@evan

I think online communication — of which Fediverse is now the culmination — mirror that quote from the Conrad's _The Heart of Darkness_, something like:

“The human mind is the most dangerous thing because everything is in it.”

These spaces are the best and the worst of everything humans can think.

And in dark times like these, it leans to the worst.

So, I voted: “No, but…”

@evan in general, yes, but that's partly because i block anyone i don't like :)

@evan The vast majority are amazing but.... there is a tiny subset that wants to police everyone else to enforce their rules and it just gets SO OLD

@evan Yes. Even if I blocked you it ain't personal and I hope you're doing well. We're all on a journey and what a place this is turning out to be!

@evan I follow people either if I know them well or if I look at their profile and am interested in their posts. Some people I follow are: @Kaliah , @Haven_of_dreams , @elliottman98 , @Ethan_edwards , @samtupy , @maysoncabo , @cartertemm , @Evdog1245 , @stevo399 , @lexipic , @grace , @MS26 , @MutedTrampet , @BrailleScreen All these people post really cool things. I have a small number of people I follow but like seeing everything that's posted on my home feed. All these people post really cool things.

@evan Most of them, a few crazy's like everyware.

Evan Prodromou The poll doesn’t show on my NoeBB-based site, so I’ll just answer via write-in.

Yes, but… There are a lot of really great, kind, interesting, intelligent, and/or engaging people here that I’m glad to interact with.

I’ve also come across an amount of vaguely revenge-of-the-nerdish behaviour, where angry folks show up in the comments and demand basic things be hidden behind content warnings or that I follow some rule from their instance on my server I pay for, and that they’re only seeing posts from because of some choice someone on their instance made, and they often don’t take get lost for an answer.

@evan I went with "Yes, but", but it could just as easily have been "No, but". I've met some truly great people here who I consider friends. It also seems to house more than its fair share of assholes. I find myself reluctant to talk to people unless I've known them for a while. These days, if I interact, I tend to keep things clinical.

@evan the vast majority of people I've interacted with on the Fediverse have been wonderful people. I'm aware this isn't necessarily representative of the Fediverse as a whole. I feel that my instance does a pretty good job of moderation, and I am somewhat selective of who I follow.

@evan

Yes! So many awesome earthlings on here, nerding out on the weirdest topics. My ever-curious brain is so grateful for all of you!

@evan
I specially dislike the people who makes polls.

@evan Yes, but… no social platform isn’t without having awful humans participating.

@evan Yes.
Occasionally when a "but" gets in, so do the multiple levels of block.
Then we are back to plain "Yes".

@evan Yes, most of them are at least decent, but I've had to curate to find the ones I really like. I don't think this is very out of the norm though, so I'd say yes mostly.

@evan

Yes, very much, but sometimes they don't like me. It's usually a misunderstanding.

@evan yes but my god some people. Yesterday I saw someone "well akshually" defend the validity of the word race in a discussion about the genocide of non-whites in Argentina. Like really dude?

@evan Yes, but not all.