aster

goddammit who made that post here about how finding an audience of 10,000 randos on twitter is different than finding 100 community members on cohost and how the latter is better, or somesuch? specifically for content creators too?

I think I forgot to share it but I love it so much. anyone help me out here?

Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next) by Dean Spade (2021) is an amazing book for organizing but ever since I read this beautiful little section, I've repeatedly tried and failed to internalize it. I am gonna keep trying, because it seems like such a useful tool for emotional health on a community *and personal level.

Transcription under the cut.

My friend who works in crisis response was lamenting twitter's death because twitter is literally used as a primary source that is far quicker and more reliable than infrastructural sources.

People like her and @MxSelfDestruct (whose post led me to think more on this) are rightly looking for a replacement.

Albeit as someone not super versed in emergercy response, here are platform features that I think are required for the same kind of community reporting twitter uses:

• widespread usability in a public, globally centralized source (or at least source where localities can shift in size and spread - local-to-nyc vs local-to-queens vs local-to-lower-west-side vs local-to-area-around-george-washingon-bridge not being mutually exclusive/requiring multiple instances...on a global scale)

❌ mastodon ❌ discord ❌ facebook ❌ snapchat

• lightning-fast reporting and updating on said reports that is accessible via that shifting location-based area

many platforms can theoretically post quickly, but not all encourage this like twitter. ❌ however instagram has no sharing feature like the others.

• instantaneous sharing of said reports along with their updates - i.e, resharing one person's report thread carries the rest of their reports along automatically

❌ tumblr ❌ cohost

• an algorithm that detects which tags/reports are "trending" globally and in your area and aggregates them in a tab you can freely browse and contribute to with the correct tag

????

If people can think of anything else such a platform would need, or any platform that fits these requirements, feel free to comment. All my friend could think of was NextDoor 😬

Theoretically a crisis response platform with all these features could be coded without needing to also be a Social Media site, but getting people to use it is another thing.