We just held another Alternative Social Media Reading Group meeting, this time discussing Hwang et al's fantastic paper, "Governing Together: Toward Infrastructure for Community-Run Social Media."
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.19653
Looking forward to adding this to our library!
We just held another Alternative Social Media Reading Group meeting, this time discussing Hwang et al's fantastic paper, "Governing Together: Toward Infrastructure for Community-Run Social Media."
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.19653
Looking forward to adding this to our library!
The first post of 2026 on the Alternative Social Media Researchers Blog is live! It's by @jjsylvia and it presents a syllabus of a course in social media ethics. The course uses a classroom instance of Mastodon to work through ethical issues in digital media.
https://www.socialmediaalternatives.org/2026/01/12/teaching-mastodon.html
Replies to this post will appear as comments on the blog.
#Mastodon #pedagogy #alternativeSocialMedia
The first post of 2026 on the Alternative Social Media Researchers Blog is live! It's by @jjsylvia and it presents a syllabus of a course in social media ethics. The course uses a classroom instance of Mastodon to work through ethical issues in digital media.
https://www.socialmediaalternatives.org/2026/01/12/teaching-mastodon.html
Are you also teaching using Mastodon or other alternative social media? Reach out to us!
@rra That presentation (co-authored with Roel) can now be found here:
https://robertwgehl.org/presentations/AOIR_ASM.html
and the 'script' is here:
Tomorrow I will present a paper co-authored with @rra, "What is 'alternative' about 'alternative social media'?"
If that title alone doesn't entice you, come for the shout-out to a really cool alternative social media system that began right here in #Brazil!
Then stick around for a 'Birds of a Feather' Alternative Social Media meetup!
https://www.conftool.org/aoir2025/index.php?page=browseSessions&form_session=642#paperID346
@rra That presentation (co-authored with Roel) can now be found here:
https://robertwgehl.org/presentations/AOIR_ASM.html
and the 'script' is here:
Tomorrow I will present a paper co-authored with @rra, "What is 'alternative' about 'alternative social media'?"
If that title alone doesn't entice you, come for the shout-out to a really cool alternative social media system that began right here in #Brazil!
Then stick around for a 'Birds of a Feather' Alternative Social Media meetup!
https://www.conftool.org/aoir2025/index.php?page=browseSessions&form_session=642#paperID346
Tomorrow I will present a paper co-authored with @rra, "What is 'alternative' about 'alternative social media'?"
If that title alone doesn't entice you, come for the shout-out to a really cool alternative social media system that began right here in #Brazil!
Then stick around for a 'Birds of a Feather' Alternative Social Media meetup!
https://www.conftool.org/aoir2025/index.php?page=browseSessions&form_session=642#paperID346
A new post up on the Alternative Social Media Researchers blog! This one is making a strong claim: PeerSon was the first alternative social media system.
https://www.socialmediaalternatives.org/2025/10/10/peerson.html
The post is based on a research collaboration between @rra and @rwg.
A new post up on the Alternative Social Media Researchers blog! This one is making a strong claim: PeerSon was the first alternative social media system.
https://www.socialmediaalternatives.org/2025/10/10/peerson.html
The post is based on a research collaboration between @rra and @rwg.
Hey! If you're new to the fediverse and curious about it, may I humbly suggest my new book, Move Slowly and Build Bridges?
https://moveslowlybuildbridges.com/
It offers a history of Mastodon and discusses the highs and lows of content moderation and governance on the fediverse. This is a complex space, but... it's *our* space. We can make it what we want.
Hey! If you're new to the fediverse and curious about it, may I humbly suggest my new book, Move Slowly and Build Bridges?
https://moveslowlybuildbridges.com/
It offers a history of Mastodon and discusses the highs and lows of content moderation and governance on the fediverse. This is a complex space, but... it's *our* space. We can make it what we want.
There's a new Researcher Interview at the Alternative Social Media blog!
https://www.socialmediaalternatives.org/2025/10/02/tkacz.html
In this interview, Nate Tkacz talks with Blake Hallinan about a new paper, "Eventful migration: Rethinking social media migration with help from Elon Musk’s sink," which is about the movement away from Twitter towards Mastodon in late 2022/early 2023.
There's a new Researcher Interview at the Alternative Social Media blog!
https://www.socialmediaalternatives.org/2025/10/02/tkacz.html
In this interview, Nate Tkacz talks with Blake Hallinan about a new paper, "Eventful migration: Rethinking social media migration with help from Elon Musk’s sink," which is about the movement away from Twitter towards Mastodon in late 2022/early 2023.
This kind of came a bit unexpectedly today, but I have a new article out:
https://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/1556
It focuses on those most controversial moderation tools on the #fediverse: #blocklists. I consider the philosophy and practice of listing to argue that those who run blocklist services work hard to mitigate their problems.
I also make a case that we simply need more scholarship on content moderation on #noncentralized, noncommercial social media.
