Thank you! It's really good to hear these guides and accounts are useful!

Absolute precious resource! Thank you for what you do!!

If anyone wants help with using this place, please feel free to ask. I am trying to provide an unofficial support service on here

The way I understand it is that Mastodon originally had a huge population of outcasts. People who were harassed on other social media platforms created their own groups.

Furries, visually impaired, non-binary, autistic, etc carved their own niches. Compared to the rest of the Internet these groups were small and made their own rules to help their members. Content warnings when there's eye contact in a picture to help the autistic or when food is present to help the people with eating disorders became the norm.

The cool thing is as you say, you can curate your feed not to deal with those people or their rules.

I'd argue you should try to understand where many of them come from. Not all are shrieking Karens. Some of those rules came from a place of wanting to help others.

But yes. Some have become a bit militant and it's off putting.

@joyce

@Bern

I also hate Amazon and FB, but as a published author, I know that my publishers sell *everywhere* - they must do it. And some organisations or artists only get enough customers on big platforms.
And Indies do need every cent for making a living.
I block those people aggressing others personally with a (if it's harassing, I report them).
But it's very difficult!

@joyce

@joyce

Second: in *any* network with anonymous people you will have the naggers with their tiny, sad life, often isolated, who try to destroy other's joy.

We can help others to find out how to

@joyce

For 2: I also nearly deleted my account here several times because I'm so fed up of that typical #Mastodon purity police' and mansplainers.
But meanwhile, I feel angry enough to publicly shame and report/block them if they harass others. The more of us showing them a finger the more they could learn that they are not liked.

The good news: our moderators are humans.

I get this very well.

That upsets some people. I get it, but it works best for me. There may come a day when I make print copies of my books available, but until then, it's Amazon.

I understand. The genre I write in makes Amazon exclusivity quite beneficial, and Kindle Unlimited page reads account for over half of my total royalties. 57% since I started publishing, in fact. I very much doubt I'd be able to make up the difference on another platform.

But everyone's different. There's no right or wrong way to publish, and it's really sad that some people think there is.

I will say, most people are not openly aggressive. However, I've seen it enough, both on my posts and in general, to rein in posting about how to buy my books. I'll make a post about sales, but that's about it.

It's really a shame that it's come to that. I definitely feel ostracized, but I think that's a me problem. I've always been averse to conflict and upsetting people.

Like Nathan.

I'm anti-Amazon and FB, but author got to make money, and the world is as it is.

Most food is not ethically produced. I don't stop eating.

There are also things I don't talk about here. But that has been true all my life.

I struggled a little at first but the basic bits of feditips really helped.
As for the other point. A lot of my friends here are degoogling and avoid Amazon. A lot are anti genAI, as I am but I try not to jump on others at a personal level. And I have friends here who don't avoid things I prefer to.

Also, the platform I last published a book on is now part of Amazon!