Hi. In the spirit of XOXO and the past couple of years of preliminary work and the things that need fixing, I'm starting a micro-studio and kicking off a community support setup and fixing what I can reach in the only way I know how.

[kissane@mas.to]

@dymaxion Thank you! And me too, for some value of “works.”

[ahmetasabanci@mastodon.social]

@kissane so happy that you’re doing this and would love to have a chat sometime (maybe via email) because I have some things in my mind related to this.

[kissane@mas.to]

@ahmetasabanci @dymaxion It took me two years to name it

[kissane@mas.to]

@ahmetasabanci I l would love that!

[natematias@social.coop]

@kissane this is really great. Everything everywhere is happening all at once for me right now, and pausing to read this was one of my best decisions today; thanks for writing it!

[kissane@mas.to]

@natematias ahaha I am literally reading your and Sarah's earlier post about Pennsylvania Hall in the tab I lined up for a post-launch treat!

[andresmh@hci.social]

@kissane great read! you might be interested in this https://citp.princeton.edu/applications-for-citp-fellows-program-is-now-open/

[kissane@mas.to]

@andresmh Oh wow, these are going to be incredible! (I bailed on my MA mid-thesis to write a book and take more paying work, alas, but this is going to attract so many wonderful people.)

[kissane@mas.to]

@andresmh And thank you for sending it along, I know at least three people I want to send it to!

[sara@xoxo.zone]

@kissane I am so incredibly HYPED that you are doing this!

[sara@xoxo.zone]

@kissane (and as someone that’s pondered making a solo pursuit like this to explore better avenues of community, tools, tech, and web spaces—and routinely talked myself out of it—this is SO INSPIRING.

Thank you for doing this work, and for setting a new tone and example to follow!

[kissane@mas.to]

@sara Who knows what will happen! But like…let's find out!

[criscolor@mastodon.online]

@kissane this was a fantastic read and I got a lot out of it.

I think that note you made in the metaphor about there being no reviews for the shoe stores might be a really effective stepping stone or first step towards making navigating the instance options more accessible- reviews for fediverse servers would be REALLY helpful

[criscolor@mastodon.online]

@kissane Like if mastodon (the piece of software) had a page similar to the one that lists federated connections that hosted reviews, with a couple text boxes, asking for sentence or two of user opinion on why someone would want to choose this server, and why they wouldn't, and maybe something regarding governance (I need to go read your piece on governance, it's still a vague idea for me), along with a simple 5 star rating, I think that could really help people.

[criscolor@mastodon.online]

@kissane it's a messy and imperfect solution, one with plenty of flaws, but it's an existing blueprint that could help a lot and doesn't need to be conceptually designed from scratch

[kissane@mas.to]

@CrisColor I think it’s a really interesting possibility! I know there’s a lot of weird drama and troubled history on the fediverse, so I’d want any reputation system to be designed carefully to try to avoid that, but I have to think there’s some way to collect signals about server health that can’t turn mean. Game design is inspiring there—I should try to write about how Jenova Chen (and others’) Journey and games like it might point a way to reputation signals without harm.

[jdp23@blahaj.zone]

@[email protected] it is weirdly complex, agreed that there are ways to make it much better, and glad you're digging in. exciting!

[kissane@mas.to]

@jdp23 Thank you, Jon!

[jameswallbank@mas.to]

@kissane Certainly familiar: you need to know about Mastodon before you can join Mastodon.

For the reference, no way would I change sever. Not because the instance I'm on is great (is it? I don't know!) but because the migration process seems like it might be fraught with hazard.

So this got me to thinking. Does migration need to be the user's problem? By analysing preferences and usage patterns, could instances exchange users, gradually ensuring that everyone ends up in an appropriate place?

[cyberlyra@hachyderm.io]

@kissane
love this! Keep it up!