A @acarson

So I Should Probably Create A Post

Wow this is a really nice posting interface.

It's nice to finally be able to move over here from the Fediverse. The other place I've been kind of hanging out is the new community from Ark Media called The Fold, and that's been nice too. I'm still looking at Mastodon sort of for now, but if Serge decides to retire Babka I can't say I blame him.

In other news, videos from this year's Oud Festival are starting to come out so maybe I'll post some of those here.

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E @escott

Yikes, I certainly hope @serge isn't thinking of dropping Babka (though, as you say, it would certainly be understandable if he were to do so). That would be a real loss (and probably push me over to Bluesky, not that the environment there is going to be much better than the extra-Babka environment on Mastodon).

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A @acarson
Replying to @escott Yikes, I certainly hope @serge isn't thinking of dropping Babka (though, as you say, it would certainly be understandable if he were to do so). That would be a real loss (and probably push me over to…

Yeah I get it. I'm not sure if Serge is going to do this either. Speaking for myself, I'm not jumping over to Bluesky, although I completely understand your choosing that as your place to land should Serge and the other Babka moderators decide they've had enough.

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S @serge
Replying to @escott Yikes, I certainly hope @serge isn't thinking of dropping Babka (though, as you say, it would certainly be understandable if he were to do so). That would be a real loss (and probably push me over to…

I have no immediate plans to retire Babka, but I also find myself on it a lot less.

Frankly there are still some uses for it, just like there are uses for other platforms like Reddit where I'm trying to reach a large audience, but the more time I spend here the more I find myself frustrated with the experience of waking up to hate speech either on my own timeline or on someone else's.

It's the same on Reddit. I go to Reddit and I'll see a post on a mapping subreddit about how awful Israel is, or I'll read on a Canadian subreddit about how there's a need to "get rid of all the Zionists" or whatever. It just leads to emotional exhaustion.

So my focus really is here, this place, and moving the site to beyond its current beta state. I'm working on the internals a lot and there's a lot I want to add. It's been my focus for well over two years, but it's only now I've had something to show you.

I can't say what the future of Babka is, I just know this is where my heart is right now.

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A @acarson
Replying to @serge I have no immediate plans to retire Babka, but I also find myself on it a lot less. Frankly there are still some uses for it, just like there are uses for other platforms like Reddit where I'm trying…

Oh, so many hugs man. I mean, I'm glad we have Babka because I was one of those refugees you mentioned in your post over there, but I'm glad you're building this too and I suspect smaller sites like this are going to be the future of what we know as social media, and it pisses me off because it never had to be this way.

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E @escott
Replying to @serge I have no immediate plans to retire Babka, but I also find myself on it a lot less. Frankly there are still some uses for it, just like there are uses for other platforms like Reddit where I'm trying…

Ugh, Reddit. It's like, I dunno, 16th century Europe: there are peasants, and there are kings, and the kings are always making war on one another, and once in a while they slaughter some peasant who irritated them. Don't get me started. At least in feudal Europe you only had to deal with your king. On Reddit, there's a different king on every subreddit, with their own insanity.

Thanks but I'll stick with Babka and Rugela.

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S @serge
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Replying to @escott Ugh, Reddit. It's like, I dunno, 16th century Europe: there are peasants, and there are kings, and the kings are always making war on one another, and once in a while they slaughter some peasant who …

Eventually Rugela will get communities too. For example, I know that many LGBTQ+ Jews would be more comfortable on their own community, and Israelis might want their own.

I've put a lot of thought into how Rugela can avoid some of this. For example, it's not possible on here to "downvote". You can report something that's against the rules- you can mute someone, but you can't use the platform to harm them in that way.

Community stewards might decide that someone doesn't belong on their group, and that's okay because other communities don't depend on that.

Do you have any thoughts on how to keep Rugela from adopting some of those toxic patterns?

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E @escott
Replying to @serge I have no immediate plans to retire Babka, but I also find myself on it a lot less. Frankly there are still some uses for it, just like there are uses for other platforms like Reddit where I'm trying…

I feel you. I think Mastodon serves a purpose—but without Babka, it would serve no purpose that matches my needs. You can't build a safe space on Bluesky (at least, not as it's currently constructed), Threads, or, obviously, on the bird site. You can only do that where someone you trust controls the server. Those other sites have their advantages, not least of which that it's much easier to confirm which account actually belongs to, say, The New York Times, is or Taylor Swift, or whatever. Unfortunately, the influencer and big commercial accounts that drive the success of the social network will tend to congregate on those sites for that exact reason.

Still, I can live without being able to DM United Airlines if I am spared the infinite antisemitism and the Russian bots that come with that capability.

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