it's interesting – every single one of these things is a thing I've probably said as an individual, and could be described as "representative of my values", and yet something feels strange to me about these being "the rules" of some community. not in a *bad* way, just, hm
I don't mean to knock on the founders – I know of them from Quora, they're gd ppl and I respect that they're trying to address a very difficult challenge
I get the sense that at some level I feel like the problem is not quite solvable, not in this way, not with these parameters
When I look at these things there's a part of me that tends to initiate a simulation of a malicious actor – how would I foil and thwart these rules to be a terrible person & ruin everything for everyone? In this case, I'd be a Genuinely Curious Person Who's Just Asking Questions
then the moment someone gets frustrated and is like "wtf is wrong with you, how can you ask that" I can be like hey!! the rules say you have to be kind!! don't be mean!! assume good faith!! moderators!!! guards!!!!
I think realistically in practice no matter how nicely you write down the rules of some place, and it's probably worth putting in the effort to do this, at least to get some kind of internal alignment amongst the team, the culture of a place is really determined by its members
personally I haven't had the patience or energy to run any community that's large enough to need moderators. it's been interesting to run facebook groups and discords and so on and to observe how some individuals step up more than others to influence the norms of a space
anyway I think good community spaces are very important and I have a lot of respect for people who want to try to build a good one. I hope it works out well for them and for everyone who participates!
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did some stream-of-consciousness writing, I had dreamt that an old twitter friend was back on twitter (alas, they are not)
satisfied that I had done a bit of a braindump, I decided to open the bird app, and I discover that I have a dozens of replies and DMs from when I was asleep, which I am probably not going to be reply to, hence this:
I spend so much energy being sensible on twitter that on Facebook I just,
this triggers a memory – when I was a teenager, my parents brought me to see some family friend who would go into a trance state and tell fortunes. they asked him about my schooling and he growled "butthi yengeyo poothu", which translates to sth like, "his mind roams unknown"
at the time it seemed kinda spooky and weird, but on retrospect, damn, he right, and what a badass thing to say
One of my favorite things about my twitter feed is how diverse it is in terms of where people are from around the world. Reply with a pic of where you’re from, and I’ll QT a thread of my favorites
Here’s a view of Keppel Harbour from Harbourfront library, Singapore 🇸🇬
someone quote-tweeted one of my "build an audience" tweets with a very interesting disagreement that I want to explore. they're a small account so I don't want to stress them out by quote-tweeting them in turn. but lemme break it down
1. "This craze arnd "follow & make friends in social media" "create content for social media" is the toxic madness that has kept most of humanity unhinged in today's world."
2. "I wd rather encourage scholarly pursuits for one's internal satisfaction without engaging outer world."
I always like looking for people's transformation pics and stories (Amy's shared her journey on her Instagram in the replies), mainly to study the little details about the body and facial language. There's a whole "cinematography of confidence" that you can study and learn
I can share my own transformation entirely through body language, even w/o much change in body composition. the most obvious difference is the hands, I made this whole video with my hands in my hoodie pocket the whole time. I'm "stuck", revving w/ brakes
compared to this – obvious superficial differences are the colors and jewelry, sunlight, etc – and then the hands – but it's also really about the openness, expressiveness, no longer "blocked" or "repressed", no longer policing and imprisoning myself