Depends on instance, admins, moderators & coded filters/rules. Some instances clearly blocked by others.
At least with mastodon, you can move instance to one that feels safe for you. Something the bird site never allowed.
@tydalwave @juneussell @dragoncrown The tradeoff here is that as Mastodon's user base grows, it will become more difficult to adequately moderate via a volunteer effort. And if it can't be done with volunteers, then it will either need to be at least partly done by each user, or there will have to be paid moderators and corporate rules, which sends us straight back towards the birdsite paradigm.
@dragoncrown
Not many boosts 
@chindit @dragoncrown Maybe because some people don't want to contribute to the kind of karmawhoring/attention grabbing posts that were all too common on twitter.
"retweet if youre not racist ", "like this if you don't support rape"
Like come on