Notices by mekka okereke :verified: (mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io), page 3

Here's my list of "statements that I want to be true" for 2025.

* Mastodon will have Starter packs
* Mastodon will have Composable moderation
* Mastodon will have Quote tweets
* More people will be paid to work full-time on Fediverse trust & safety in 2025, than in the history of the Fediverse up until this point
* Mastodon will be better funded in 2025 than any year prior, without accepting any VC money
* More people will work full time on Fediverse UX than any year prior

Bet against me.

3/3

I said what I said about Mastodon moving too slowly to matter for the US midterms, so BlueSky being our best bet.

I said what I said about me being wrong about thinking that Mastodon would get it together by now.

I said what I said about BlueSky making it okay that Mastodon moves slower, and it not necessarily being over in the long run. We're watching people leave Twitter at a rate of 1 million a day. If BlueSky does go bad, and a better option is available, I anticipate a similar exit.

2/N

I just realized that I don't need to argue with y'all about:
* Starter packs
* Composable moderation
* Quote tweets
* Paying trust & safety engineers for their labor
* Funding stuff without VC or begging for donations
* If UX is possible without VC money

I don't need to argue with y'all about any of this. I'm not asking for your permission or your help. I'm telling you what's going to happen.

Mastodon is moving in the right direction, just slowly. It could be faster with funding + focus.

1/N

@jdp23 @bgrinter @danilo @blogdiva @u2764

Allie is loud and wrong about what starter packs are "all about."

I'm not questioning whether she has been right or insightful on other topics over the years, or if she is your friend.

I'm talking specifically about the disdain palpable in her dismissal of the purpose of starter packs, and trying to connect starter packs to JK Rowling and Musk. The only sillier starter pack criticism I've heard, was someone trying to connect starter packs to Trump.🤡

@u2764 @jdp23 @bgrinter @danilo @blogdiva

Allie, do you even notice that there are almost no Black queer people on Mastodon, but there are *tens of thousands* of Black queer folk on Blue Sky?

I've said this before and I'll say it again: A place that is supposedly "safe for Black people," but only contains cis straight Black men, and no Black women, Black transgender, or Black ace people? Is not a safe space for "Black people."

So I reject the kind of queer community that excludes Black folk.

@cultdev

Many of the Black people going to BlueSky now, tried Mastodon first, and found it unsafe. And none of y'all who have so many cute things to say to me now, cared or did a damn thing about it.

BlueSky is the first Twitter alternative that offers a basic level of safety and community for Black people. So they jumped on it.

But so many clowns on Mastodon, instead of saying "We too should provide a safe community!" just get salty at BlueSky for it, and make disrespectful comments.

@cultdev

Just by your post, I can tell that:

1) you're not Black

2) you don't know many Black people

Mastodon is *worse* than Twitter for most Black people, from the perspective of harassment, nazi death threats, and ignorant non-Black folk who don't listen to Black folk but are absolutely convinced that they know what's best and safest for Black folk.

Twitter and Mastodon are both nazi bars. The difference is, Twitter has enough Black people to form a safe community. Mastodon doesn't.

@tomjennings @simonoid

I just follow the (white) people I like. Its worked well for me so far. Masto doesn't need everyone (anyone Black). Plenty of interesting (white) people are here already 🥰

@u2764 @jdp23 @bgrinter @danilo @blogdiva

"From what I understand" But you don't understand. 🤷🏿♂️

"Starter packs et al are about building up followings for micro celebrities..." classic Mastodon: loud, wrong, and disdainful.

Starter packs are for finding community. Same goal as "choose your instance!"🤡

A higher % of BlueSky users interact with each other in real conversation than any social network I've ever seen. Instead of 1% posters, 9% commenters, and 90% lurkers, they're at 30% posters.

@u2764 @jdp23 @bgrinter @danilo @blogdiva

"From what I understand" But you don't understand. 🤷🏿♂️

"Starter packs et al are about building up followings for micro celebrities..." classic Mastodon: loud, wrong, and disdainful.

Starter packs are for finding community. Same goal as "choose your instance!"🤡

A higher % of BlueSky users interact with each other in real conversation than any social network I've ever seen. Instead of 1% posters, 9% commenters, and 90% lurkers, they're at 30% posters.

@mekkaokereke @james I'd go as far as saying that the fediverse is kinda shit in ways that are invisible to the majority of the people who thrive here. The mix of deep survivorship bias and folks who are actively abusive to keep things the way they like it means that Mastodon will never be the network to fill the niche that Twitter and Bluesky fill

@alexadeswift @mav @alice

Are you really the level of clueless where you're going to whitesplain to a Black person on Hachyderm how bad it is to be a Black person on Hachyderm? Is that where you're trying to take this?

You're all over the map. What does any of this have to do with starter packs?

Or are you just trying to find any way to be unpleasant because you're upset that I said that so many users are preferring BlueSky?

@admin @FediTips

The problem is that if it's not built in, it's a less smooth UX. You know that it's a less smooth UX, and that the UX can be improved without $15M of VC funding. Mastodon isn't getting $15M, but that UX will be fixed within a year. Like I said, Mastodon is changing... Just very slowly.

Black person says "The USA could be improved."
Response: IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT THEN LEAVE!

I get a similar response for suggesting improvements to Mastodon.🤷🏿♂️

@Crow @stooovie @Remittancegirl

You could spend one hour thinking about how you might add trust and safety features to make starter packs harder to abuse. You'd come up with some pretty good ideas, and that's just in 60 minutes! And you're clearly not a trust and safety expert!

In the tech industry, I find people are either amazingly creative, or amazingly unimaginative, depending on if the feature would help Black users or not.

Rockets to Mars? Yes!

Quote Tweets? Starter packs? Impossible!

@Crow @stooovie @Remittancegirl

For years Mastodon users rejected quote tweets, because they said, "Quote tweets might be abused! People might use them to dunk on other people!"

In just a few months, BlueSky implemented quote tweets, and added a feature where users can detach their post from a quote tweet. If you quote dunk on me, and I don't like it, I can just remove my post from your quote tweet.

Mastodon users often use a lack of trust and safety features as justification for poor UX.

@alexadeswift @mav

"The OP shouldn't do [X]! The OP should do [my bad idea] instead!"

I don't take advice from people that have never pioneered and made a space that wasn't welcoming for Black people into one that is.

In conclusion, I'm going to post what I want about the reasons this place is unwelcoming for Black folk. I'm going to keep saying how things could move faster:
* Funding of safety and UX projects
* Prioritization

I'm going to keep ignoring fragile people's demands.

@alexadeswift @mav

I'm not sure who the Black folk are that listen to white people that say, "Don't criticize this space that isn't good for Black people!" but I'm not one of them.

How do you think that would work? You say that, and the Black person just says, "You're right! My bad! I shall cease and desist my criticism!" and then it just... goes quiet again?

Has that ever worked for you? Or is this the first time you're trying it? Am I the first?

@alexadeswift @mav

"because you keep saying how great BS is and bad mouthing one corner of the Fediverse, for seemingly not doing what you want."

You wrote a lot of words, but I knew they wouldn't be useful after this start.🤷🏿♂️

"Why are you criticizing the Dems! Don't criticize Democrats!"🤡

"Why are you criticizing Mastodon? Don't say anything about it can be improved!"🤡

Same energy.

Listen. If me criticizing things gets your fragility feathers all ruffled, go ahead and unfollow now.

@stooovie @Remittancegirl

I also hate the silliness of claiming that providing lifeboats for people that want to leave Twitter is some type of moral failure. The silliest I've heard is "Fast and easy is how you get Trump!"

No.

Stop being silly. Just fix the onboarding. There's nothing noble or pure about having poor UX, and no safety features so Black women can't find their friends and then get yelled at by nazis. It's not pure. It's just a bad product. Fix it.

@stooovie @Remittancegirl

I hate the weak excuse making for bad UX.

"It's VC money!" No it's not. There were proposals for starter packs by Black Mastodon users years ago. Of course they were ignored.

And as I've pointed out, Inkscape is an open source project with good UX. You don't need money. You just need to care.

Dudes who sit around and obsess about writing great code, don't understand that designing great UX is the same thing. It just requires focus and caring.