@TimeSnow Sure, everything doesn't have to be about everything But we're talking about a general communications protocol here. In my view this should take over for both Twitter and Facebook and Slack and perhaps e-mail even?

It's like saying "don't talk about how we run the world/countries/communities on any webforums because some people might see it and not like it." Webforums is an important communications channel, and so is this. Should be used for everything important

@forteller well, yes and no... I think like any tool people will use it for their needs... and right now it seems a lot of people need a space that's not full of politics... I MOSTLY tweet and politics, and it's.... intense. A less intense space is good for my creative life... which is frankly my life life.

Plus I've been here for multiple hours across two days and haven't had a single argument. That certainly represents value to many folks.

@TimeSnow Sure. I totally agree with that in every way! But anyone can still create that space by following the right people and not follow the people who argues too much :)

Maybe there should be a way to make a list of accounts one could share with others as a way to recommend people to follow, so you could find great people without wading trough the entire firehose of the federated stream? #FeatureRequest

@forteller not a bad idea! I have seen people say - multiple people - that if it becomes political they'll leave... I think that's the concern

I see a problem with that approach and it has nothing to do with politics. If you follow only the people you add, that limits your feed to things you chose to read, explicitly. So you'll never discover new things. Let us say, I want to follow a broad selection of everything, but don't want kitten (or don't want politics, but kitten is neutral...). There is not way to do that. We would need a way to curate the feeds from kitten, but there isn't one.
@forteller @TimeSnow

@andrestmaur @forteller frankly people are desperate to create bubbles to live in... I can't see that being changed by the underly concept of social media platform, unless there was somehow no way to choose the content you saw, but even then crowds self-select.... human problem, not a platform problem.

@andrestmaur @TimeSnow Sure, the filter bubble is a huge issue that needs to be addressed. But filtering out everything that smells of politics can't be a solution :)

And yeah, it should be possible to follow any hashtag (like kittens) like you'd follow an account (but probably best to have it in a separate column/stream) and mute any hashtag (like politics or trump or whatever)

@forteller I'd love the ability to add hashtag columns. I am mostly being a devils advocate btw, to help spur the conversation... I PERSONALLY would like to see politics, but not politicians... more like a people's platform, instead of a corporate one... but my main goal is too have a nice experience instead of a series of arguments with idiots.

@tcql But everyone is free to follow and unfollow whoever they like.

It seems strange to me that noone should use this general communications tool for the most important topics in the world because someone follows the entire stream instead of making their own by following the people they would like to see.

@forteller yea, people will customize their timelines by following people they like, but sometimes it's fun to just watch the federated timeline and find new things.

You can still toot about politics, it's just more respectful of other peoples' boundaries if you use the content warning feature.

@tetron I disagree. It obviously is one use of it, and a smart way to use it. But it's far from the entire point. The point is to have a neutral communications platform that no one owns or controls. What better place to talk about in what direction we are, and should, steer society?

@forteller original reply was a bit too terse. What I meant was if toots about politics is a problem, either party has the option of moving to a new site with different standards (although I wonder how/if account & identity migration works?)

@tetron Yes, and that's a very good thing. There really should be a seamless system for migrating your whole account over to an other instance using the OStatus protocol, including profile, contacts, posts and settings, no matter if it's to/from Mastodon, GNU Social or something else. #FeatureRequest

Also: That won't help if people watch the federated stream and start complaining about political posts there… :) Needs to be very clear info on what each instance is for and how to use the streams

@tetron Writing these thoughts down I find it very unlikely that we will ever get to a point where there is not a very small handfull of instances where most of the users gathers. That's unfortunate, but infinitely better than todays system of only walled gardes. E-mail works great, even though most ppl use Gmail, Live/Hotmail and Yahoo (still?).

@forteller right, but N > 1 while maintaining interoperability is still a huge improvement. Also email comparison is only valid for American consumer market, plenty of independent email systems operated by large companies, markets in other countries, etc.

@cje @forteller We need MORE but BETTER political engagement. If we had that, without people trying to hide from it, maybe we wouldn't be in the rotten situation we are now in. But I do get that you need a break sometimes. I sure do.

@Idoubtit @forteller yes, especially in the recent political climate it's nice sometimes to interact with people without being reminded about the awful things that are going on. Everyone needs to recharge sometimes. But at the same time the number one thing that activism needs is boots on the ground.

@Idoubtit @cje Yes, definitely! Maybe there should be a simple way to mute/unmute some specific hashtags, so that one could do it for just a short time, when one needs a time out :)

@Jack Absolutely! But then, again, just don't follow the people who constantly toots about those things, don't tell everyone what to do (except for don't harass people and don't be a nazi, ofc ;))

@forteller Hah! Yes, I agree. I think mostly people enjoy complaining. Also the problem that platforms like these encourage sharing of opinions... but not everything needs an opinion or 'thought piece'. It'll never be perfect :-)

@tcql No, that would be horrible! Breaking federation should only be used when instances are flooded with spam or nazis or stuff like that. If it becomes normal to break for other reasons then the whole thing will become so fragmented that it'll be impossible for most people to use this. Why do most ppl use the closed gardens? Because they are easy to use. Not getting to follow ppl you want to follow b/c they use the "wrong" instance is the death of federated networks as more than a fringe thing

@forteller fair point. I was under the impression that you could still follow people whose instances were blocked by your instance, but their instances posts would not show up in your instances federated timeline

@tcql Well, I must admit that I haven't checked this, but I assumed that not federating with other instances would break all ties to them. Not 100% sure, though.

@tetron Yes, and yes, it has to if it's ever going to become really mainstream.