Interaction Requests (Read Before Following)
If you wish to follow me, we must have interacted in some way first — you replying to one of my posts or me to one of yours. Alternatively, DM me explaining why you would like to follow me. I am not picky at all, I promise, being followed by strangers is just a little overwhelming right now.
I remove any followers that have been inactive for more than one year. If any come back and wish to follow me again, they are of course free to do so.
Feel free to DM me without asking first. Same goes for boosts; generally if it's public/unlisted, it's fair game.
If you boost or favorite my posts, I might not notice, because I have notifications for those turned off.
Lastly, but most importantly: Please let me know if I ever make you uncomfortable or otherwise do something wrong. I can be dense at times, but I am here to pay attention and improve. Saying I support BIPOC, disable and LGBTQIA people is one thing, doing that is another, and I want to be in the second camp.
CSS Style For Identifying Undescribed Media
Recently, several users expressed a desire for a way to quickly check if the images in the toot they were about to boost were described. It would be nice if Mastodon itself offered warnings for that, as well as for forgetting to describe media in your own posts, but until then, this is actually one problem admins can fix on our own!
All you need to do is go into the site settings and add a bit of CSS code that will display a red border around any undescribed media. There are two examples available, depending on how subtle or noticeable you want the border to be; experiment and see what you like!
https://gist.github.com/FiXato/3de505b04efefd49a1e3568b70545234
Thanks to @IngaLovinde for thinking of the starting code and @FiXato for improving on it! They did all the work here; I am just sharing this along.
Open this post in a new tab and look at the image to see how this can look like. The example image is my avatar, described in another pinned post.
#MastoAdmin #MastoDev
Profile Picture Info
I have a new profile picture, thanks to the amazing @pixouls!
You can find more things Pixel has done on their site: https://pixouls.github.io/index.html
And if you'd like to support them, they have a Liberapay profile: https://liberapay.com/Pixouls/
Why I Delete Old Toots
Nothing I post is so unprecedented that people will still find it useful several years later. There are enough wonderful toots posted every day that there's no reason to backread through my entire profile instead, except perhaps for doxxing purposes.
So, since I like keeping things tidy, I use Forget to delete every post of mine older than 4 months, except for the few that I've decided to keep. If you'd like to do something similar yourself, you can learn more here:
https://forget.codl.fr/about
Fun fact: I've had to repost this exactly because it got deleted by mistake. So do take care to mark the things you wish to keep. Also, check if your profile is in any web archives; mine is, unfortunately, and it does make you wonder what the point is. But I'll keep on doing it anyway; small steps are better than nothing!
menstration tracker book~!
my girl crush has made a book in print and pdf for tracking cycles
check it out
Can also CW for politics, mental health, and experiences relating to marginalisation - but those are greyer areas imo.
eg: personally, I'd probably CW a toot about racism, but only for the sake of other POC.
Regarding alt-text: I'm not an authority on it, but I just have fun with recreating my work in words. Anything visual that is left out is compensated with other written treats (japes, jests)
reminder to mastodon newbies that lots of people here won't boost art if it's not got a CWs (when appropriate) or alt text
It's a good culture that's helped me learn to be more accessible elsewhere.
Some things to CW for: violence, gore, sexually explicit, nudity, eye-contact, flashing imagery, talking about other social media platforms
daily microfiction
A shadow in the deep, outline broken by tentacled courtiers like locusts before the sun.
The bysswhale sings, her voice the harmonic grind of subduction plates and eroding chalk, and the waters rise up and crash down like a tsunami upon her prey. Her court will eat well this day.
Food service / hotel jobs, 22 openings, in Nashville TN USA. My middle child works there and is providing the link. Margaritaville Hotel staff and in house restaurant staff. Careers | Davidson Hospitality Group
https://recruitingbypaycor.com/career/CareerHomeSearch.action?clientId=8a7883d0784b99c701785b96328e0573 lots of other locations on the page but I can only vouch for the Nashville location. #getfedihired
"It seems obvious now that anyone with a real sense of wit and humour would have little patience for constantly belittling strangers online." Just wish it were obvious to more people... https://blog.vanillaforums.com/community/dont-be-afraid-to-stamp-out-abuse-in-your-community
“87th floor, room 24,” says the hotel receptionist as I check in.
“87?! How tall is this hotel?” I exclaim.
“Oh, it’s only two floors up,” she smiles, “but we skip unlucky numbers, and there are a LOT of those around the world.”
“Did you know 87 is unlucky for cricketers?” I joke as I reach for the key.
She frowns, pulls back the key. “Your floor is now called—[typing]—the 111th floor.”
I am about to say something about the number 111, think better of it, and accept the key.
Illness (mild)
Blurgh, I have a cold. Colds suck.
(Yes, I'm pretty sure it's a cold. A bunch of sneezing is all I've had to deall with. I will test if needed tho.)
I wear a mask regularly anyway, so hopefully I won't pass it on too much. But damn, sneezing into a mask also sucks. I need to remember to bring spares tomorrow.
just as a follow up to this, different languages or regional spellings are fine, i'm specifically talking about things like "tw*tter" or "n00dz"
Hand flowers (8) and hand armors (2) are up. I'll be cussing at my printer this evening (shower first) until I can get the orders thus far packed for shipping, thank you everyone who has supported me and helped get some of this stuff out of the house before we move. https://ko-fi.com/andrewragland/shop #maille
I mean do we really have to rehash the "saying a work is bigoted in some way doesn't mean the author is an irredeemably bad person who must be thrown to the wolves, it means they live in a structurally violent society just like the rest of us and might have unexamined biases that creep into their work" talk? It's true that toxic social environments CAN make it feel like one is throwing a creator to the wolves by making any such critique, but the remedy to that is pushing back against the kind of toxicity that denies learning or growth, not denying that legitimate criticism can exist.
On having opinions on marginalization as a privileged person (long)
I am not, of course, saying that people of a dominant identity in a given situation shouldn't have opinions on marginalization--solidarity isn't achieved by a simple "no comment." And it can be genuinely confusing for someone who hasn't experienced a specific bigotry and wants to support their marginalized comrades, when those comrades don't agree among themselves! And this happens all the time, since marginalized people are not a monolith. So what to do? Here are some ideas:
First, if there's ambiguity--which is most of the time, in art--err on the side of listening to the intracommunity decision over making a conclusion yourself. In most cases the discussions of bigotry in art by the people who have lived experience with that bigotry are more thought-provoking and informative than a definitive conclusion that it is/is not bigoted, anyway.
Second, if there's a degree of consensus in the marginalized group, based on clear principles and facts, that a work is actively harmful, focus on amplifying those voices over making a conclusion for yourself. Do not pass off their opinions as your own, because as a person in a dominant identity you are likelier to be remembered and listened to. Serve your marginalized comrades, don't make them serve you.
Third, be EXTREMELY careful about saying "I don't think this work is bigoted" for a bigotry you do not experience. Unless it's made clear by all the marginalized people commenting on the issue, the ones who are actually affected by the bigotry in question, that all the critiques alleging bigotry are bad-faith smears--which is a heck of an allegation, very rarely proven--I would never make such a dismissive conclusion as the privileged person in the situation.
If there is reasonable intracommunity disagreement on the issue, listen and abstain from making a public conclusion. Again, the discussion itself is far more illuminating than a definitive conclusion anyway, and listening is how you learn to better support your comrades.
At all times, maintain openness to the possibility that there might be bigotry in the work that you are not aware of because it doesn't touch you, and that the marginalized people making the critique are doing so in good faith. Basically, be respectful. It is not respectful to assume that all the marginalized people making a critique about their own marginalization are arguing in bad faith.
kidposting, upset child & parent-child relationships
Like, I very much suspect Tater has RSD or some form of social anxiety, and just now, after being told by his dad (justifiably) to be more careful not to accidentally hit people, he came upset to me and just curled in my lap a while looking sad with tears in his eyes. I held Tater and patted him, sympathizing with his upset while not blaming or undermining my partner, and kid was fine after a while. If he didn't feel safe to come to a parent when he was upset, it would be so easy for these big emotions to manifest in other, much less healthy ways.
It's so possible, easy in fact, to both acknowledge a lesson and the negative emotional reactions to it--neither had to be invalidated or argued away, he just needed a little time and comfort! And he does in fact still learn, I've watched him actually practice being more careful because he understands it's important without having his actions and emotions micromanaged! It's so wholesome to watch and makes me so angry that I wasn't, and still am not, given this level of trust and respect.
#Talkback users, what keyboard apps are you using on #Android? I don't like GBoard, and Swiftkey is only slightly better (slightly faster and doesn't require double taps for switching to symbols or sending a message). I liked the Samsung keyboard on my old phone, but I guess that is Samsung-restricted, because searching Aurora Store I only get clones. Anything else that works?
I'd love to use AnySoftKeyboard or another thing on F-Droid, but last time I checked, the keys weren't read at all.
Yes, I know the braille keyboard exists. Not really my thing unfortunately, although perhaps I should try practicing some.
Reply/DM me before following! Read the INTERACTION REQUESTS pin for more info. #NoBot
A blind Slovenian.
Worldview: atheism, humanism, feminism
Interests:
Cooking: Newbie. Trying to reduce my meat intake,.
Gaming: audiogames, MUDs, text adventures, other story-driven games
Reading: books and interactive fiction, mostly fantasy and science fiction
Science: Pro vaccine, GMO, etc. I don't know much, but enjoy learning.
Shaving: safety razors.
Technology: accessibility, free software, privacy