@PostPandemicParty.org“I am in the world to change the world.” —Kathe KollwitzThis is a home base for relatively like-minded folks to land in the #TwitterMigration.
Likeminded, how? In the middle of 2020, the world ground to a halt and was turned on its head. At that point, many were ready to admit that the systems running our world ==> are systems running humans (and this planet) into the ground. If you had that moment of reflection, the
PostPandemicParty might be the homebase for you to land in.
If can see that the society you live in was formed in the image of white supremacy, and is still steeped in it, then this might be the homebase for you.
If you believe a multi-racial/multi-ethnic democracy is ‘a more perfect union’ that we were dedicated to form (and that this is possible), that #BlackLivesMatter, that you're standing on #NativeLand, then this might be the homebase for you.
If you believe in liberation more than charity or philanthropy, and would support oppressed people to lead the way to achieve their liberation, then this might be for you.
If you're sick and tired of [racism, settler colonialism, misogyny, religious extremism, homophobia, transphobia, nationalism, anti-semitism, xenophobia], and of being sick & tired, this might be the place for you.
If you try to leave a better planet than you inherited, even if you know that the institution/corporation/academy where you work is steeped in a history of these oppressions, this might be for you.
If you're a human who believes in things like the above but also sometimes makes a human mistake, has messed up on a person's pronouns or said something ableist and apologized, or been called-in for an implicit bias you never examined before... and you are OK with becoming a better person and self-aware enough to learn from experiences, you might be home.
If you grapple with these contradictions, because the human condition is messy, welcome.
*It's not coincidence that we quote a Black woman and scholar above: BIPOC folks are listened to, uplifted in, and leaders of this Party.
On this instance you might find professors, scholars, educators, digital humanists, human rights lawyers, ethicists, feminists, cartographers, designers, feminist cartographers and designers, archivists, librarians, poets, artists, activists, artist-activists, creative coders, public historians, museum professionals, organizers, journalists, archeologists, and a hundred other careers that people can hold. They might post about their projects, they might post links, they might post cute dog pics/cat pics/chinchilla pics, or they might post about a heck of a day they are having. There's no suggested "on-topic".
RationaleThe
#TwitterMigration won't happen all at once; it might ebb and flow as the tenor of Twitter degrades over time. Or maybe, it won't be as big an exodus as we thought. This instance was set up in October 2022 to be operational in case/when people find the need to move some of their energies off that corporate platform.
Also, one doesn't need to move their life wholesale off Twitter. It's possible to still tweet at/keep tabs on the Trending Topics & politicians & institutions of the world, while deciding that your personal posts (and quest for community) can be better served somewhere else.
There are several Mastodon instances geared towards people in tech (octodon.social, fosstodon.org, indieweb.social, hachyderm.io, tech.lgbt). Scholar.social caters to academics, but discourages people from posting about their personal lives. Weirder.earth might be one I would pick. Yet I could not find a Mastodon instance that seemed home to folks who are politicized by the corruption of our governing systems, who advocate for structural change, and in so doing are already practicing respect for the diversity of humans who show up to the table.
This instance is called a Party in the sense of a Big Tent that covers people no matter what their specific interests are (cooking, birding, aerial arts, tech, data viz, maps, genealogy, higher ed, whatever!). But parties form around a value system that its members want to see in the world. We want to foster a community here that starts from a set of shared values.
Quick Primer on Mastodon: You aren't just siloed on this communityAbridged from
mastodon.help.
Mastodon is open-source software for letting microbloggers worldwide engage with each other, while being decentralized and noncommercial. Every instance has its own server, rules, admins, and moderation.
So the social norms for posting vary locally across servers. The administrators on each instance are the ones who can block, mute or suspend accounts who violate their standards.
Your Mastodon username will be in the format of
@username@InstanceIt really doesn't matter what Instance you register on if you are OK by their posting rules.
You can still Follow, Boost (≈retweet), DM, and reply to people the world over, because these servers are federated on a common protocol. (Think of your Instance as the area code of your phone number; your number can still call anyone else in the world.) If you want to change Instances in the future, it is possible to transfer all your data including toots (≈tweets), followers and blocked users list.
However, there is one advantage within your Instance: Mastodon's UI provides a Local Timeline as well as your Federated Timeline. That means if you are embedded in a like-minded community, you are likely to discover interesting posts/conversations/links just within the Local feed, without the outside noise. Plus, the directory of users will be people you will probably find interesting. This also means that instances with 10K+ users are not necessarily BETTER — at that point, the noise is back in your Local feed and is not really much different than the Federated Timeline. So small & medium-sized instances might actually be a better experience.
Mastodon's functionality is a lot
like Twitter, but it is not the same. First, you get 500 characters, not 280. Second, your Feed is in chronological order; it is not manipulated by an algorithm. Mastodon has a Content Warning (CW) feature available with every post you make. It’s an optional mask that covers the content of your post with a warning message that you can customize.
on Twitteron Mastodonbut... TweetToot RetweetBoostbut you can't Quote Tweet Quote Tweet—To add your 2¢ you have to reply into the author's thread. This was a Mastodon design decision to foster real discussions, less-so talking
about someone else. LikeFavourite (Star)but starring won't help it appear in your followers' feed DMsDMshere it's really just a toot with the privacy set to 'Mentioned Person Only'. There's a separate tab for viewing them, but it's much less like an Inbox Elon MuskNo one owns itit's open-source, and hence decentralized
Most importantly, Mastodon is NOT a direct Twitter-replacement. It's a social media platform to be home to its own discussions. You shouldn't use Mastodon just to echo/post the stuff that outrages you on Twitter, and you are not rewarded here for the number of Stars (≈likes) or Boosts (≈retweets) you get. Just to know how many times a certain post was Boosted or favorited you must click on it; but there is no emphasis on it, and in fact, nobody really cares. Mastodon seems focused on having actual conversations about the topic you're posting about. See what other people reply, and add to your understanding of this crazy world we are in.
The following mindsets from Twitter do not translate well here: The emotional/social gratification in the # of retweets I get. Writing posts to get likes. Quote Tweeting to add my pile-on. What are the Trending Topics (imposing today’s obligatory pile-on)? Who should I follow?
Instead on Mastodon: Think ‘who would I interact with?’ Write posts that are interesting, to stimulate discussion and interaction.
Finally, to be clear: never assume that there is 100% privacy in the Fediverse. Every Instance runs on a computer server, and the admins ultimately have the ability (even if not used) to examine everything stored on that server. If you think of your posts as a
postcard you send through the digital mail, not a sealed envelope, then you should be okay. If you ever need true privacy, move your communications to another messaging platform like TXT, Signal, WhatApp, etc.
Server operationsThis instance is hosted through
Masto.host on a server located in France. For the time being, the time and cost of operation is being paid by
auut studio to jumpstart this home. As the community size grows, we may implement a way for users to contribute $1 toward costs, and to create a shared governance for moderation. Remember, any site that you want to stick around for the long haul is something you will probably need to contribute to. ‘Free’ services close shop all the time; or they are ‘free’ because you are paying the corporation with ownership of your data.
The PostPandemicParty will federate with everything that doesn't support spam, hate speech, hateful ideology, negative or threatening behaviour, fascism and proto-fascism, extremism, or child pornography... we'll block all that shit to shield our users from hate. In short, we don't argue with people that Tubman would have shot.
We restrict the default visibility of posts coming from instances known for NSFW content, so that our users can use this instance at work. More information can be found in the section
Moderated Servers below.
Server rulesBelow is a summary of rules that govern the PostPandemicParty instance. You need to follow this if you want to have an account on this server:
- Come to this forum in a spirit of community — to share your wisdom and unique talents, to make connections, to gather feedback, to learn from other people's wisdom and unique talents — and you are 90% of the way there.
- On public timelines, a content warning (CW) or proper tagging is required for nudity and violence, and any historical racist imagery that you are analyzing or critiquing. CWs are recommended for anything commonly traumatic.
- Spamming with links and straight-up advertising your commercial services is not allowed. But feel free to share your projects and what you are excited to be working on!
- Do not harass anyone, participate in group harassment or pile-on of anyone on this instance, or otherwise engage in name-calling and personal attacks. If you are feeling antagonistic, take a breather and log off. Come back and critique ideas, but not the person. Posting or threatening to post other people’s personally identifying information (“doxxing”) constitutes harassment. Unwelcome sexual attention (including sexualized comments or jokes) constitutes harassment.
- There's going to be zero tolerance for slurs or hateful language; racist, sexist, classist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, or otherwise discriminatory jokes. You'll get banned. If deep in your heart you believe there are some people who deserve more human rights than others (à la white supremacy, misogyny, misogynoir, anti-Blackness, anti-Semitism, nationalism, settler colonialism, settler colonialism in the name of Zionism, transphobia, “poor people are lazy”, “sex workers are bad people”, or any other hateful ideology), go find another instance to express that and save us both the time.
- Automated tools (like bots) are allowed if they post less than ~once a week, and you are actively participating in the replies that people engage with it. Unmonitored bot accounts that post automatically are not acceptable.
- Direct employees or contractors for any of the following types of organizations are not welcome here: Police, Immigration enforcement, State Intelligence/Private investigation firms. Individuals working for such will be banned.