alex tax1a

@atax1a

plural atomic queer, OG demon core

they/them^xe/xer

we make bad posts // discord: atax1a

interesting perspective on cohost

https://hackers.town/@lori/110656825941689147

#cohost #The Cohost Global Feed #meta #cohost meta

alex tax1a @atax1a7/5/2023, 3:46 PM

critical support to comrade cohost, but we predicted a lot of these very problems when we asked "how many people that don't look/act like white queer techies are involved in this thing" and got back an "uhhhhhhh" — the sea/bay tech queer culture is rancid and insular in ways that are nigh-impossible to talk about, and over time this leads to spaces developing de-facto 'whites only' social hierarchy. ask me how i know :)

also, making a centralized social media site using modern (deliberately unsustainable rent-seeking) cloud dogshit in late-202x sure is a choice, but we would have put our engineering effort somewhere the entire fuck else

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in reply to @PolyWolf's post:

The Web's Dear Freja @VampireExpert7/5/2023, 1:27 PM

I only read the TL;DR, because yeah, that is too long, but if I were the cohost staff and I just wanted to get paid, I'd work in big tech and make way more money, and if I just wanted to coast, I'd Just Simply Make My Social Media Site Sustainable so I'd get to coast for longer. And also I wouldn't do something as obviously stress-inducing as having a prominent personal presence as staff. Seems questionable.

Gazimon @gazimon7/5/2023, 2:02 PM

i read through the thread, and the prominent personal presence is something op points out specifically as not great. and tbh, i'm in agreement there, i don't think it's especially responsible to cultivate any sort of parasocial relationship with your users. great way to be put on a pedestal and then torn down when you post something half-asleep that comes across Not As Intended. or to get people to start digging up old posts on other social media that maybe you'd prefer not to be associated with you anymore (as you see happen with internet microcelebrities). and then the morality of "no really we're friends ;)" is a little sketchy to me but ehhh.

that said, it's a solid way to keep people on your side and wanting to support you and your product/service, so i don't blame them for going that route. artists and authors tend to do this too, at least on a smaller scale, and in general seems the way of The Current Internet.

The Web's Dear Freja @VampireExpert7/5/2023, 2:25 PM

I think it's also just normal to want to use something you've made and be seen as a person, and if they didn't have a personal presence, the OP would instead be saying that they're secretive and untrustworthy because they're obviously hiding something. You can make anything sound sketchy if you want to. I think it's at least fair to say that staff could be doing a lot more to cultivate parasocial relationships if that's something they wanted to do.

(I agree that there is a hazard to them being personal on here, which is part of why I don't follow any of them, for the record.)

weepingbelle @weepingbelle7/5/2023, 2:40 PM

i think the problem is more that there is no separation between personal and professional with staff. i think its perfectly fine for them all to have personal blogs and just Be Users but even their official channels of communication can be pretty personal. im also of the opinion tho that staff isnt malicious at all; at worst theyre guilty of biting off more than they can chew. theyre certainly not grifters, and i feel its a little unfair of op to even bring that term into the conversation

alex tax1a @atax1a7/5/2023, 3:41 PM

counterpoint: ever since this place started, our main criticism has been "this place seems to be consciously created by and for white queer techies to be making a site for them and people like them to hang out on, and so like all such spaces it will eventually develop a culture that excludes anyone who is insufficiently compliant with whiteness".

weepingbelle @weepingbelle7/5/2023, 3:52 PM

yeah i think youre definitely correct that this place is Exceptionally White, but i dont think that would be changed or improved by staff being less personal on, or entirely absent as users from, the site. unless thats not what you're saying? sorry if ive misunderstood

alex tax1a @atax1a7/5/2023, 3:57 PM

well, no, it wouldn't help, the only thing that would help here is white people actually putting in the effort towards developing the kind of skills that let them work productively with people who aren't white, but i've been around the white queer tech scene trying to get this conversation going for 13+ years and it is an uphill battle that results in all the white people telling us that it's our fault and we need to provide all the insight and do all the work

lori @lori7/5/2023, 4:33 PM

"I think it's also just normal to want to use something you've made and be seen as a person, and if they didn't have a personal presence, the OP would instead be saying that they're secretive and untrustworthy because they're obviously hiding something. "

As the OP, no I wouldn't. I'm a firm believer in people like this having private lives separate from their business persona.

dead flag blues custom stepmania chart @MxSelfDestruct7/5/2023, 3:13 PM

interesting is certainly a word one could use to describe this

lori @lori7/5/2023, 4:31 PM

damn I shoulda just posted it on here then I guess

PolyWolf @PolyWolf7/5/2023, 4:57 PM

oh shoot sorry I should've checked to see if you had an account here. would you like me to credit you in the post?

lori @lori7/5/2023, 5:05 PM

nah it'd probably just make more people yell at me if a lot of the comments i've seen are anything to go off of. i'm not really worried about it either but i don't need extra probably lol. obviously posting criticism of a site ON said site is going to ruffle some feathers, it's fine.