After a long time of thinking about it, I'm strongly considering retiring this account. Here's why, and what I'm likely to do. I'm open to feedback from followers on alternatives.
I've used the name emacsen online since roughly 1999, and I still see myself associated with it, and making a single user instance was a no brainer.
But these days, I run an entire other instance, and a vast majority of my posts are from @serge
The main reason I created Babka was that I didn't feel Jews were safe on the Fediverse. While the mainstream Fediverse is better than Twitter, it's still unsafe for Jews, and Babka puts in significant effort to make it safe for Jews online.
And frankly, if this project can't succeed, it's likely due to still not being able to have a safe space for Jews online. And if that's the case, then why be on the Fediverse at all?
If hundreds of hours spent on both engineering, moderation, and education can't fulfill this simple need, then there really isn't much hope, and running a single user instance might offer me some temporary reprieve, but it won't change the deeper fact.
So I'm likely to keep this account up, but do an account migration. Then, if the project does fail, and I really want, I can migrate back here.
@emacsen Alright, following you over there! I wish you a lot of success in running the site.
However I do wonder what makes the Fediverse unsafe for jews in your view.
If (more like when) I migrate, I'll use Mastodon's migration feature, so no need to do explicitly.
As for being unsafe, I've had many experiences on the Fediverse that mirror the kinds of experiences I and other Jews have had on Twitter. This includes both finding and being subjected to hate speech and harassment from antisemites.
In some ways, the Fediverse is worse for Jews in that other admins will happily say they are against hate speech while accepting antisemitism.
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