pawbs on fediverse
2024-12-30It was around early 2019 when I reached the point that I could no longer tolerate corporate social media. They pretend to care about their users for a little while, before dropping the act to monetize in the most harmful ways known to dog. The end result is something entirely unusable, awful for mental health, login-walled and filled with ads. Despite seeing it play out many times, unfortunately we still see people that are comfortable going through that again.
Dropping social media altogether is always an option, sometimes a necessary one, but likewise its usage can be important in building support networks, coordinating mutual aid, spreading factual information, helping smaller creators stay afloat, or simply making someone's day brighter.
# protocols instead of platforms
Keeping social media sustainable at scale and in control of the right people is practically impawsible without an open protocol. One such protocol is ActivityPub, and its interoperable services are considered to be part of fedi.
Despite my account @keeri@pawb.fun being hosted on pawb.fun, I'm still able to reply, favorite and share posts made on other instances (for example, blahaj.zone or furry.energy).
keeri 
boosted
spooky comm for Phantom Dergwulf! they get mistaken as a bat a lot so they hopped into a bat kigu haha
# moderation in a decentralized network
Sometimes people interpret decentralization as needing to guarantee access to everyone, including bad actors. That might be the unfortunate case for currency which needs consensus to remain interchangeable, but when it comes to decentralized or federated social media, outright harmful users do not need to, and should not be platformed.
Each instance can assign their own moderators, which primarily ensure that local users follow the rules. If an instance has no active moderation team, or consistently fails to moderate infractions (e.g. hate speech, harassment, illegal content, misinformation), other instances may silence it for own users, or fully cease federation (which removes follow relations between the instances). Such actions should only be reserved for when all other options have been exhausted, as most cases can be resolved through clear communication and accountability.
It is possible to report both local and remote posts, although a common recommendation is not to forward the report to the remote instance, so the moderators of your instance can decide whether it's wise to do so.
# choosing an instance
When picking an instance to start with, don't worry too much about making the perfect choice. Per previous section, you'd mostly want moderators that you can trust to make right decisions, and in my case they were always strangers, so I could only go off the instance rules and initial impressions. Keep backups of your follow lists and posts, so you can always roam around.
For a list of furry instances and some general advice, feel free to check out furryfediverse.org (webarchive)
# using hashtags
It takes a little bit of time to find people to follow, however most fedi software allows to follow hashtags in the same way you would follow individual accounts, which is particularly useful when starting out.
As an example, following #FurryArt will bring floofy drawings to your main feed. If you're the one sharing those drawings, try to include that hashtag so it reaches the critters following it ^^
# content warnings
Content Warnings (CW) allow to provide a brief description of the post, so the readers are prompted for consent before they can view it. It is necessary to include a CW when sharing explicit sexual content. There are many topics for which CW's aren't mandatory, however I'd highly recommend to include one if viewing the post could negatively impact someone's mental health.
mention of lewd game, no explicit content in toot
mention of lewd game, no explicit content in toot
Don't you love when a lewd game you are about to play starts with this? I do.
# importance of alt text
When sharing images, videos or audio, there is an option to provide alt text – a brief written description for users who are blind, have low vision, or are deaf. If you are able to include such captions, please do so. They can be as short as "a photo of an arctic fox jumping over a pile of snow", or a little more descriptive if there are details that you would like to share.
Many users (including me) will only boost posts if they contain accessibility captions, as we do not wish to exclude disabled or neurodivergent people that may otherwise not be able to experience the media or understand the context.
If the image has written text, please include it as-is. Sometimes I see comics with alt text included, but the alt text completely omits the dialogue, and it feels like an important part is lost. With low vision in particular, you may know the text is there, have difficulty reading it, and it would be disappointing to listen to the accessibility caption, only to notice it has no mention of the text you were unable to read.
# keeping own experiences healthy
Due to capitalism bringing suffering to our lives on a daily basis, just the act of staying exclusively on federated non-profit social media may not be enough. Please remember to review your experiences, and to take actions to curate your feed, if you notice it negatively affecting your well-being.
View everything at your own pace – don't expand Content Warnings that might bring your mood further down. If someone is consistently boosting posts that lack a Content Warning and negatively impact your health, consider the "Hide boosts from user" option. If someone is authoring such posts, consider unfollowing them. If you're not following them, consider muting their account (while keeping the notifications).
Some fedi software allows to automatically filter posts matching keywords that you define, and either entirely hide these posts, or hide them behind a confirmation prompt allowing to opt into viewing them.
With a bit of time, more of us will eventually notice that the numbers don't mean as much as the meaningful interactions, friendships and relationships that we made along the way.