I’m about to step away from this thread because I’ve made my point (and everyone has probably made up their mind) but I want to go back to one thing I said.
Let’s focus on building affirmatively and consciously the community we want
We have an opportunity here the likes of which we haven’t seen for at least a decade, if not longer. For too long now we’ve built our communities on platforms provided by the likes of Twitter, Reddit, and (yes) Meta. Now, we not only have the tools to “homestead” these places ourselves, we have what is increasingly a critical mass of people interested in exploring alternatives to the corporate social media world. How many of us have said “well, I don’t like Twitter but I still have a Twitter account because that’s where all my friends are”? (or, if not Twitter, then Facebook, Reddit, etc.)
We’re now starting to see people wanting to get out of those silos and into something less geared towards profit and marketing and surveillance. Some people see this as a threat to the carefully-restricted (I will not say “curated” - oops, I guess I just did) communities they have created here. Other people see it as an opportunity to get more people, more voices, into these communities and conversations. It should be clear by now which side I come down on; how about you?
I will admit that Meta is not the ideal vector for people to find us. If I had my choice, they’d stick to developing their proprietary platforms and leave us alone. But I don’t have my choice; they see a different opportunity than I do, and they’re pursuing it. But it still means there are people potentially joining us that could be really cool, really interesting, really nice to have as part of our circle. Yes, it means there will be bad actors. That’s life. There is no good without bad. I suppose some people feel there will be more bad than good to come of this. I don’t think that way.
I’m reminded of the discipline of Appreciative Inquiry. Its point is to engage stakeholders in decision-making, but to do so from a position of appreciating good things and building upon them to create more good things, as opposed to seeing bad things and trying to correct them. As the Wikipedia article says, it is a distinction between “a Mystery to be Embraced” and “a Problem to be Solved.”
I hope it’s clear by now that I fall on the Mystery to be Embraced side of the fence. This is an opportunity, not a crisis. There are ways to make sure our philosophy succeeds; we just need to find them. I don’t think we’ll find them by considering Meta users as unwelcome. Some of you come down on the Problem to be Solved side, and your proposed solutions clash with mine. That’s OK. We have all been heard, as we should be, as we are all stakeholders. I hope some of you will join me in the opportunistic view, but that’s not for me to decide.
I am now going to step away and let others have the floor, so to speak. Be well.
Others have answered your question (which is not stupid; there are no stupid questions) so I will simply say welcome to SDF, and have fun exploring! 🙂