[Daily random quote out of context from my academic book about Mastodon] The open federation argument: This is related to the free speech argument. The open federation argument says that blocklist importing would break the federation, because it would sever too many connections between […]

you know where I just don't see AI slop? that's right, the fedi thank you fedi! Keep it human!

everybody wants a taste

[Daily random quote out of context from my academic book about Mastodon] This was quite disappointing to Ro. In light of the toll that racist trolls were taking on moderators like Marcia, he could not understand why safety features, such as importable instances blocklists, were not being […]

[uspol] Please ignore the obvious and disturbing connection between Trump and Epstein, and instead focus your attention on a nonconnection between a mild pain reliever and an entire, complex spectrum of human behaviors

just dropping this here, no reason why https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mWM0S1dMro

[Daily random quote out of context from my academic book about Mastodon] Then, not much later came 2016: the Brexit referendum in the UK and the US Presidential election. As a site that allows for political advertising, Facebook (and its child company Instagram) figured heavily in both events […]

Thank you once again to @timnitGebru for joining me on today's episode of Fireside Fedi! Please find the video and audio versions at the following links: #peertube #vod - https://video.firesidefedi.live/w/ttu29pxU9Dw2BRSncWf2Dp #castopod #fedicast - […]

I get why I need to take an English language test as part of applying for PR in Canada, but I do not understand how such tests expire in two years....

[Daily random quote out of context from my academic book about Mastodon] In addition, Mastodon codes of conduct also aid in server-to-server connections. As I will show, the presence (or lack of) a code of conduct helps server admins to make informed choices as their instances federate with one […]

This kind of came a bit unexpectedly today, but I have a new article out: https://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/1556 It focuses on those most controversial moderation tools on the #fediverse: #blocklists. I consider the philosophy and practice of listing to argue that those […]

I'm reviewing a lecture on the public sphere and publics. I last gave it a year ago. So much of it has become irrelevant, at least in my native country.

Happy to share my last #academic paper, published on New Media & Society and authored with Nate Tkacz and Fangzhou Zhang about our #research on #twittermigration #Xodus Eventful migration: Rethinking social media migration with help from Elon Musk’s sink […] [Original post on scholar.social]

[Daily random quote out of context from my academic book about Mastodon] While Rochko intended Mastodon to be an improvement on GNU social, Mastodon’s likeness to Twitter prompted people to compare it to that site. Rochko initially discouraged such comparisons. “I’m a realist so I don’t think […]

when I used to talk about the perils of billionaire media consolidation there was a segment of folks who thought I was being hyperbolic and looked at me like I was a toddler making a dookie on the wedding dance floor they don't look at me like that no mo

When the wheel turns 1. Make Puerto Rico and DC states 2. Eliminate the filibuster 3. Eliminate "Citizens United" 4. Eliminate the Electoral College 5. TRC-style forum with a touch of Nuremberg 6. Make Gerrymandering a crime ...

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"Whatever nuance is needed for its interception, resisting AI’s further creep into intellectual labor will also require blunt-force militancy. The steps are simple. Don’t publish AI bullshit. Don’t even publish mealymouthed essays about the temptation to produce AI bullshit." N+1 magazine with […]

[Daily random quote out of context from my academic book about Mastodon] But they spend quite a bit of time running Awoo.space, one of the original Mastodon instances. On Awoo, Shork is known by their shark avatar, a cartoon rendering of the Blåhaj toy sold by Ikea. They promise to post […]

It’s more important than ever to support independent media free from corporate caving to autocracy and wherever possible on the open social web and on direct open media. https://journa.host/@w7voa/115222129277589068

When I was writing my latest book, Move Slowly and Build Bridges, I talked about the stakes: corporate social media is accruing incredible power and is increasingly tied to state power. We need noncommercial, non- centralized media. Honestly, I thought I overstated it when I wrote the book […]

"One day, son, this will all be podcasts, with sponsored content and automated transcripts as far as the eye can see..."

[Daily random quote out of context from my academic book about Mastodon] While I think this form of caring too much will always be present on the fediverse, I find some wisdom in noncentralization.... https://moveslowlybuildbridges.com #moveslowlyandbuildbridges #bot

[uspol] starting to think folks in power have, in fact, read history and are, in fact, trying purposely to repeat it.

Please boost! :boost_ok: A hate crime in the Seattle Area put a trans lady in the hospital last night. She needs donations to cover her medical expenses and lost wages while she heals. https://gofund.me/ff8ccdfc3

[Daily random quote out of context from my academic book about Mastodon] Other interactions took their toll. Ro would call out racism among white trans women and would face bigotry as a response. Marcia, who is currently finishing her PhD thesis on decoloniality, would call out anti-Blackness […]

[celebrity death] Robert Redford is dead. My first thought was about the celebration of the movie #hackers yesterday. I know, I know -- Redford isn't in that. No, Redford was in the vastly superior hacking movie Sneakers, which is by far my favorite movie depicting #socialengineering. If you […]

Zero Cool

[Daily random quote out of context from my academic book about Mastodon] Instead, SocialWG members could explore more philosophical ideas about the meaning of sociality. And this resulted in interminable debates: each of the factions could, if they wish, poke holes in each others’ ideas and […]

[Daily random quote out of context from my academic book about Mastodon] As should be clear, this genre of science fiction is “an uprising of hope against the daily despair that these times bring.” It’s unabashedly about porvir otimista – an optimistic future where inventors and activists work […]

[Daily random quote out of context from my academic book about Mastodon] As should be clear, this genre of science fiction is “an uprising of hope against the daily despair that these times bring.” It’s unabashedly about porvir otimista – an optimistic future where inventors and activists work […]

someone please make an image search system that filters out #generativeai images it is so, so miserable to search for images now.

[Daily random quote out of context from my academic book about Mastodon] Activists who have pushed back against naive openness have produced a new form of alternative social media: a noncentralized, covenantal fediverse.... https://moveslowlybuildbridges.com #moveslowlyandbuildbridges #bot

The recording is now online, on the FediForum PeerTube and YouTube channels. https://spectra.video/@fediforum https://www.youtube.com/@FediForum /cc @rwg

I had a wonderful time yesterday talking to folks at the @fediforum book launch event for Move Slowly and Build Bridges! It was especially fun to see folks who were interviewed for the book! As usual, I want to share the text of my talk as well as the slides. You can see them here […]

[Daily random quote out of context from my academic book about Mastodon] Mastodon and the fediverse are the most recent – and in my view, most important – attempts to make something better than corporate social media.... https://moveslowlybuildbridges.com #moveslowlyandbuildbridges #bot

Some personal news: @jesse and I just won the Nancy Baym Book Award, granted annually by The Association of Internet Researchers (@AoIR ), for our @mitpress book The Secret Life of Data. I am honored, chuffed, and oh so grateful. https://aoir.org/2025nb_bookaward/

So far, I've been mostly ignoring Bluesky, with the attitude "Wake me up when I can do Bluesky without doing business with Bluesky the company." @jdp23 just woke me up! https://thenexusofprivacy.net/what-solidarity-looks-like/ I'm using a private PDS run by a friend, and using it to log into […]

Prepping for the @rwg #fediforum discussion by searching for all the occurrences of my name in the text.

One question that @rwg asks is when Mastodon chose to adopt ActivityPub to replace OStatus. I remember this Tweet from the period: https://x.com/evanpro/status/851155551325229058 I don't know if anyone else read it, but I remember it being a hard thing to write. I was happy about the work but […]

[Daily random quote out of context from my academic book about Mastodon] []... https://moveslowlybuildbridges.com #moveslowlyandbuildbridges #bot

[Daily random quote out of context from my academic book about Mastodon] Observing fediverse members’ disdain for unethical research and the contentification of social media posts, I sought consent from fediverse members. In the case of interviews, I have engaged in standard institutional […]

Are you a moderator on the Fediverse? A server operator? If so, you should definitely fill out the IFTAS Moderator Needs Assessment: https://about.iftas.org/moderator-needs-assessment/

This might be a longshot... but the fediverse might be the best place for me to post this and get the reply of fellow Linux friends. One of my kid's buddies found an in-the-box Samsung SM-T113 "Tab." Doing searches, I see it may be possible to put something like PostMarketOS on it. Anyone out […]

the more I learn about @gotosocial the more I like what I see

[Daily random quote out of context from my academic book about Mastodon] As Sunbeam.city’s admin Wakest puts it,... https://moveslowlybuildbridges.com #moveslowlyandbuildbridges #bot

We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job. Rather than stand idly by while our constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent.

Free online talk by @rwg for his excellent new book “Move Slowly and Build Things,” hosted by @fediforum. Register here: https://fediforum.org/news/2025-09-04-robert-gehl-move-slowly-and-build-bridges-special-event/