https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGW_7HTXuQo
Even if you are not familiar with Neuromancer by William Gibson you still technically have seen it, this is the case with many groundbreaking works of scienc...
I know this has been the norm on Twitter, but I'm getting tired of seeing people use mock names like "Melon Usk", "the Muskrat" when referring to Elon Musk, or "the Cheetoh", "the Grump" when talking about Trump, and so on.
First of all, there is no need. There's no central authority in Mastodon who will hide your post because you criticize a notable person.
Second, if you don't want shills to find your post based on the person you criticize, you don't need to worry about it, this is precisely why full-text search is disabled on Mastodon: to protect you from dogpilers.
Third, because distorted names mess up people's filters. I know folks who explicitly add "Elon Musk" or "Trump" to their filters so these posts won't appear in their timelines. By trying to be clever, you accidentally make those people's online experiences worse.
Just use the actual name of the person you're criticizing or insulting and let the filters do their work.
BTW, if you're extra worried about people finding your post, just set your post's privacy mode to followers-onlyπ.
Thank you.
I've spent more than 7 years in Mastodon, and in my experience, new users always come in with a Twitter mindset, then getting a cultural shock because they come to Mastodon expecting a Twitter experience and end up finding something strange and bizarre.
To soften the blow, I'd like to explain the cultural differences between Mastodon and Twitter.
What Twitter was:
What Mastodon is:
Longer explanation:
Mastodon has an entirely different culture compared to Twitter. Mastodon was founded and populated by people who believed Twitter was too toxic and corporate-driven. Mastodon is full of gays, transgender folks, sex workers, artists, furries, autistic people, etc.
These people were driven out of the big platforms (Facebook, Twitter) by hate and discrimination. These people have experienced sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, body shaming, etc. in their lives. It follows that the majority of Mastodon is left-leaning, anti-conservative, communist and anti-corporate.
Furthermore: Because it started (or quickly became) as a sort of safe haven for queer folks, they were more open to sincere posting. They post their problems, the discrimination they've experienced; their body dysphoria; depression; homophobia; transphobia and racism. And they give each other support, even economic. In my timeline I see posts asking for emergency money more than once per day.
If you wonder why this doesn't appear on Twitter, it's because the Algorithm filters them out. The public, the customers don't like hearing about people asking for money not to get evicted. They don't like to hear how people were harassed the other day by some karen who believes they're a man in disguise.
But Mastodon is different. People talk about their daily lives because they know their followers will receive 100% of their posts. This is how communities are built.
Mastodon is not, and never aimed to be a Twitter replacement. It was meant to be something different; a place where you could form communities and build connections without Big Brother examining you or deciding how you should behave online.
So the next time you look for "interesting people to follow", it could be possible that you're entering Mastodon with a Twitter mindset. No Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore.
Start following people you think are interesting in YOUR instance. Then start seeing their boosts and follow people you think are cool. Little by little, expand your network, prune your follows and block / mute people you think are obnoxious, and keep building and shaping your network like a beautiful bonsai tree.
The time you invest on building a network from scratch is worth it: You will meet many interesting people, and you will meet new friends; real friends, not just a series of followers whom you have to entertain.
@yuki2501
@lemmy.world