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I can't figure out if mastodon is a high context culture or not. People seem to be expected to give long introductions and do a lot of identity/positionality disclosure, but also an enormous reply guy culture which is defined by low context drive-by. Conversational turn-taking is extremely low compared to other platforms ime, but depth-seeking is high. What an interesting mix.

*obviously, these experiences are all situated within my own network effects, and I'm not well networked here.

in reply to Cat Hicks

Could it be so many engineering personalities who view every statement as a problem to be solved?

Or maybe there isn't a single mastodon culture but instead a bunch of different cliques who keep bumping into each other?

in reply to Diane

@alienghic well I'm sure there's not a single culture in any large enough group of people but I think large patterns are fairly possible because of the reinforcing nature of social norms
in reply to Cat Hicks

@alienghic that being said I agree, I think there's maybe a fragmented set of norms here that are sometimes in contrast! This may be why I keep feeling like I'm "messing up" on people's expectations here which is not a nice feeling to have and also not a feeling I have very often on other platforms
in reply to Cat Hicks

Yeah mattblaze at federate.social 's problems with some people regularly complaining about his black and white architectural photos has lead me to think having too many followers can be a curse.

Though I think some people haven't adapted to mastodon expects that users will intentionally curate their feeds, and I'm not sure if everyone who's come from the world of mysteriously algorithm influenced commercial social media has really internalized that yet.

in reply to Diane

I’m pretty sure there are at least two cultures because I had to block a lot of shitposters — I think they’re hilarious but reading it is really bad for me — and later there was a surge of “why so serious?” newbies and I dug through my blocklist to make some recommendations.

I do wonder if people manage to be in both communities with one account. And if that’s even a sensible ideal. Yesno??

@alienghic @grimalkina

in reply to clew

@clew
People are going to get really confused if you don't do something to separate earnest and sarcastic posting from each other.
@clew
in reply to Diane

I can't emphasize enough how strongly I come down on the side of having more than one account here

obviously, it's more work. I get that not everyone can manage that all the time

I guess the best analogy I can think of is that having just one fedi account is like having just one book, or just one umbrella.

If you have more than one, maybe you only use one at a time. You might put it down, or lose it, or it may break. So, depending, you might come back to it.

@alienghic
@clew @grimalkina

in reply to Cat Hicks

in reply to Blort™ 🐀Ⓥ🥋☣️

@Blort

No one needs to be condescended to, and of course we have all experienced hostile trolls. Block is a great tool for that. People who are frustrated with ‘reply guy culture’ are absolutely justified in their views. However- Mastodon has a diverse community of cultures that are mostly people who’s idea of community standards were in part shaped elsewhere. Deadbird escapees had different trauma than exRedditors, who reply by topic.

cc: @grimalkina

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glitchsoc - Link to source
Nick Spacek

@m @idlestate @alienghic @clew That sounds like so much work, but I likewise have been thinking of creating an account where I can post more openly without stressing about it being attached to my real-name...

I love reading shitposts, personal posts, news, and local content but I'm pretty nervous to step outside my norm of replying to/posting local content or "safe" content like dogs/cats, and it might be partly or wholely because I use this real-name account.

in reply to Cat Hicks

If you don't already have one, you might also want to set up an alt on some other, smaller, more moderated instance, and see if that casts the contextual expectations in a significantly different light. It can be difficult to distinguish between the culture of .social and the culture of Mastodon at large when you see the whole network primarily through the lens of an instance that is, in many ways, the exception to most fediverse rules.
in reply to L. Rhodes ⁂

@lrhodes yeah a million people have instance blamed me but the vast majority of bs I get is from other instances
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mastodon - Link to source
Cat Hicks
@smallcircles @mjf_pro @figstick @alienghic I only think of someone as doing "reply guy" behavior when they're crossing social norms and kindness in a pretty repeated way -- like by flatly telling me I'm completely wrong about something that I have professional expertise in, in a way that isn't dialoguing but is intended to "put me in my place." So usually has an ad hominem in it, and this phenomenon is also a way to draw attention to the fact that some of us experience this every day for years