@mekkaokereke @lisamelton People choose BlueSky (or Threads, or Xitter) based on their goals. Those who seek to capture part of a user base as an audience choose the algorithm-driven-corpo-sites. Those who seek to communicate choose Mastodon, a Blog, a site they manage. The root of the problem for ALL of us is we’ve been trained to GAF about like count. That’s what we have to fix.

@mekkaokereke It's disturbing me that Bluesky has banned users that cannot migrate to BlackSky and post over there. Worried for the good of the ATprotocol: if the centralized mothership can drop a lever and silence any PDS they want, how can they break out of their control?

It is an interesting situation. I don't use either BlackSky nor NorthSky, but I absolutely want them to be free of Jay's control. Especially if BlueSky was just a honeypot for scattering people further after X and galvanizing the right all along. Even if they never join Mastodon, they should have what was promised in the first place.

Their freedom is our freedom: if only a handful of protocols are left for people to communicate outside of MSM, we're a policy away from being disappeared from every US ISP. More networks, more servers, more relays, not less.

@mekkaokereke I'm pro Oliphant.

@mekkaokereke imho, the fact that fediverse has more history in being multi-instance makes it better for this, even if the tools aren't there yet.

BSky is still more cathedral than bazaar, its ability to federate is mostly theoretical, so protecting people is still mostly dependent on Jay. Whereas "we protect us" is more doable on Fedi.

Not to say there isn't a lot to learn from BSky though.

@mekkaokereke We learned a lot from the work that you and your peers have been doing. Thank you. ♥

@mekkaokereke the main point I wholeheartedly agree with, and it's one of the reasons I've been spending more time in the last several months on Bluesky.

The last point though I think is key, folks should have more than one place they go for social media, rather than putting all their eggs in one basket.

@mekkaokereke 👋🏽 Black queer femme designer here – and newly leading designs at Mastodon. I've been asking myself this exact question since joining. I believe I narrowly missed the opportunity to meet you when you last spoke with @scottjenson before quote posts. Would love to connect!

@mekkaokereke
I have been watching people assert that the problems with mastodon are too confusing, or picked the wrong servers, and that's why a lot of black people left.

But not from, you know, asking the people why they left.

@mekkaokereke (as a Fedi/Masto fan) I think the lower expectations were fair enough given our previous spins around this particular wheel. but I am also pleasantly surprised and glad we seem to be trending in the right direction a lot more quickly than I thought.

@mekkaokereke Amen to all that.💜

a place uncomfortable for black people? on the fediverse i have never been in touch with a topic related to the skin color of somebody. to me - it simply does not exist. which is nice! …while in x, insta and probably all other centralized/directed/biased social media apps it is all about armageddon… seems the techelite wants to push the world into chaos. as they consider crises as a good business model to become richer

@mekkaokereke

I'm happy to see this as well, both in the sense that I myself tend to like the Fediverse more because the way it works makes more sense to me if I were to structure a decentralised social network, and I like to see it grow and get better, but also, I'm very glad to see projects like BlackSky! I haven't looked too deeply into BlackSky, but it looks like it aims to deal with a lot of the criticisms I have of how BlueSky is set up, and overall making a more safe platform for people.

On both sides, this makes me feel a lot better recommending both protocols for people, and I think BlackSky has good potential in keeping the good of BlueSky, but showing people who are already on that protocol the benefits of actual decentralisation. Might even lead me to use ATProto in some form. I'm at the very least curious about it

@mekkaokereke This is me! I'm one of those conversations!

@mekkaokereke

On the subject of improving Mastodon. This may be an opportunity to rekindle developer attention on the 'Followers Only' dogpiling harassment vector. Felt like some progress on the issue was made back in November, but don't know where it stands now.

@mekkaokereke "Where are we with improving the issues that make this place unwelcoming for Black users?" I've been wondering this too. Could you please give a hint about how to find these ~5 conversations? Is there a hashtag?

@mekkaokereke 👍👍

@mekkaokereke I choose Mastodon.

I was already here before Bluesky and Spoutible came along. I came here from the dead bird site after Elmo took over.

I feel safer here. I can wield the block button a lot quicker here.

Plus I can use language that I don't feel comfortable using on those other sites.

Oh,and Mastodon is international. Including the Diaspora.

I'm on those other sites,but I feel more at home on Mastodon.

#blackmastodon