@knizer@toot.boston
@knizer@toot.boston avatar

knizer

@knizer@toot.boston

As a way to build local community here, I compile a #BostonWeekend thread most weeks, sharing New England-ish events, and I hope you'll follow/use that tag yourself if you find the posts to be useful.

Eldritch, feminist, neuro-spicy, anti-fascist, pinko. Quadragenarian, born @340ppm. Product manager.

Super Effective: Seatbelts, bike helmets, N95s.

📍#SomervilleMA #Massachusetts
#NoBot

#CovidCautious

End Cash Bail; Abolish the death penalty. 🌹🍉

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

pbump, to random
@pbump@journa.host avatar

Every street in New York. Every tree in New York. The shade of every tree in New York. Every hour of every day.

Mapped. https://s2.washingtonpost.com/camp-rw/?trackId=596b02b6ade4e24119ac1a18&s=64ea05b726387a09d9049936&linknum=5&linktot=70&linknum=5&linktot=70

knizer,
@knizer@toot.boston avatar

@pbump This level of detail visualizing 's is incredible

We don't have that level of detail wrt shade/size - but here in the highest population density per square mile city in , , we at least have captured the location and species of all our street trees:
https://www.somervillema.gov/departments/ospcd/psuf/urban-forestry#tree-inventory

misc, to boston
@misc@mastodon.social avatar

What's a good place to get a bunch of cheap toy musical instruments?

knizer,
@knizer@toot.boston avatar

@misc how much time do you have? AliExpress usually ships from abroad which can take 14-60+ days, but one can find rock bottom pricing. e.g. https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804589636274.html

mho, to twitter

Germany once again leading the : The parliament of the federal state of stops posting to #X/ and will use instead.

It speaks of problematic developments under and says, that for example content is now barely moderated over there. And also that the significance of Twitter shrinks.

Here it is: @ltrlp

https://www.landtag.rlp.de/de/aktuelles/detail/news/News/detail/hier-twitterte-die-verwaltung-des-ltrlp-landtag-stellt-kommunikation-auf-x-ein/

knizer,
@knizer@toot.boston avatar

@gbhnews @otterX @mho @ltrlp @CityOfBoston @wutrain

Electeds will not show up here until the local community is active. I'm trying my best to organize and connect with folks in my local community - but bootstrapping is a hard sell.

To get people here, what can you do so that politicians show up?
Evangelism of this space as a non-corporate, non walled-garden commons helps. Posting and boosting things you want to see here, helps. Organizing with likeminded people here helps. Calling out nonsense here (assorted -isms and -phobias) so that marginalized groups have better experiences helps.

jbigham, to random
@jbigham@hci.social avatar

if some people can be booked in 20 minutes, others take an hour, and most regular people take hours, how is that equal under the law?

we should legislate usability

knizer,
@knizer@toot.boston avatar

@jbigham what if we, you know, just ended cash bail, instead?

knizer, to random
@knizer@toot.boston avatar

Whats the difference between a liberal and a leftist?

Not looking for a punchline, I'm curious how folks on this part of the Fedi, who broadly describe themselves on the 'not-conservative' spectrum view these labels.

knizer,
@knizer@toot.boston avatar

@seachanger I feel like there's a range there, though. Like, its a spectrum from full abolition of all government programs to 'no cops no borders pay public school teachers well' to 'lets just give all these nice government arms more money and it will all sort out, police can be reformed'.

knizer,
@knizer@toot.boston avatar

@misc @seachanger

introducing the Marvel Political Spectrum Multiverse™℠®© !

Brought to you by Disney, The American Government's Content Farm

knizer,
@knizer@toot.boston avatar

@seachanger @misc I like it. In another way, maybe: Lefties are more open to options beyond the binary normally presented. Conservatives trend 'you're either with us or against us'. Oh well.

knizer,
@knizer@toot.boston avatar

@seachanger @misc

I really, really don't want to be organizing for the 2024 election on Twitter or BlueSky, but at the moment, thats where the bodies are.

Conflict is sticky and increases view counts dot dot dot advertisements.

knizer,
@knizer@toot.boston avatar

@seachanger @misc I like to think that some tweets I wrote had something to do with some of the local campaigns and ballot measures that we pretty close in my neck of the world.

Broadly the thing I'm trying to do is get the ball rolling in my part of the fediverse, by collecting and sharing Boston area Stuff, to draw local people in. We get enough locals self-identifying as living in my city here, the local electeds will follow. Maybe.

knizer,
@knizer@toot.boston avatar

@seachanger @misc

The last bit, organizing the organizers, is core. They have a broader reach than I do alone and can force multiply my efforts through their existing connections elsewhere.

Folks who are tuned in to local politics outside of election season have to network somewhere.

I still have optimism for a space other than the (Bluesky Meta Twitter) cesspit for meta-organizing in the 2024 campaign season. The revolution won't be televised, but I'm not 100% confident its going to be organized via ephemeral short posts on mastodon/fediverse.

knizer,
@knizer@toot.boston avatar

@seachanger @misc

A range of methods for GOTV efforts get people involved. We're fortunate to have mail in ballots in my city, and thats made some difference in turnout, whomever got that measure passed probably got more votes cast than I ever will in a lifetime of election related phone calls to voters.

Lots of tools at our disposal. like scrooge mcduck says, work smarter, not harder.

eniko, to random
@eniko@peoplemaking.games avatar

It upsets me when people speculate despondently that we'll never get rid of covid now, that our chance has passed, when meanwhile we're not even trying for the lowest of low hanging fruit

For example, airplanes should be running their air filtration at max when boarding and deplaning. They don't. They have never done this throughout the pandemic. They can, there's no technical issue preventing them from doing this, they just don't, helping to spread covid variants internationally

Or schools. We've seen studies show that schools are a major vector for the spread of covid (and other airborne diseases!) We've also anecdotally seen many examples of schools that kept covid out completely, either through ventilation and filtration or testing and masking or some combination. Putting air filters in classrooms is dirt cheap compared to disabling students and sickening their households, but it's not even being looked at

They haven't even tried literally pushing a button and are telling us nothing can be done

knizer,
@knizer@toot.boston avatar

@eniko This is smart. This is good praxis.

misc, to random
@misc@mastodon.social avatar

Hey so, if I got my suit back from the in house tailors at SuitSupply, and it looks terrible, can I ask for an exchange, or will they be like, “you should have been clearer when we were selecting the off the rack suit and fitting you”

knizer,
@knizer@toot.boston avatar

@misc Feels like a mistake to keep clothes that don't fit you right, or make you look bad. Ask for the exchange, worst they can do is say 'no'.

ernie, to random
@ernie@writing.exchange avatar

A big chunk of Motherboard’s staff just went off and built their own thing.

Reader-supported tech media. Support them here: https://www.404media.co/welcome-to-404-media/

knizer,
@knizer@toot.boston avatar

@ernie

Cop Slide story!

404media has already FOIA'ed the city about the viral video in , and got a response, summarized in the below article.

The officer hit his head and arm, but the city asserts that there's no bodycam footage, despite several officers standing around laughing, and one possibly filming with their phone camera.

https://www.404media.co/cop-slide-incident-report-details-harrowing-day-for-boston-police/

Teri_Kanefield, to random

deleted_by_author

    •
    knizer,
    @knizer@toot.boston avatar

    @Teri_Kanefield 😃

    I am reminded of the story by a lawyer who tried to help their toddler fall asleep, by reading him Contract Law texts:

    https://www.reddit.com/r/tifu/comments/96afny/tifu_by_reading_contract_law_textbooks_to_my_2/

    knizer, to somerville
    @knizer@toot.boston avatar

    What are the blockers from getting local political discourse migrated onto the fediverse?

    Like, I live in #SomervilleMA - and we don't yet have any #SomervilleCityCouncil folks here yet, afaik. But most of them are relatively active still on birdsite?

    We've got an election cycle coming up locally this fall, and I'm loathe to resume activity over on Twitter. #MAPoli #Somerville

    knizer,
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    @Bam Please say more about that! Why would that help?

    knizer,
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    @CartyBoston Those are pretty big blockers! How might we change that?

    knizer,
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    @Bam

    Thank you! While I'm happy you're having a good experience there, I'm not on Threads.

    I admit, having followed the discourse, I'll be surprised if Threads federates before the fall election cycle. But don't share your optimism for positive outcomes, should that happen.

    It is important that we can define and control the workings of a commons where locals can discuss local politics, one that doesn't rely on the billionaire class' whims.

    knizer,
    @knizer@toot.boston avatar

    @CartyBoston

    Folks have a lot to be aware of, and fear.

    I run my instance as well, and have had similar experiences - recruitment is hard. Most of my users are inactive, haven't posted more than 5 times.

    What are your friends saying about why they aren't more active on your instance(s), or don't want to join?

    knizer,
    @knizer@toot.boston avatar

    @Bam Yeah, I think we're on the same page, and appreciate your insights here. 🙏

    The catch-22 is that politicians are going to go where they think the audience is, and the audience is going to go where the brands/celebs/politicians they want to keep tabs on, and occasionally fawn/yell at are. And, you're totally right, the Insta->Threads pipeline is strong.

    I'm loathe to make the fediverse a great place for Brands and Corporations to hang out and sell us things, but I'm onboard for people.

    knizer,
    @knizer@toot.boston avatar

    @CartyBoston

    Keep in mind the 1% rule though - even though the concept of virality here is wildly different than other social media platforms (Wow my post got 5 likes, red letter day!) - the vast majority of users are....just going to lurk.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1%25_rule

    But here, you have to post things, regularly, here for this game to be fun. You're rewarded by strangers who find your stuff.

    The vast majority of my social circle doesn't get this place - its a lot of work to start over in a new social media platform when your social graph doesn't readily transfer, there's a lot of scolds, harassment is a HUGE problem, the UI is wacky, there's no search, and every other platform recognizes that, in order to be addictive, they have to spoon feed you from the algorithm once you run out of New Stuff to consume.

    knizer, to boston
    @knizer@toot.boston avatar

    - its time for the !

    https://somervilleartscouncil.org/yartsale

    "Yart Sale is an opportunity for artists to sell from the comfort of their yards, driveways and porch. Think of a yard sale but with ART!

    On Saturday, August 12th, 12pm to 6pm, (rain date 8/13) expect to see a range of things like paintings, photography, handmade objects, band merch, art supplies, collectible items or even plants all over the city!"

    gbhnews, to random
    @gbhnews@mastodon.social avatar

    Here have an alpaca

    knizer,
    @knizer@toot.boston avatar

    @gbhnews National 'Paca Radio?

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