Potato - potatoe, tomato - tomatoe.

You see 196 as

queer and especially trans friendly

I see it as a garden of shitposting delights.

I rather like the shitpost bombardment. It's the type of thing that creates a party vibe, and it could attract more than a few eyeballs to peek and linger. As the content can be somewhat dry in a community that's just starting out, this helps to normalize the place, make it more familiar to visiting eyes.

This current shitposting challenge sure as hell beats a barrage of anti-reddit, anti-musk, anti-zuckerberg posts, as well as "how does this [Fediverse/instances/posting/etc] work?" dominating the All page.

I have never, ever posted a picture of my kids online. I've sent a handful to family and friends via messaging apps, but only ones that are naturally flattering, and that is as far as it goes.

As it turns out, my overwhelming hunch that this is the only decent, respectful course of action in the mindless social media age, seems to be correct.
I love my kids, and I respect them as people, as individuals with a right to privacy at any age.

they will at first lure you in with cooking, travel, and credit card tips

Holy crap. I had no idea. We've heard of a slippery slope, but this is a slippery sheer vertical cliff.
Like that toxic meathead rogan luring the curious in with DMT stories and the like, and this sounds like that particular spore has burst and spread.

I think it's an important reminder.

You watch this one thing out of curiosity, morbid curiosity, or by accident, and at the slightest poke the goddamned mindless algorithm starts throwing this shit at you.

The algorithm is "weaponized" for who screams the loudest, and I truly believe it started due to myopic incompetence/greed, not political malice. Which doesn't make it any better, as people don't know how to take care of themselves from this bombardment, but the corporations like to pretend that ~~they~~ people can, so they wash their hands for as long as they are able.

Then on top of this, the algorithm has been further weaponized by even more malicious actors who have figured out how to game the system.
That's how toxic meatheads like infowars and joe rogan get a huge bullhorn that reaches millions. "Huh... DMT experiences... sounds interesting", the format is entertaining... and before you know it, you are listening to anti-vax and qanon excrement, your mind starts to normalize the most outlandish things.

EDIT: a word, for clarity

You know what's controversial? Bombing hospitals, schools and residential buildings.

You know what's controversial? Blowing up a dam that destroys an entire region of the country.

You know what's controversial? Keeping a nuclear power plant as hostage.

You know what's controversial? Abducting children and taking them against their will to another country.

You know what's controversial? Torture and mutilation of soldiers defending their home land.

Whoever says or implies at this late stage of russian atrocities that cluster bombs for Ukraine are "controversial" - fuck yourself gently with a rusted chainsaw.

EDIT: typo (half the time I try and type "of", it comes out as "if")

Reddit looking like Tik Tok, which is looking more like Facebook, which wants to look like Instagram... and what's that over there? Oh look, it's Twitter, spooning glue with its' hand and putting it in its' mouth.

Meanwhile, here in the Fediverse I've been seeing a lot of impressively creative memes. I don't know if they're originating here, or if they're copy-pasted from elsewhere, but I'm comfortable here where memes are concerned.

I’m not going to set a precedent of confirming with The Verge every action we do or don’t take

If you feel compelled to regard everybody as either your unpaid servant or as a hostile entity - except for taking deliberate time to pointedly kiss the Twitter imbecile's ass - maybe, just maybe it's you yourself, with a profound lack of self-awareness, that might be the very root of the problem you're flailing to deal with.

Ok, I just gotta say that watching this type of talk here, puts my mind at rest that the Fediverse is going to be alright. That we are in the right place.

I'm going to say what you did, more diplomatically:

While I don't condone extortion via hacking or any other means, I acknowledge that Reddit and its' dysfunctional, incompetent corporate culture - with Huffman at the top - brought this development upon themselves.