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I'm closing up shop on my Mastodon for the foreseeable future

vkc.sh

51–60 of 89 posts

Re: I'm closing up shop on my Mastodon for the foreseeable future

#51
Ultimately it's not a question of agreeing or disagreeing, it's a question of respect. We live in a world where either you agree with me in everything or you must be destroyed.

The lack of nuance is spot on. The web went from long content in homepages/blogs, to short posts on social medias, to "like" and "share" buttons (1-bit)... it's hard to have nuance when you only take 2 seconds to form your opinion.

Re: I'm closing up shop on my Mastodon for the foreseeable future

#52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This assumes an awful lot about a person and what they may or may not need to do. People don't have to learn to like anything, especially online commentary. This thread sounds like a bunch of men attempting to invalidate this woman's feelings.

I agree, moreover, this is what the author wrote: > All that aside, the problem isn’t just “bad comments”, because I’m a grown woman and can take critique. The biggest problem is that a portion of those folks take screenshots and share them with unsavory folks. Not a week goes by that I don’t get some nasty email from someone I blocked on Mastodon. Some of these have been threatening, and it’s gotten to the point whe…

Thats all lovely in principle, but in the real world humans with a veil of anonymity will always be rude, selfish and greedy. That will never change.

Re: I'm closing up shop on my Mastodon for the foreseeable future

#53
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> disable comments from anyone you do not follow A good chunk of what I publish online doesn't have a comment section at all, but the moment someone posts a link to HN (or reddit, or...), suddenly it does.

Just because someone links to and has the ability to commentate on your work does not mean that you need to read/engage/acknowledge the commentary.

Good point, I'm going to un-read your reply now.

Re: I'm closing up shop on my Mastodon for the foreseeable future

#54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah it's an emotional skill to develop. But the person first needs to realize they are the pattern.

This assumes an awful lot about a person and what they may or may not need to do. People don't have to learn to like anything, especially online commentary. This thread sounds like a bunch of men attempting to invalidate this woman's feelings.

People are always going to be rude on the internet. It gives people a sense of anonymity which allows them to care less about the feelings of people they are communicating with.

There are 3 options to dealing with this.

1. Never go on the internet.

2. Accept that people will be rude, and develop ways to ignore/deal with it rationally.

3. Complain about it, and expect something to change.

Looks like the author is choosing option 3.

Why are you bringing sex/gender into this? It has nothing to do with it.

Re: I'm closing up shop on my Mastodon for the foreseeable future

#55

What's interesting here is that many of 'us' and the current mainstream say that Internet toxicity is due to The Algorithm, the methods of Facebook/twitter that maximise engagement leading to constant negativity and toxicity. Mastodon's big selling point during the big move away from Twitter/X was the absence of The Algorithm, it was supposed to be a friendly, geeky thing, free from monetised outrage. But I've seen i…

The funny thing is that while the "big move" population likes to say that they wanted to get away from The Algorithm, what actually convinced them to move was the threat that the Algorithm might change (due to Musk's takeover).

Re: I'm closing up shop on my Mastodon for the foreseeable future

#56
post #5

Any medium where you invite commentary from strangers on the internet is going to be full of ignorant commentary. If this is something that stresses you out, probably best to disable comments from anyone you do not follow. Simple as that. I do not think this is a problem with the tool. I do think over-exposure to internet commentary is toxic. Like alcohol, it is a poison that is only fun if you are capable of moderat…

I think there is an even simpler solution, and it's the one the author mentions... stop using that medium to post things.

[deleted]

Re: I'm closing up shop on my Mastodon for the foreseeable future

#57
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> disable comments from anyone you do not follow A good chunk of what I publish online doesn't have a comment section at all, but the moment someone posts a link to HN (or reddit, or...), suddenly it does.

You don't have to read it? If you hate reading comments AND you can't stop yourself from reading them, go see a therapist. I don't mean this blithely, it's a sign of unaddressed emotional issues, it's a fixable thing and nothing to be ashamed of. It's not "who you are", it's just "a bad behavioral habit".

The world is small, I regularly stumble across my own work or discussion thereof. I don't hate reading replies, I just hate reading replies that suck, and you can't tell if a reply sucks until after you've read it.

Re: I'm closing up shop on my Mastodon for the foreseeable future

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This assumes an awful lot about a person and what they may or may not need to do. People don't have to learn to like anything, especially online commentary. This thread sounds like a bunch of men attempting to invalidate this woman's feelings.

I agree, moreover, this is what the author wrote: > All that aside, the problem isn’t just “bad comments”, because I’m a grown woman and can take critique. The biggest problem is that a portion of those folks take screenshots and share them with unsavory folks. Not a week goes by that I don’t get some nasty email from someone I blocked on Mastodon. Some of these have been threatening, and it’s gotten to the point whe…

If you deal with 50 people one is always a tad strange. As the numbers grow the weirdest person gets progressively weirder. Around 100 k some say they want to kill or hurt you, around a million some definitely want to, at 100 million one is definitely going to try it. You can get there faster by having a unpopular opinions.

Re: I'm closing up shop on my Mastodon for the foreseeable future

#59

I find that Mastodon has become the mirror-verse version of Twitter/X. I've tried spending time on there but unless if you subscribe to certain political/ideological values then you wont find much to hang around for. On the flip side I find the discourse on X a lot more varied. There are definitely big problems with the types of conversations that happen on X but I have to go out of my way to find them. On Mastodon i…

I don't know... I have game developers, authors, scientists, musicians and all sorts of interesting people on my feed, and I see a wide variance in discussion, despite the likely political commonalities. I suppose if you can only find value in online community through political debate and heterodoxy, most well-curated communities will seem hostile to you, since most people aren't looking for shock and chaos.

Re: I'm closing up shop on my Mastodon for the foreseeable future

#60
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have to read it? If you hate reading comments AND you can't stop yourself from reading them, go see a therapist. I don't mean this blithely, it's a sign of unaddressed emotional issues, it's a fixable thing and nothing to be ashamed of. It's not "who you are", it's just "a bad behavioral habit".

I'm not going to say you're wrong, but provide a differing perspective. Imagine that for no reason you can fathom, you hear that Bob claims about you. You don't know why, so you seek to find out, and you feel you should let people know that Bob isn't right! That's the sort of logic involved sometimes. Is it wrong? Well, likely in the world of "1 million strangers are reading and some are replying" it is. But it's per…

You're very close to hitting the main point that people miss: Posting on the internet is a global audience and that means writing with a global audience in mind.

It's a thousand times more taxing than a local audience because you lose all colloquialisms and points of common reference. It's more taxing than even writing for a newspaper because even in the worst case of national coverage, it's rare that an article author would have to consider the global perspective (though still required for certain types of news).

This whole article is just the author chafing at WANTING to use social media like ne has a local audience, while being FORCED to use social media with a global audience in mind. I very much empathize, in the same way I empathize with product manual writers or software documentation authors. Having to come up with every way some dickhead is going to misunderstand you is a massive undertaking. And THEN you have to come up with all the ways that some dickhead will TRY to misunderstand you. To guard against all of them is impossible, so you just have to shore up as many sides as you can and take the criticism as it comes. That is what it means to write for a global audience, and its exhausting.

So I don't blame anyone at all for saying "this isn't my job, fuck this."

Personally, I just write how I want to write and let the chips fall where they may. I don't begrudge anyone for just not writing at all, and leaving all the chips alone. But I also don't find their intention to do so particularly worth description; especially not in long form. It's not like its a binary choice. When you have the spoons to troll any troll that comes at you, and engage earnestly with anyone who is trying to engage with you - no matter how misguided - then have at it! Make your posts and enjoy or muddle through as applies. And on days when you don't want to deal with it? Just shut the fuck up. Don't say anything. Don't reply to people. Don't engage at all.

It's that "easy".

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