Notices by Alioth Fox (aliothfox@cubhub.social)

Saying this to no one in particular because a lot of people in my orbit seem to be struggling with it:

If you tie your hobbies and creative pursuits to how much interaction they get on social media, or how much external validation they get, or other factors that depend on the fickle whims of the internet, you will -NEVER- be satisfied. Ever. It's impossible. If you post something and instantly lose enthusiasm because it didn't get any likes or reposts within the first few hours/days of you posting it... be prepared for a lifetime of disappointment unless you change your way of thinking.

If you're going to create something, create something and put it out there because you believe in it, whether anyone else believes in it or not. It will find its way. It may not happen right away - it may take months. It may take years. But you have to keep doing it and push through that discouragement of "not finding traction." The only way to get something to catch on is to keep doing it, keep it on people's timelines, make sure everyone knows it's not a wild hair. PERSISTENCE is the key. Not only persistence, but persistence in the face of discouragement.

And at the end of the day, if you're going to create something, you have to create it because you WANT to create it, not because you think others want to see it. You have to create it because you want it to exist.

Build it. People will come.

My favorite thing about the Biden-leaving-the-race shakeup is how Joe Manchin floated tossing his hat in the ring and immediately got solidly punched in the dick so hard by literally everyone that he bowed out within 12 hours.

So the Patreon purge is still ongoing. @dracky is the latest casualty that I know of (her account got hit just a short while ago - be sure to go and support her in whatever ways you can!).

Now, however, it appears that even vanilla NSFW creators are getting swept up in Patreon's anti-sex crusade. I know my post might not have much reach outside of kink circles, but if you're a NSFW artist - especially in the furry fandom - you need to LISTEN and start looking for the exit, because we kinksters are - as always - the canaries in the coal mine.

When you let the fandom purity police go unchallenged, and when you turn away from seeing what's happening to various kink artists because you don't like their kinks, it is going to come back to you. Make your displeasure with Patreon known. If possible, find other platforms (I realize this is difficult for non-US/Europe folks in particular; I'm not judging anyone for staying if they have no other options). Refuse to do business with artists who are openly anti-kink.

"Well it's just a bunch of babyfurs; they're gross anyway." First, we make up a very sizeable percentage of the furry fandom that you likely aren't even aware of (I guarantee you there were/are lots of non-kink furry artists on Patreon who were shocked to see how many of their users fled/were kicked from the platform because of this purge). Second, even if you weren't directly affected by the ABDL purge, I promise you it's not going to end with us; they're going to come after you next. Mark my words.

(Please boost for visibility! Non-kink artists need to know this is happening.)

#ArtistsOfMastodon #Artist #FuckPatreon #Patreon #AdultArtist

Good: Posting, in your own spaces, the importance of including #AltText in media.

Bad: Going to other people's posts and distracting from the substance of the post by saying "this needs alt text" or even outright shaming people for not using it.

The former contributes to a culture of accessibility. The latter contributes to a culture of hostility - and not only will it not make people use alt text, but it will simply discourage them from posting altogether.

Same goes for content warnings. If something isn't CWed like it should be (that is, if it actually breaks the rules), quietly report it to the instance admins and they will deal with it.

You want people to come to Mastodon because it's different from #Twitter. They're not going to want to if you welcome them by nagging at them about things that they never had to think about on Twitter. Yes, those things are important, but you will be more successful promoting the culture you want to see than you will by trying to badger people into ticking all the boxes you want.

I had some comment on this to say "use the fediblockmeta hashtag, not the fediblock tag" - and no, I'm not going to do that. I'm using the exact tag that I'm criticizing so that the people who need to see it have to make a conscious choice to ignore it.

Some of Mastodon's detractors predicted - with annoying accuracy - the moderation issues that would eventually arise here: namely, Instance A weaponizing defederation and #fediblock against Instance B and labeling them as "poorly moderated" simply because Instance B did not bow down to pressure and ban a person who didn't align with Instance A's values.

Expecting every instance to have the same values defeats the entire purpose of a federated network. And while some types of behavior should absolutely be grounds for immediate "suspend on sight," I expect that the fediverse will become increasingly polarized on other types of things so that there's no room left for grey areas or for individual instances to determine their own values.

Furry Masto seems to have fairly well avoided that so far, but I don't know if that will always be the case.

LMAO I love #Tusky

(It blocks Truth Social, Gab, and Spinster lol)

Linux is the best lmao

A lot of us are really trying to get our friends to leave #Twitter and come here. Trust me, I am too. Here's a list of "Do's and Don'ts" that I've come up with, based on what's had the most success for me (and what hasn't worked for me, and what I've seen hasn't worked well for others).

DON'T

• Shame people for staying on Twitter. No one - especially artists - wants to jump ship completely in favor of a total unknown when their entire social circle (and sometimes even their livelihood) is on the line. No one is going to be receptive to shaming; it will only make them dig in further.
• Shame people for trying out BlueSky. Yes, we know BlueSky is subject to the same corporate bullshit that Twitter is and is inevitably going to go to shit in 5 years or less, but we'll probably still be here and have a solid foundation while they're floundering and having to abandon ship again. But people want to have options, and BlueSky, for some, is a trade-off that they are willing to make, and pressing them on the point is just going to turn them off to Mastodon. (Personal experience talking.)
• Waste time explaining how instances work. Seriously, don't. Talk about what you know when they ask, but don't get into it otherwise. This is the thing that turned ME off to Mastodon for the longest time. For a layperson who just wants to sign up for a profile and go, they don't care how instances work, and there is no way to make it sound less confusing. Just get a decent grasp yourself on what instances are out there, and point your friends towards the one you think will fit them best.
• Be a pest about it, or guilt-trip people for not joining. (I've been guilty of doing both of those things a few times, and believe me, it never works.)

DO

• Answer questions honestly when people ask you. This is especially true when the most honest answer you can give is "I don't know; that's a question for someone who knows more than I do."
• Share content from Mastodon in your other spaces. If your favorite artist is here, then post a link to their Mastodon profile if you share their art somewhere. #Artists, post links to your Mastodon account anywhere you post your art!
• Get "in the trenches" on Twitter and talk about how good YOUR experience has been here. Don't spend too much time griping about "Twitter bad, Mastodon good" - just stick to the "Mastodon good" part. Talk about how much engagement you get here, how much you like the atmosphere, how easy it was to set up, etc.
• As much as possible, cut back on your own Twitter use except to point people at Mastodon. If this is where you want your primary social media presence to be, make sure people know that and follow through. If you say "I'm mainly going to be on Mastodon now" but continue posting every day and engaging on Twitter, people are not going to believe you're serious.
• Be patient and give people time and space to figure out what they want. Some people will park an account on Mastodon and then not touch it for a while. Others will quietly watch from a distance before signing up. Others will try Mastodon while trying various other options at the same time. Others may not sign up at all - it's a bitter pill to swallow, but you have to accept it.
  

Feel free to reply with the strategies you've come up with that have been successful for you too. <3

#TwitterMigration

Fun little thing about #Mastodon. I've spent time as a #Wikipedia admin, and I know other Wikipedians are nodding their heads and chuckling because it's such a part of Wikipedia culture that they already know what I'm about to talk about.

Collaborative editing on Wikipedia is supposed to follow standards of civility. The uncivil behavior that I used to see on Wikipedia sometimes is pretty much the norm on #Twitter. What's ironic and funny about it is that there is a long-standing (unofficial) community mantra on Wikipedia known as "No Angry Mastodons." We (people) are hard-wired with fight-or-flight responses and, when confronted, either dig in and become super defensive, or we just check ourselves out of the situation and skedaddle. It's an evolutionary response to stress, because it helped us defeat and/or escape from predators in prehistoric times.

The idea behind No Angry Mastodons is that our fight-or-flight response is misplaced on the internet. On Wikipedia, there are "no angry mastodons" that are going to come after us. We don't have to worry about getting squished by prehistoric pachyderms. The TL;DR of No Angry Mastodons is that there is nothing that happens online that is worth subjecting yourself the stress of facing down an Angry Mastodon - there aren't any, so just chill.

Edit: It occurs to me that this is leaving my home instance, which means that a lot of folks seeing this post aren't going to see the embedded link since their instances probably don't support markdown. Here's the link to the Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:No_angry_mastodons

#NoAngryMastodons