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We're here, we're queer, we're federated: How queer, trans, and non-binary people helped create Mastodon and are shaping today's fediverse (infosec.exchange)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by thenexusofprivacy@infosec.exchange to c/lgbtq_plus@beehaw.org

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We're here, we're queer, we're federated: How queer, trans, and non-binary people helped create Mastodon and are shaping today's fediverse

https://privacy.thenexus.today/here-queer-and-federated-on-mastodon-and-the-fediverse/

Happy #Pride!

This is a draft version, so feedback is very welcome!

@lgbtq_plus #queer #trans #lgbtq #lgbtqia

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[-] retronautickz@beehaw.org 21 points 1 year ago

The great benefit here is that, because the nature of decentralisation and federation, even if bigoted people exist within the fediverse, they are in their own isolated instances and we never see them; while in centralised social media "the algorithm" is designed in such way that we are forced to see bigoted posts/people

This makes the fediverse much safer for and attractive to queer people and other marginalised groups

[-] flora_explora@beehaw.org 4 points 1 year ago

Not sure, if this is truly the case. For example, on reddit I was mostly subbed to queer or queer friendly communities. And in my feed only appeared these communities. In how far would this be different in decentralized and federated communities? And apart from that, we all still have to constantly live people being bigoted over here, as everyone has it all internalized. E.g. I'm white and come from a academic context, so I have to make a conscious effort to keep this in mind while participating here. And if someone else writes in any of the non queer-related communities, they are statistically speaking neurotypical and cishet, so I easily feel (and am) excluded in some way.

My point is, it certainly helps to have decentralized spaces, but in order to abolish structural discrimination etc we still have to be conscious about it and make an effort.

Regarding your last sentence, I would guess that generally social media are more attractive to queer or otherwise marginalized people as they can meet likeminded people. See any of the leading social media.

[-] retronautickz@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Lemmy is an special case because people here don't seem to grasp the concept of Federation, are choosing servers that aren't for them or not defederating from bad servers (not Beehaw's case) because they think federation is people putting up with their bs or that they have to put up with other people's bs.

I'm mostly talking about mastodon, all the -key(s), pixelfed, peertube, etc. They're populated by marginalized people because the big centralised alternatives promote a hostile environment for them/us.

Also the fact that your feed in Reddit had to be curated specifically to contain only queer subreddits says a lot.

In centralised social media I had to curate my feeds that way, here (fediverse) I can follow different groups and people from different servers that I know I won't encounter bad actors because they're isolated in their own instances