Am I supposed to introduce myself and #introduction ?..I confess I have never known how to use the social internet properly and the Fediverse confuses me a bit, but I feel strongly in the need to carve out alternative social spaces on the Internet.
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@Torithom
I volunteer at our jazz festival in the summer and at a local jazz space in the rest of the year. I also go out to concerts as much as I can. I hear a lot of great music, both local and international.This summer I will have the pleasure of putting both Bob James and Hiromi on stage on the same evening this summer at the festival. That should be quite an evening! (I volunteer as stage manager at the festival.)
My favorite concert in 2025 was a tribute to Oscar Peterson with two grand pianos and four pianists in a small intimate listening space to celebrate his 100th birthday.
I am sure I would enjoy your music.
@gardencat
Canada by the way, I volunteered at Victoria BC Jazz festival a while back. I've added those to my listen list, the Oscar Peterson tribute sounds pretty amazing! My stuff is at linktr.ee/torithom but I'm releasing a parody of Paper Doll/ It's only a Paper Moon in a couple of weeks... A bit controversial in NZ with our copyright law but yeah it's jazzy 
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Am I supposed to introduce myself and #introduction ?..I confess I have never known how to use the social internet properly and the Fediverse confuses me a bit, but I feel strongly in the need to carve out alternative social spaces on the Internet. So excuse any social faux pas on my part. I am an educator and musician in New Zealand with a passion for writing complaint letters, bringing the social sciences into everything and dreaming of a world where we radically take care of each other.
@Torithom
Hello & welcome! -
Am I supposed to introduce myself and #introduction ?..I confess I have never known how to use the social internet properly and the Fediverse confuses me a bit, but I feel strongly in the need to carve out alternative social spaces on the Internet. So excuse any social faux pas on my part. I am an educator and musician in New Zealand with a passion for writing complaint letters, bringing the social sciences into everything and dreaming of a world where we radically take care of each other.
@Torithom The Covid conscious people are active on the fediverse, helping each other deal with the world. Hashtags are free! Example hashtags are #CovidIsNotOver, #LongCovid, #COVIDisAirborne, #covid, #disability.
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@Torithom The Covid conscious people are active on the fediverse, helping each other deal with the world. Hashtags are free! Example hashtags are #CovidIsNotOver, #LongCovid, #COVIDisAirborne, #covid, #disability.
@Pollinators that is very cool! I've just been discussing the way the CC movements get fragmented as people boycott various platforms as they get messed up by billionaires, while others are to sick and tired to be bothered to move again. It's got a way to go but the Fediverse seems to offer a solution.
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Am I supposed to introduce myself and #introduction ?..I confess I have never known how to use the social internet properly and the Fediverse confuses me a bit, but I feel strongly in the need to carve out alternative social spaces on the Internet. So excuse any social faux pas on my part. I am an educator and musician in New Zealand with a passion for writing complaint letters, bringing the social sciences into everything and dreaming of a world where we radically take care of each other.
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@gardencat
Canada by the way, I volunteered at Victoria BC Jazz festival a while back. I've added those to my listen list, the Oscar Peterson tribute sounds pretty amazing! My stuff is at linktr.ee/torithom but I'm releasing a parody of Paper Doll/ It's only a Paper Moon in a couple of weeks... A bit controversial in NZ with our copyright law but yeah it's jazzy 
@Torithom
I volunteer with the Ottawa Jazz festival. It has been 32 years. Time flies when you are having a good time. I hope you enjoyed the Victoria festival!I see that there is a big risk that Victoria will lose Herman's. That would be very sad. It is so hard to keep live music venues alive.
I will check out your music. Thank you!
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Am I supposed to introduce myself and #introduction ?..I confess I have never known how to use the social internet properly and the Fediverse confuses me a bit, but I feel strongly in the need to carve out alternative social spaces on the Internet. So excuse any social faux pas on my part. I am an educator and musician in New Zealand with a passion for writing complaint letters, bringing the social sciences into everything and dreaming of a world where we radically take care of each other.
@Torithom Welcome to Mastodon. Yes, the platform is clunkier to use than others. So, I would suggest following @FediTips
FediTips posts lots of helpful things about using Mastodon, and there is a website where you can look things up.
Other tips:
- You can follow hashtags. It's a good way to get posts on your fave topics to show up in your feed.
- You have easy access to 3 different feeds (listed on the right side your screen). A) Home -- posts from accounts that you actually follow. B) Trending - popular posts from across the Fediverse. C) Live Feeds -- posts from accounts on the same server/instance your account is on.
If you post polite questions about hos to use anything, usually some nice person out there will step up with an answer. -
@Pollinators that is very cool! I've just been discussing the way the CC movements get fragmented as people boycott various platforms as they get messed up by billionaires, while others are to sick and tired to be bothered to move again. It's got a way to go but the Fediverse seems to offer a solution.
@Torithom There are people sharing access to long covid studies. You can follow people with one click!
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@Pollinators that is very cool! I've just been discussing the way the CC movements get fragmented as people boycott various platforms as they get messed up by billionaires, while others are to sick and tired to be bothered to move again. It's got a way to go but the Fediverse seems to offer a solution.
@Torithom An example is @tomkindlon
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Am I supposed to introduce myself and #introduction ?..I confess I have never known how to use the social internet properly and the Fediverse confuses me a bit, but I feel strongly in the need to carve out alternative social spaces on the Internet. So excuse any social faux pas on my part. I am an educator and musician in New Zealand with a passion for writing complaint letters, bringing the social sciences into everything and dreaming of a world where we radically take care of each other.
Welcome. If you find something confusing, just ask.
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@Torithom Welcome to Mastodon. Yes, the platform is clunkier to use than others. So, I would suggest following @FediTips
FediTips posts lots of helpful things about using Mastodon, and there is a website where you can look things up.
Other tips:
- You can follow hashtags. It's a good way to get posts on your fave topics to show up in your feed.
- You have easy access to 3 different feeds (listed on the right side your screen). A) Home -- posts from accounts that you actually follow. B) Trending - popular posts from across the Fediverse. C) Live Feeds -- posts from accounts on the same server/instance your account is on.
If you post polite questions about hos to use anything, usually some nice person out there will step up with an answer. -
@MrAndrewD I was writing letters to the government to stop ignoring Long Covid but then I ran out of energy (ironically). In reality all I can do as little chips away at things rather than achieve concrete results on my own, but I did manage to get my building to put a bench in the foyer for people to sit on rather than the floor. A small win but a tangeable one!
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@Pollinators that is very cool! I've just been discussing the way the CC movements get fragmented as people boycott various platforms as they get messed up by billionaires, while others are to sick and tired to be bothered to move again. It's got a way to go but the Fediverse seems to offer a solution.
@Torithom @Pollinators
There's also a Long Covid group,
!@longcovidIf you add that user id to your post (remove the ! in front) that post will be sent to folks following that group.
You can browse posts here (hope I got this link right):
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Am I supposed to introduce myself and #introduction ?..I confess I have never known how to use the social internet properly and the Fediverse confuses me a bit, but I feel strongly in the need to carve out alternative social spaces on the Internet. So excuse any social faux pas on my part. I am an educator and musician in New Zealand with a passion for writing complaint letters, bringing the social sciences into everything and dreaming of a world where we radically take care of each other.
@Torithom I dream of that world, too.
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Am I supposed to introduce myself and #introduction ?..I confess I have never known how to use the social internet properly and the Fediverse confuses me a bit, but I feel strongly in the need to carve out alternative social spaces on the Internet. So excuse any social faux pas on my part. I am an educator and musician in New Zealand with a passion for writing complaint letters, bringing the social sciences into everything and dreaming of a world where we radically take care of each other.
@Torithom you are among friends here!
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@desertsquare good question. There seem to be shared norms of behaviour that people pick up over time, but maybe the Fediverse is still developing little pockets of norms?
@Torithom The Fediverse has a few customs like alt text for pictures and introductions; however, I don't know if they're exclusive to this network. Some people won't interact with you if you omit those two things. I think alternate descriptions for vision-impaired users are valid. Introductions, I will not comply.
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@MrAndrewD I'm also fairly involved in cycling advocacy haha! I write letters and share them in the communities I am a part of for input and ideas. It's the extent of the energy I have to contribute to collective action at times but yes, 'you vs the world' is problematic due to the powers that be thriving of us working in silos. I'm also involved in union work as of recently to try and become more collectively strategic in my complaint letter hobby

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@Torithom The Fediverse has a few customs like alt text for pictures and introductions; however, I don't know if they're exclusive to this network. Some people won't interact with you if you omit those two things. I think alternate descriptions for vision-impaired users are valid. Introductions, I will not comply.
@desertsquare fair enough. Yes I shall try to get better at alt text. Not sure if I've worked it out thus far but will. Totally on board with that norm. Your question made me think about all the how to videos about using social media to promote music which stresses me out as a musician, but asking who's norms they are is important I think, especially when alt text isn't always a consideration. I think you're right that we need to challenge the norm, double empathy problem and all that.
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@desertsquare fair enough. Yes I shall try to get better at alt text. Not sure if I've worked it out thus far but will. Totally on board with that norm. Your question made me think about all the how to videos about using social media to promote music which stresses me out as a musician, but asking who's norms they are is important I think, especially when alt text isn't always a consideration. I think you're right that we need to challenge the norm, double empathy problem and all that.
@Torithom Welcome aboard.
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Am I supposed to introduce myself and #introduction ?..I confess I have never known how to use the social internet properly and the Fediverse confuses me a bit, but I feel strongly in the need to carve out alternative social spaces on the Internet. So excuse any social faux pas on my part. I am an educator and musician in New Zealand with a passion for writing complaint letters, bringing the social sciences into everything and dreaming of a world where we radically take care of each other.
@Torithom Hello, and welcome.