@mdm

Oh I'm not leaving Mastodon. I'm patient (stubborn?).

I've seen the work that Oliphant, AreOh, Quintessence, have put into this place. Mastodon has been battle tested under the most extreme racism, transphobia, misogyny, and anti-Semitism. It has burn-in.

And I've seen a positive shift recently in how Eugen and the Mastodon devs think about these topics. I'm not proposing anything new. These ideas are years old. They're just being evaluated with a new lense.

@digifox @erincandescent @oliphant @Are0h

Instead of saying "BlueSky is better!" Or "Mastodon is better!" we should recognize that for Black users, Mastodon and BlueSky both fail spectacularly in different ways that can be fixed by making slightly different trade-offs.

"😮Why would you even join a site with no blocks yet?" Is a very reasonable question. The answer from many Black users would be "Because it was still way less racist and less dangerous than being on Mastodon?"

@digifox @erincandescent @oliphant @Are0h

There's real safety through *moderation* (how do we handle bad actors?). And imagined safety through *curation.* (Who gets to join?).

To date, BlueSky is safety through curation, and that's breaking spectacularly. One single Nazi got in a few days ago, and wreaked havoc. And with invites, someone invited journalists. Journalists invited transphobes. And now we have trans folk and transphobes on a site with no block function yet. It's a whole mess.

All of the posts on Mastodon about how the Blue Sky team was silly for releasing a social media network in 2023 without blocking and moderation, even in private beta, and that the Blue Sky team should have known what would happen...

...are being written on Mastodon: a social media platform that in 2023, still doesn't take into account that Black users face a disproportionate amount of very specific types of abuse, and is missing key features that would make the Black population safer. 🙂🙃

@thisismissem

Yes, unlisted replies.

A lot of the targeted abuse that I received while on Mastodon.cloud, was unlisted replies to posts.

No one else saw, and mods did nothing with reports.

When I moved to Hachyderm, it dropped to practically zero. When it does happen on Hachyderm, mods are all over it. ♥️👍🏿

@peterbutler @fivetonsflax

I've lived in Houston and Boston, and me telling you that Boston is more racist, can't convince you. Neither anecdotes nor data.

But the "Race to the bottom of racism" isn't even important. What's important is that white people in Louisville don't smugly look down their nose at white people in Atlanta or Houston, and say "You all are so racist over there!" while simultaneously not acknowledging the equal or greater racism experienced by Black folk in their city.

@peterbutler @fivetonsflax

If I reached out to a Boston magazine to pitch a story that Boston is the most racist city, they wouldn't print it. But if I reached out to write a story that Boston isn't the most racist city, I could get that printed.🤷🏿♂️

Ask the other Black Boston residents. I went to high school in Massachusetts. Mass had more "Sundown towns" than most places. Town kids in Boston would run around trying to beat up Puerto Rican, Black, and Vietnamese kids. It's super racist.