Is #mastodon becoming an echo chamber?

@dalias I thank you for this

@stefan

You can separate those "scenarios" if you are privileged enough, yes.

If fascism or transmisia doesn't come after you, you can simply file people praising them inder "I don't want to see them", and happily block them, pretending they don't exist (for you).

If "AI" didn't get you or your friends fired, and you're sure that you will die well before it has ruined the planet, the sciences, knowledge transfer, the arts, and any craft: you can simply file people promoting "AI" under "I don't want to see them", pretending they don't exist.

I for one am happy when promoters of such ideologies are feeling "policed" on the Fediverse, and feel inclined to leave. The more of them, the better.

@scottjenson @Gargron

@evan @scottjenson @carnage4life

Just dropping in to point out that the reason many people do not open the gates to multiple social media platforms is their respective Terms Of Service. When all platforms except Mastodon essentially claim a license to all content and employ people's posts and data for LLM training that is a very good reason not to participate on their platforms.

@scottjenson Doesn't this just come down to toolset? Between lists, filters, mutes, etc. I can pretty much control what I see/don't see. All we have to do is make sure AI stuff is filterable and then everyone is happy, right? I must be missing something….

@cratermoon @scottjenson @trevdev @Gargron This is the way.

@scottjenson I think the biggest stumbling block to increasing inclusion here is technical, not cultural. I'll use myself as an example:

I joined my first instance in 2017, and the biggest issue then is the same one I face in 2026, and that is finding people to follow, and following them.

My method was to find someone who already seemed to follow users I found interesting, and see if I wanted to follow any of them myself, but that would often mean having to load the remote instance first just to see who they follow, and then copy-pasting usernames into my own instance to add them, or otherwise having to reinvoke my own instance from theirs every time I want to add a new follow. That's already more work than the average user is going to want to go through just to branch out of their own instance, assuming they understand how any of this works when they first get here.

It's not race or gender or politics or AI interest that consistently keeps people off Mastodon; it's that Mastodon works differently in a way that no other social network overtly seems to work, with no real explanation of this to a casual user, and makes one of the most fundamental features of a social network -- networking with other users -- one of the most complicated parts of the process. Most people think it's reasonable to assume that, if they see a post they like and want to follow the person who posted it, they'll have to click one, maybe two buttons to make that happen; that is not a foregone conclusion on Mastodon.

It's like if I had an email address, but out of the box could only see how to email other users on the same domain, and there are six other steps to follow to JUST EMAIL MY DAD on a different domain, and nobody mentioned those steps or made them easily accessible.

I like to tinker and have some technical skill with computers and a great deal of patience. That's the kind of person you get on here with barriers like we have. To broaden the spectrum of users, the ability to more easily and seamlessly connect users across instances would need to exist.

As it stands now, the reason you feel like you're in an echo chamber may be because the distance between chambers is still too high.

@scottjenson Nobody wants journalists on Mastodon, we want to find cool people to talk to and connect with. We don't need content. We don't consume, we rather share.

@scottjenson @pmdj @dalias

"If you don't like them, then don't follow them. That should be the fedi-way"

I want people to build communities here. What you are proposing is what I've started calling "toxic individualism" - most Americans are taught this, and it's so pervasive that many of us don't even realize we are swimming in it.

But it prevents the many weak from coming together to protect themselves from the few powerful. I'm tired of being blandly atomized.

@mastodonmigration I don't think that applies to @carnage4life though. He's got a popular Threads account, and works for Meta.

@katzenberger

Sure, if you see someone spreading hateful ideologies, have at them, no issues on my end. We need to root that stuff out from everywhere, not just social media. But this was not the topic here.

Attacking individuals who are vibecoding todo list apps one by one is going to do nothing to save the environment and help the working class. People will just stop posting about it here. And maybe that's all you care about, you just don't want to see AI discussed.

Or maybe you do more. Maybe you call your representatives and lobby for stronger environmental laws and laws protecting workers. If that's you, kudos!

@scottjenson @Gargron

@scottjenson @Gargron it is totally open, the AI community can just set up their own Mastodon server. Given they will be mostly techy and have access to agents to help this should be really easy. Totally no problem with that, and totally no problem with people choosing not to federate their content.

@stefan

Just in case I left that unclear: I do not mind in the slightest "jumping into a complete stranger's mentions" if posts of that stranger transport their fascism, pedophilia, misogyny, "AI" promotion into my timeline, the timeline of a complete stranger either..

And if that makes me a "gatekeeper": I happily accept that slur as a badge of honor.

@scottjenson @Gargron

@octothorpe @trisweb @cratermoon @scottjenson @Gargron

that is what they cannot cope with, that and being held accountable and have consequences to what they say....

@katzenberger

Really not sure why you're arguing against points nobody made, but I already addressed that in a separate thread.

@scottjenson @Gargron

@scottjenson @Veza85UE @CStamp first, there's a difference between welcoming people and welcoming topics. The big tent analogy is about people, and indeed, all people are welcome in the fediverse if they adhere to the rules of engagement set by their servers. Individual servers set terms that make sense for the communities they want to foster.

The analogy doesn't extend identically to ideas. We ban ideas like "some people are morally superior to and more valuable than other people". Not all ideas are welcome, and that's a feature, not a bug. If you're set on finding a community where [fill in the blank opinion] is welcomed, you can find one, but you have no particular right to change the way all of mastodon works to make that default, nor do most of the rest of us want that.

I worry about the framing of this as "cultural suicide" for two reasons. One, it presupposes what culture should be, what its natural or optimal form is, and as you've noticed, people here are by and large choosing to curate something different. The fediverse, and more specifically mastodon, also isn't the only form of communication or community that exists. It's okay to make it what we want.

Two, you surely know that "diversity of thought" has come to be a dogwhistle for lack of diversity of people, in a very intentional way. Creating spaces where people are welcome and safe and enjoy being here results in some ideas and topics being over- or underrepresented. Which is okay because they're ideas, not people. If the fediverse has 40% less discussion and appreciation of the Roman Empire compared with X (completely made up), that's a neutral observation on its own, and not a cause for alarm.

I have thoughts on your other points but I think this is the root of our disagreement and the pivot point for all the rest.

@scottjenson @dalias @pmdj

Okay maybe you need to be clearer on what you mean by "more welcoming"?

As was pointed out already, there is nothing stopping anyone from starting, say, a Mastodon Nazi Bar. It can exist, it can be publicly accessible, it can be open for anyone to join.

How could Mastodon possibly be made "more welcoming" than that?

After "the right to exist" for such people, though, there is no "obligation to be subjected to them" for anyone. Thank *bleep* for THAT.

@stefan

I believe you may wish to have a look at the post that started this thread, especially the screenshot.

@scottjenson @Gargron

@scottjenson "advisor to Mastodon core team" makes you, sadly, an authority.

Asking the users of Mastodon to adopt Substack's definition of inclusivity is your thesis' fundamental flaw.

What you need to do (if your motivation isn't that sweet succor of VC funding) is reappraise why your definition of inclusivity includes any dehumanizing elements at all.

I'd also reappraise why you're debating a cartoon manatee in the first place. Recovering from this type of faux pa is a solved problem.

@mastodonmigration @evan @scottjenson @carnage4life Yep. Meta’s ToS are why I blocked the Threads domain.

@katzenberger

I did, it's just some dude comparing responses to him talking about "tech news, AI, and politics". Not sure how we got to discussing "fascism, pedophilia, misogyny".

Pretty huge jump.

@scottjenson