Is #mastodon becoming an echo chamber?

@scottjenson after sleeping on it, I am choosing to respond because I cannot let your narrative go unchallenged, since you speak as a "Product Strategy Advisor to Mastodon Core team". Your intentions are probably good, but the words you chose to publish read a lot like unexamined privilege and a deep misunderstanding of lived reality of many people in this federation:

• equating the experience of mass harassment on minorities to "journalists not getting engagement" is a slap in the face to both the victims of harassment and the volunteers (operators, moderators and developers) who keep this federation running. This reads extremely tone deaf and patronizing, and you antagonized a lot of people with that comparison

• engagement dynamics being different than on mainstream parasocial platforms is not a bug, it is the main feature! Many (most?) people are here seeking a refuge from the exploitative attention economy and prioritize mutual connections above the parasocial one-way audience management that most journalists have been trained to seek out. I would not say that journalists are not welcome per se, but their usual methods definitely are

• your example of "AI journalism" was very poorly chosen and contributed to the polarization. GenAI is NOT a neutral technology: it is the technological arm of an anti-social, parasitic and regressive societal project. This societal project is built on "values" that are the polar opposite of those that most instances in this federation uphold and is destroying countless lives, including those of people who are the rockbed of the Fediverse. Your replies minimizing this harm "because they're not nazis" read at lot like unexamined privilege

• "big tent" attitudes are a red flag to many of us, because they usually end with marginalized people being pushed away while "the good gents" look away from the violence. Tolerance is a social contract, and people who promote anti-social views don't benefit from that social contract

The Fediverse is the opposite of an echo chamber! I picked up sewing and tried crochet, learned about insects and wild birds. I learned about the lives of people with chronic pain, several forms of neurodivergence and am following several blind authors. I read 10 thousands pages last year thanks to many book recommendations. It is one of the very few places that still feels human, and you are rubbing against people who fight to defend that.

I recommend you seek out feedback about this thread from several women and think about how you can come back to the conversation with a less antagonistic and tone-deaf attitude. We need people like you, but we don't need the "big tent" attitude you exhibited on this thread.

@scottjenson @dalias @pmdj So I think it's fair to, when you're suggesting that we should be "more inclusive", ask "how"?

Your OP hints at the notion that your perception of a lack of "inclusivity" is due to a systemic problem with how Mastodon works. So we ask "how do you suggest it be improved"?

People's choices are not a "platform issue". So what, in your opinion, is?

@thibaultamartin @scottjenson @carnage4life I think for many people it’s important to mostly be able to discuss what is interesting to them without feeling judged. We’re all looking for a good time and we mostly don’t like conflict - except for trolls just looking to get the rise out of people. So I see how you wouldn’t spend much time on a platform that unanimously disagrees with your views and opinions.

@scottjenson I have no problem with AI-positive people joining Mastodon, but that's not what you're asking for. You're asking us to interact with their posts.

@thibaultamartin @scottjenson @carnage4life My own experience w Mastodon has been great but I avoid expressing certain opinions (which are not really controversial but who knows) because I don’t feel like dealing with disagreements.

I do however, love the fact that this is not an outrage-driven platform. It’s a bit of a safe space for many, even if it’s an echo chamber-adjacent

@scottjenson I’m with you on this one. I hope you don’t get discouraged by some vicious comments. #Mastodon is very much a particular kind of bubble, and honestly it gets quite tedious for that. It’s nowhere near as friendly as people like to claim (step outside the bubble…). I too find myself glancing elsewhere as I would like to see a multitude of viewpoints.

The reason I remain is that this is the only truly decentralised social media that sort of works.

@lispi314 @pmdj @scottjenson If you have a client that's stitching them together, that's your business.

But my instance should not be using the "fetch context of this post by me" action to advertise hostile replies by someone I've explicitly blocked to others who are reading what I've written.

@bogosian @scottjenson
This thread has a certain flavor ...

@Gargron

@scottjenson He's a large presence on multiple platforms so we should listen to him. I'd always thought/assumed that Mastodon provided the most engagement, but I'm willing to accept that I was wrong about that.

Personally, while I enjoy Dare's posts, I never actively 'engage' with them. He never enters into conversations with people, and conversations are what I come to Mastodon for.

@Helenisenough I appreciate Alt Text too (am not visually impaired). Nobody is required to provide it. But most of us in the Fediverse won't boost images without it. So the person who experiences 'least engagement' in the Fediverse and who also doesn't use Alt Text has themselves limited the likelihood of their toots being boosted.

@scottjenson @Gargron nothing is stopping anyone interested in anything from starting a mastodon server or joining one. if other people don’t want to read them, or respond negatively, then that’s the response. there’s no gatekeeping.

@scottjenson mfw i equate being anti-llm with being anti-black

@octothorpe @trisweb @cratermoon @scottjenson @Gargron In history we used a wooden box in a park lane . Most people then also pointed their finger on the forehead and followed their way through the park.

@DiogoConstantino @scottjenson @pmdj "Polite and respectful" are not ideals to aspire to. Fuck no to tone policing. That you've lumped "naysayers" and "assholes" in the same group says a lot. In this domain and in lots of domains, the assholes are entirely the boosters, not the naysayers.

@scottjenson don't compare AI bros to marginalized communities, it's some motte and bailey bullshit.

Also, nobody here wants to be like bluesky or twitter. For one thing, we don't need political rage bait to boost engagement

@fishidwardrobe @scottjenson @dalias @pmdj this analogy comparing AI people to ‘people killing puppies’ is … interesting.

One I would argue is completely uncalled for.

@scottjenson I don't really understand the question: with "i'd like Mastodon to ... bring in more voices":do mean one specific instance? Which exactly? Or does somebody need help in setting up an instance?
Mastodon is a software, activitypub is a protocol to connect, open to all.
"Unfortunately" there is still no possibility to buy relevance - could this be the problem?

@scottjenson @lowtech wow... very telling that you respond to *this* post, and not *any* of the other long, thoughtful posts pointing out the problems with equating "AI people" with marginalized people, complete with a throwaway strawman ("equating anyone wanting to discuss AI as scumbags"). I really think this tells me everything I need to know about your "good intentions" and your ability to understand the limitations of your experiences or listen to people whose experiences are different from yours.

@scottjenson @evan @cratermoon
"What value do they bring?" is the question each and every one of us asks whenever we choose to follow a person or a hashtag or choose to mute or block them, that isn't a scary question. Similarly, if somebody chooses to follow my toots that must be because they perceive some value in them, even if it's just the opportunity to roll their eyes at an old man's idiocy.

There's nothing stopping "AI" advocates joining the Fediverse and creating their own community, nothing whatever. There's no centralised gatekeeping. They're just not guaranteed an audience, they're not guaranteed reach and they're not guaranteed unconditional love. Outside their community they're very likely to receive a default negative response – sceptical or openly hostile – but that has nothing to do with the way the Fediverse works and everything to do with the big techbro corporations having done an astonishingly thorough job of poisoning the wells ahead of them.

@fishidwardrobe @scottjenson @pmdj I already had this person marked as "Pro fash apologism, 'devil's advocate'" in profile notes. Probably not worth listening to, blocking now.