So I've been thinking about the events of the past week, and it has become abundantly clear that Masto probably isn't the social media solution for people that aren't white, male and cis.
Don't get me wrong. I think it's a great step forward and I'll definitely be actively maintaining my instance. I like what I've built here.
But I need to explore another option that address the needs of the specific communities that I'm a part of.
And I'll probably have to build it myself.
In the months that I have set up and run this instance, I have learned some very valuable lessons and met some incredible, really smart, ha and yes very cute people. I would have to say, it has generally been a positive experience since I've been here.
Conversely, there is a distinct cultural divide that is replicating a lot of the issues I've seen on main stream social sites such as FB, Birdland, etc.
I feel like Masto has hit a wall and is gone as far as it can.
I think Masto is a significant step forward in terms of how we can use technology to make our social media experience better, but there is a step beyond that involves having to deal with people that cannot be satisfied by assuming people use said technology the same way.
I have found there is a lot of resistance when it comes to dealing with the sheer diversity of needs that is integral to improving our online spaces.
And this is something I feel has to be baked in from the start.
But don't fret. I'm still going to be here doing my thing, but I'm also going to be exploring my own version of what I think social media can be.
I'm pretty close to finalizing some ideas and working my PV4 project to incorporate the lessons I've learned in my time here.
When I'm ready to release them I'll let you know. It's going to be a pretty significant shift, but I think it's a necessary one as well.
Stay tuned, folks. This is where it gets fun.
curiosity about your plans Show more
@Are0h Will it be an ActivityPub-compliant federated social network software, or something completely different?
@pybyte Nah, I love activity pub as a protocol, so it will definitely be federated.
It's a great way to facilitate communication between different experiences, so I'm a big fan.
@kitdarko @Are0h @pybyte a lot of my thoughts definitely are inspired by people in the fediverse who do this kind of work.
Hopefully the project will be able to get a solid start in 2 weeks, and a diverse group from the get-go to take into account a lot of the things I can't see (this is why I don't want to lead it myself).
Wrote case we learnt something in the process.
@maloki I thought you were planning a Mastodon fork, not a whole new project.
@pybyte Yes, it's a fork, but we're focusing on community over code.
So the code isn't forked yet, and so on and so forth.
curiosity about your plans Show more
@Are0h if you've figured this out and are willing to say at the moment, are the things you have in mind things that would be potentially interoperable with existing masto and stuff in terms or will they require fundamental changes that would render that impossible?