Back

@milkman76 @majorlinux Had a bunch of my friends try Mastodon. Many of them found it confusing, and just left. I tried my best to explain it and even wrote tutorials. Only a handful stayed.

Then others were run off because of anti-black racism. (A lot of Instances are just terrible. In my quest to find a home, I saw so many places using slurs. Hard R too.)

I've accepted that I'll be here and on Bluesky. That's okay, I don't believe in using a single social media platform.

@silver_huskey @milkman76 I agree.

I find that Bluesky has been a great alternative, especially since Jack left.

@majorlinux @silver_huskey @milkman76 Dorsey says he left Bluesky because it was "becoming another Twitter" or something like that. I wonder if there's any truth to it. If so, maybe Bluesky isn't all that great after all?

@daihard @majorlinux Jack wanted little to no moderation and no ability for users to block, only mute. Sorta like what Twitter is now rolling out. The staff and CEO of Bluesky disagreed, so he left.

I've been on BS for a year under my blog account before making a personal account last week. People there are determined for the place not to be toxic like Twitter. Bad actors are mass blocked, and disparaging quote posts are discouraged. People are at least trying something different.

@milkman76 @silver_huskey It doesn't mean it isn't happening.

Luckily for me, I've stayed and have the receipts to back it up.

@majorlinux @silver_huskey right, and that's what I always say - "that doesnt mean its not happening", but I continue to not see it happening. For 8 years. Out of probably 100,000 posts Ive seen or interacted with, perhaps 20 are what I would describe as an actual racist, bigot, etc, but what I DO SEE A LOT OF is the insinuation that this is all too hard, too racist, etc.

@milkman76 @silver_huskey Funny thing is, my experience with Threads and Mastodon are inverse to yours.

I have found way more leftists and LGBTQIA+ folks there than I have here and have interacted with their content.

Here, I've seen more liberals than I can shake a stick at and was literally hate bombed on July 4, 2023. That's two days before Threads was even a thing.

So, I don't know what to tell you.

@majorlinux @silver_huskey hmm yes that it indeed odd. Ive been online for 30+ years, since there was a way to be online, and never has it been as weird and disjointed as it all is today.

Now, the place connected to the corporate networks - surveillance heavy, "AI" training nightmare spaces, FILLED with bigotry and racism... are now LESS racist than plain old masto?? Huh.

@milkman76 @majorlinux The problem is that you cannot see everything that's posted on other instances. Here on my instance, I don't see a lot of stuff. However, on the mastodon.social instance, I can see much more. It's in between that kind of fragmentation that racists hide. They also send others private @'s which no one else can see.

Find a black person here who speaks out about anti-black racism on the regular, check out their replies on their own server instead of your instance. It's there.

@silver_huskey @majorlinux understood. That may be true, but Im always looking for it -- I have numerous accounts and have no trouble accessing content on almost any instance.

So you are saying most of the hate speech and personal attacks are done privately, through DMs, and that's why nobody sees it?

Yeah I follow a few people who discuss leftist ideologies, which is what "anti black racism" is included within. Would love to see the threads with the actual racism in it so that I can engage.

@milkman76 @silver_huskey Why not just believe people when they tell you it happens?

Why force someone to prove it to you?

This is the problem!

@majorlinux @silver_huskey because I dont always believe people. No. Im from the times before, when it was always, ALWAYS ok to ask for receipts.

@majorlinux @silver_huskey hmmm but I hope you, like me, understand bad jacketing and misinfo, and how it would definitely be in the best interests or large, dominant corporate social media and systems to try to damage the reputation of a decentralized network filled with leftists and people who fled their networks. This would be advantageous, indeed.

@milkman76 @silver_huskey If I, a Mastodon administrator, paying for his server with his own money, is telling you this literally happened to me, why won't you believe me?

If I, as a Black man, am telling you that other Black people I have talked to told me the reasons for them leaving Mastodon is because of the harassment and tone policing they have received on the platform, why won't you believe me?

Why do I have to prove it to you that it exists?

Why isn't my word enough for you?

@majorlinux @silver_huskey if you, a masto admin, expect others to believe that masto is a racist shithole and that bluesky/facebook/twitter are better and less racist, you arent being honest and Im definitely very skeptical of your authenticity.

I dont think Im really interested in your conversation anymore, thanks. I see you.

@milkman76 @majorlinux @silver_huskey are you responding to the correct message? Nobody said that on this thread.

@sb @majorlinux@toot.majorshouse.com @silver_huskey@fandom.ink you seem confused. Do you know what happens when people block people and/or entire instances? I'm not here for this bullshit.

@milkman76 I do. You no longer have to hear their insincere and idiotic trolling. Sounds nice, right?

@sb yeah, sure, everything is perfect, as intended. Right? Mastodon - every instance - is overrun with racists that only certain people can see and asking about it means you are a racist.

How could something so perfectly constructive be trolling?

@milkman76 HAAAAAAAhahahahahaha. What happened to your burning need for reasoned debate, my aquatic mammal friend?

@unchartedworlds there is just no floor to this argument, is there. No need to try to understand my point at all. Fuck it, and fuck mastodon. You win the day. That's the bottom line, right? Go back to fucking Twitter then, if there is no reason to be better people here.

@milkman76

I thought your point was: maybe Mastodon isn't really as racist as people say it is, because its bad reputation might have been faked in order to benefit other social networks. Was it not that?

@majorlinux @silver_huskey weird. Why would they attack you, randomly like that? I mean I am very promiscuous, I run a blog, and Ive been a pretty aggressive antifascist and leftist voice online forever. Where are my attackers? lol why arent I getting hate DMs? This is my original account.

https://mastodon.social/@Milkman76

@milkman76 @silver_huskey

BECAUSE I AM A BLACK MAN ON THE INTERNET!

Why do racists do anything?

However, this interaction is by far worse than anything a racist would ever do to me.

@majorlinux @silver_huskey this is worse for you than any racist interaction? Wow... ok... I think I see what Im dealing with here.

@milkman76 @majorlinux Again, it just gets tiring having to explain it over again.

Personally, just keep in mind that Mastodon and the Fediverse can be worse than corpo social media in some ways, for some people. Maybe, just believe them a bit more.

@silver_huskey @majorlinux speaking of believing people -- you are saying I must believe you even though there isnt any evidence of anything (its all private, hidden, deleted), and so therefore I should agree that mastodon is shit and racist without actually verifying that myself even though this SPECIFICALLY helps facebook and fascist twitter companies claw back users? Huh.

@milkman76 @silver_huskey @majorlinux I haven't been here nearly as long as you and I've watched it happen multiple times, because I follow black users.

@neckspike @silver_huskey @majorlinux I follow everyone. Yeah hopefully mastodon doesnt get trashed by the same people who fucked up twitter and facebook, and the entire american and western culture lmao, but it looks like we are headed for troubled waters again.

@milkman76 @silver_huskey @majorlinux Clearly you don't or this wouldn't be news or "hidden" from you.

@neckspike @silver_huskey @majorlinux oh, right, yeah. I get you. I must specifically avoid following black and brown people, so this is why I dont see the racism. Gotcha. How easily that comes to you!

Lol this is how you destroy camaraderie. Its the opposite of constructing anything. Take care.

@milkman76 @silver_huskey @majorlinux With "comrades" like you, who needs enemies?

@neckspike @silver_huskey @majorlinux indeed. The internet sure has been hard on the minds of some. Good luck!

@silver_huskey @majorlinux 30+ year tech worker, and I know mastodon very well. Its tiring explaining this to people, but this is my life lol.

I know how to access almost any masto instance, yes, which is why was interested in the instances seeing waves of bullshit. I literally want to try to engage and fight fascists, as Ive been doing offline and online for decades of my life. I want to protect masto.

@milkman76 @majorlinux This will be my last bit of input before I bounce from my PC to unwind.

A good way to help people would be to believe them when they say the racists/fascists are here, and that it's worse than corpo social media. Follow more black people too. Listen a bit more.

@silver_huskey @majorlinux a good way to create camaraderie and trust between random potential allies online is to, of course, provide receipts for issues of reputation that can and will harm the one fucking place online that isnt as much polluted with corporate bullshit and hosts many people who fled from the other places.

Trust is built, friend. Try to remember that in these times.

@milkman76 you're literally demanding trust while not offering any.

"Prove this to me or you're wrong" (paraphrased) followed by "trust is built". Are you serious? Read your own words there.

@juergen_hubert we arent talking about this in a vacuum. We are talking about an active manipulation and deception system that tries to bad jacket and discredit wholesome people, activities, entire ethnic groups, etc, and today we are talking about the decentralized networks of mastodon where MANY refugees from fb and twitter went. We are discussing summarily condemning their spaces - our spaces - without evidence because sometimes, outside this space, people dont listen to black people.

@milkman76 Quite a lot of people around here don't listen to black people either, it seems.

@neckspike @silver_huskey @majorlinux if you expect assumptions about everything that benefits your position, and refuse to provide even one fucking link to one fucking thread where all the hidden racism is, I am beginning to suspect you arent authentic.

From 5 things white people can do to start making the fediverse less toxic for Black people:

"It's also worth looking it over to make sure you haven't unintentionally said something anti-Black (or more generally racist). For example, stop saying there isn't racism on the fediverse or asking Black people for evidence of anti-Blackness. Dozens of Black people have shared the evidence repeatedly. If you want to see specific examples, do the work yourself to find them rather than expecting Black people to do free, individualized education for you."

@milkman76 @neckspike @silver_huskey @majorlinux

@juergen_hubert who is questioning someone's life experiences? This is all about DISCREDITING an entire-ass leftist-leaning refugee social network that was created as a place for twitter and fb users to flee to.

OBVIOUSLY the corporate bastards who own and operate those other horrible, racism and bigotry-friendly networks want these networks to fail, which is why there are people claiming "the racism is worse here than twitter/threads/bsky" without showing any evidence.