I was born a nerd and fully own my geriatric millennialhood. I love dad jokes, and I embrace cringe. You are my people. Having said all that, I feel like people here are blissfully unaware of coolness as a concept. If we want more groups of people to come here, I think that's worth discussing. Along with other "soft" things like culture, aesthetics, tone.
Thinking of the above in the context of this https://mastodon.social/@davidslifka/110334151930970741 … but opting to post about it on my own timeline to sort out my thoughts, before jumping into the fray of that thread. I think the discussion I’ve seen — and David’s list, though fantastic for what it is — is missing acknowledgement of more ineffable, tonal qualities. It’s not just about safety, moderation, or technical features.
Maybe the stuff in David’s list is just prerequisites, and once it’s in place, young Black creators will be organically attracted to set up shop here. I have my doubts. I think it may require the creation of an entirely new network in the fediverse. Right now we feel like a bunch of awkward middle aged suburbanites trying to figure out how to get the cool kids to come to our party.
I wonder if everything had been the same about BlueSky, except that their stated intention was to eventually federate on ActivityPub, how that would have played out.
@CartyBoston Oh absolutely. This is purely a thought experiment, about a hypothetical more virtuous venture in their place, and how that would have been received.
@misc lol that’s a good analogy. I agree that the list is necessary but not sufficient. I don’t know what it would take for your example of young Black creators to move, but if we do those tasks at least we’ll have created a model for what a safe space can look like.
I've seen two well-responded-to age polls here, and it's really striking how old we are! Nothing against old people, I'm rapidly becoming one myself, but I think it would be great for this site's cultural health and for the future in general if we could bring more young people over to non-commercial social networking.
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