It turns out, if people in an online community really don't like what you're doing, they can turn to harassment, threats, or worse to try to shut you down.
An unfortunate part of the fediverse is that it attracts people who were too obnoxious for even the more annoying parts of Reddit/Twitter/etc. I’ve made plenty of attempts to “get into” Mastodon and can confidently say that’s a miserable experience across the board if you aren’t willing to do the work to curate your feed. Even if you do get a feed that is free of bad actors, conversations rarely veer off-course from Linux, programming, computers, tech, etc., at which point that’s fine, I guess, but it’s hardly diverse. Also, for all the complaining about “techbros” ruining the fediverse, it sure is full of them.
I have more faith in Bluesky currently. If they’re able to achieve their own kind of federation then I’ll gladly jump ship since their userbase is a lot friendlier and more diverse that Mastodon IMO.
I’ve made plenty of attempts to “get into” Mastodon and can confidently say that’s a miserable experience across the board if you aren’t willing to do the work to curate your feed.
I honestly feel like this is applicable to any social media, federated or not, and could arguably even be extended to socializing in general, in terms of choosing one’s friends wisely. Technological or otherwise, navigating society is neither easy nor smooth sailing.
Although this is by no means to dismiss your experience, only to chip in with my own across different social media and otherwise. Finding one’s place among others, curating/filtering one’s connections, has always felt like a struggle to me no matter where I’ve found myself.
An unfortunate part of the fediverse is that it attracts people who were too obnoxious for even the more annoying parts of Reddit/Twitter/etc. I’ve made plenty of attempts to “get into” Mastodon and can confidently say that’s a miserable experience across the board if you aren’t willing to do the work to curate your feed. Even if you do get a feed that is free of bad actors, conversations rarely veer off-course from Linux, programming, computers, tech, etc., at which point that’s fine, I guess, but it’s hardly diverse. Also, for all the complaining about “techbros” ruining the fediverse, it sure is full of them.
I have more faith in Bluesky currently. If they’re able to achieve their own kind of federation then I’ll gladly jump ship since their userbase is a lot friendlier and more diverse that Mastodon IMO.
I honestly feel like this is applicable to any social media, federated or not, and could arguably even be extended to socializing in general, in terms of choosing one’s friends wisely. Technological or otherwise, navigating society is neither easy nor smooth sailing.
Although this is by no means to dismiss your experience, only to chip in with my own across different social media and otherwise. Finding one’s place among others, curating/filtering one’s connections, has always felt like a struggle to me no matter where I’ve found myself.