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@_elena How did it go?

@_elena Translation inside #Mastodon is a real game changer + step up.

But people who don't make #time or see the point in replying limits it all.

Using all levels of people / energy here 👍

rather than feel depth is a kind of liability or time-drag, seeing people as kind of #Spam for it.

I prefer the less defensive "show me what you got" usage instead of looking for perfection or short text.

Sincerity (people who critique) and #Spam can also look the same if not given time / care ur side ⚠️

@_elena
J'aime beaucoup le réseau Mastodon parce-que quelque temps je veux voir le buzz de seulement mes intérêts, (ça veut dire les trains), et aux autres temps je veux voir une vue plus générales.

L'assemblage du ton flux Mastodon personnalisé est comme cuisiner. Il a un saveur unique, et tu as le contrôle de l'améliorer.

@_elena I am from India. Here most tech platforms are GAFA owned. Hence, me and my FOSS friends drifted to here. Came here to discuss Open Source solutions. Staying here for the warm vibes.🫰🏾

@_elena Il y a quelques années, j’ai lancé le projet social.overheid.nl à partir d’une conviction simple : une communication ouverte de la part du gouvernement rend les Pays-Bas plus forts.

C’est encourageant de voir que ce mouvement se poursuit, notamment au sein de notre administration fiscale. La transparence, le dialogue et les plateformes numériques ne sont pas des “atouts”, mais essentiels pour instaurer la confiance.

@_elena I was an active Twitter user from March 2007 and have some great memories from my participation there. When the leadership of Twitter abandoned its users and left the platform to become a garbage fire, I decided I would absolutely not let that happen to me again. I am so happy the Fediverse was there to turn to. It is place that cannot be bought or sold by a rich guy with a chainsaw. It is a place run by communities for communities.

@_elena [2/2] et j'adore aussi qu'il n'y ait pas un "ego démesuré qui veut s'en mettre plein les poches et dicter son point de vue" aux commandes de l'algorithme qui dicte ce que tu as ou non le droit de voir. J'utilise le Fediverse depuis peu et j'apprends encore à trouver qui suivre mais je préfère ça plutôt qu'on choisisse pour moi (d'autant que j'ai des intérêts éclectiques et que je suis curieuse, j'aime apprendre des choses que je ne connais pas et ça l’algorithme a du mal à le comprendre)

@_elena [1/2] un sujet passionnant, bravo pour le travail de recueil et courage pour la synthèse !
De mon côté j'aime le fait qu'il n'y ait pas d'algorithme et donc que les contenus ne sont pas écrits pour être provocateurs, ce qui favorise les extrêmes, la violence et les clivages au détriment de la mesure, de l'intelligence, de l'empathie et du respect d'autrui. Et j'adore qu’il n'y ait pas de vidéos "obligatoires" qui ne servent à rien de plus qu'à attirer l'attention pour ne rien dire !

@_elena You have a bajillion of these so I'll be short,

#Fedi is the public radio of social media.

Meta, LinkedIn, Xhitter, BSky are giant trees, users (the leaves) send their nutrients (data) to the (billionaire owned) trunk.

#Fedi is a slow-growth forest of interconnected plants all sharing with each other.

And this is hardest to convey, #fedi isn't for people looking for audiences, or influencers, or "engagement". #fedi is for building a social network of relationships and interaction.

@_elena

- Part of what makes the Fediverse special is how UNspecial it is. It's not flashy, it doesn't go out of its way trying to "wow" you. It's pretty simple and boring technology. A mechanism. A standard. It just gets the job done.

- It's permissionless. Which is basically another word for "free as in speech". There's no big rich corporation behind it. There's no dictator at the top. You don't need to ask anybody. Your account is your own. Your server is your own. Your Fediverse software, in case you write it, is your own. The consequences are also your own. It does mean that the entry threshold is steeper, because nobody is coming to baby you into signing on and building your own social graph, but that's the deal.

- This, however means, that if you're invested into finding friends on your own, it very quickly starts feeling like a true home. I've found friends here. I've found a family here. My ragtag tribe of adorable goofballs. No other social network can provide that.

@_elena

For me the Fediverse is special because most of the people you meet here are willing to share their thoughts and/or discuss on equal terms. Even if there is a difference in opinions, there is a common, fact based ground. Unprovable personal beliefs are normally marked as such and not framed as THE TRUTH.
I wished is was that easy in real life. ;)

@_elena Le fédivers/la fédvierse appartient aux utilisateurs et non à une grosse société et son CEO blanc cis mascu.

C'est tout.

@_elena @cnt_tefp @ucl

@_elena I’ve never felt comfortable being active in other social spaces, the interactions tend to be really highly strung, you’re a hero and a villain at the same time due to the algorithm feed. This place is so much more chill, and the conversations are way more thoughtful and respectful.

@_elena Good luck

@_elena the fediverse is... difficult. It's not nearly as easy as "go to Twitter.com and you'll be tapped into the feed". It takes research, and work, and a little bit of technical knowledge to make a mastodon account and add users from different instances.

This modicum of difficulty has been a SPECTACULAR remedy to the Eternal September of the rest of the internet. So many people post thoughtful, quality content, everyone seems educated and knowledgeable. No dummies allowed.

@_elena According to the Internet Archive's Wayback machine I joined the proto-Fediverse (identi.ca) in 2008. It was fun. It was people who were not normal. We inspired each other to self-host, to make silly podcasts, and to share.

Eventually, I started thinking "Wow. I follow a lot of trans women. Well, I suppose that just shows what a diverse community we are."

There followed a series of personal epiphanies. I cocooned for a few years.

@_elena I used to love Twitter but then a terrible person took it away from me. Nobody can take Mastodon away! It's a system, not a website or a company.

J'aimais Twitter mais puis un person affreux m'en à emporté ca. Personne peut emporter Mastodon. C'est une système, pas une site web ou une compagnie.

@_elena Mainly because it's European.

@_elena The Fediverse is such a special place, because people try at least to be nice and educated to each other ❤️

@_elena

you'll do great. The Fediverse is lucky to have an ambassador like you. We're lucky to have an ambassador like you.

@_elena
I was on Google Plus, it was my first social media experience and I liked it. When G+ was killed my online friends moved to a lot of different platforms and I joined most of them. The one that felt best was a diaspora site. Then the site shut down because the maintainer died unexpectedly. Most of my friends moved to other diaspora servers in the USA but I wanted a server in Australia and I ended up on a Mastodon site. I made new friends and liked it. Then Twitter went strange and the whole mastodon culture changed with the influx of new people and many of my real world friends joined mastodon instances. I wish mastodon communicated with diaspora but I guess I would have no chance of finding my old friends again. I don't like the new boost everything culture but it is still better than the alternatives. I meet and interact with interesting people and they react to my comments. It gives me connections that I wouldn't have otherwise and I still have a stream that I can mostly get through each day.

@_elena interpersonal connections & glimpses in the lives of real people without ads, billionaires, influencers or algorithms.

@_elena
Its very simple, really, I have made friends here, the neurodivergence network never fails to surprise, delight, and frustrate me, and I never have to wonder who paid to put something in front of me. If I want it to do something different, I can do it.

@_elena

Ironically, I think of myself as a big fish in a little pond on corporate social media. Most people don't seem to know much at all there. Here, I'm a normal-sized fish in a big pond. Damn near everyone in my feed has some expertise I don't. I learn all the time here.

@_elena Fediverse puts "network" back behind "social" where big corps bulldozed in "media" and subverted the good old internet.

@_elena

what's special about the fediverse for me is that the feed eventually ends and i can't scroll forever

unless it's a live feed, which i can't bring myself to scroll even for a minute

@_elena

In X, I found Nazis
In Bluesky, I found anxiety
In the Fediverse, I found friends

@_elena true communication, true social/human interest, no advertising, no toxic depressing algorithms, no massive control

@_elena

The kind of engagement I’m looking for in a social network are conversations with inquiry, curiosity, and kindness. I see this all the time in the Fediverse and get great value whether I’m an active participant or not.

Three years ago a person I followed was having a very very hard time with a chronic illness.

I wrote this thread for them …

https://ruby.social/@stepheneb/109623140070246353

@_elena J'ai rencontré deux personnes extrêmement spéciales ici. Les deux ont devenuent très proche à moi. Une est maintenant ma partenaire.

J'ai rencontré ces personnes à cause d'une petite blague que j'ai publié. J'ai fait beaucoups de telles blagues sur des réseaux sociaux bourgeois, mais chaque fois, les algorithmes ont décidé de les oublier. Ici, les gens ont aimé la blague, alors elles l'ont partagé, alors tout le monde l'a vu. C'est à cause de ça que j'ai rencontré ces deux personnes. À cause de l'absence des algorithmes, nous avons pleines des opportunités pour des connections vrais.

Pour les curieux-ses, la blague malheureusement ne fonctionne pas en Français, mais c'était:

Ouais, chuis LGBT:
L - Absence d'
G - Allez au
B - Lit a l'heure
T - Transgenre

@_elena
I just like the idea that it's using an open protocol and anyone can spin up a server and run it however they like. The idea that an entire global communications network can be dominated by a couple of big companies is repugnant to me and anything I can do to undermine their dominance is worth doing.

@_elena j'aime le Fedi parce qu'ils savent ce qu'est « iel ».

@_elena (Apologies because my French is not fantastic!)

Je suis Américaine, et le Fediverse a été absolument crucial pour que je puisse continuer d'accéder à des médias indépendants et à des perspectives importantes venues du monde entier. Je lui en suis très reconnaissante.

@_elena Je voudrais dire que c’est un bon place. Tres gentil. (How did I do? 😅)

@_elena One of the things that I love most (aside from the lack of algorithm) is that it isn’t so US centric like the other big social platforms. Plus no corporate overlords harvesting our data to sell to the highest bidder.

@_elena
https://furry.engineer/@linkachus17/116209864035966637

@_elena les plateformes modernes poussent les utilisateurs à se comporter comme des commerciaux qui vendraient une marque / un produit, comportement renforcé par les algorithmes récompensant ces comportements.

Le Fediverse, c'est le retour au web d'avant ces services.

@_elena
Count me as an old guy, in my 70s.

In the Fediverse I define my "algorithm", following people who have interesting things to say or post). It means paying attention to individuals to determine who to follow, and expanding my lists both on relevant hashtags as well as strangers who appear in a thread.

Yes, there's certainly some confirmation bias in selecting who I follow, but the diversity of opinions is large.

I get to see posts in foreign languages, some of which I can read, but most I translate on-line.

I learn things from perfect strangers, sometimes inspired by them. And there's a level of engagement I don't see elsewhere.

@_elena because like email, all users and servers are equal. As the French say Liberté, égalité, fraternité

@_elena Le fediverse me permet de définir et connaître exactement mes filtres d'affichage dans un environnement riche, libre et varié. Alors il me sert une excellente mixture de découvertes, actualités, confort, chats, oiseaux etc.
Son vie dépend de ses utilisateurs, au lieu de profits/spéculations.

@_elena I started out humbly, on mastodon dot social. Now I run private servers for Mastodon, PeerTube, and Faircamp, all of which run off of a PC in my living room. I couldn't host any of the corporate platforms at all, and here I am looking forward to adding users at some point.

It's also like a knowledge hub, with added pictures of dogs, cats, lizards, birds, arachnids, and countless close-ups of lichen and moss. Plus Monsterdon!

Anyone can join in!

The Fediverse is what social media was supposed to be.

@_elena It's an honest platform. Honest people, honest connections, honest content.
Which honestly shouldn't be the exception it is nowadays.

@_elena

Le fediverse nous donne le pouvoir de décider comment gérer nos réseaux sociaux:

1. Les normes d'usage sont établies par consensus et peuvent se changer par consensus. Cela inclut aussi la possibilité de connecter ou bloquer certains serveurs.

2. Aucune entité privée ne peut censurer nos conversations au fediverse.

3. Aucune personne ou entité privée ne peut transgresser ces normes. Ni son argent ni sa réputation peuvent acheter un traitement de faveur. Le fediverse n'appartient qu'à ses utilisateurs.

4. Par conséquent, les utilisateurs sont plus conscients des normes et des conséquences de les violer, et cela peut s'apprécier aux interactions, plus respectueuses que dans les réseaux privatives.

En plus, le fediverse est un projet très proche à l'esprit de ce que l'Internet doit être, une réseau de communication libre et respectueuse.

@_elena It ought to be enough that an organization can have an online presence not owned & controlled by Zuckerberg & Musk, but here goes...

If by "prestigious" you mean they have the resources (staff, money), they should have their own instance. As complete control as anyone can have in social media.

Corollary: Having a social media handle like [email protected] ROCKS! (You might want to translate that to corp-speak.)

1/2

@_elena i use the fediverse because it has more #Social_Logics than corporate media and networks.
foundation of common ground is not profit but interest and trust. .. and with this aspect fediverse is more suitable for human InterAction .
... side-factor: there are no ads ..

@_elena Ici, tu es un être humain, pas un produit dont il faut tirer le plus de profit possible.

@_elena I love that it's both local and global for me. The instance I'm on makes it feel very local (because I chose one by location rather than interests), but I follow foreigners and hastags, and get a global feel too.
Additionally, I love that my timeline is not an endless scroll. I can always go on reading either the global timeline, or more chatty people I have in lists, but there's a natural "stop" if I try to use "check mastodon" as a nervous tick or procrastination button.

@_elena This is awesome! Thank you for speaking for us!