There is a lot of criticism on the #Fediverse for people who won't leave Twitter/X. And, indeed, there are plenty of good reasons for leaving that platform, or for any other commercialized social media platform for that matter.
However, we need to remember that while these platforms are not safe for marginalized people, neither is #Mastodon and the #Fediverse by default. The user base is still overwhelmingly white and European and North American.
And, all other things being equal, this user base tends to be wealthier than other demographic groups, and has more free time as well.
This is important, as running and moderating Mastodon instances is a non-trivial investment in money and time - things that marginalized people are more likely to lack. And given how they are more likely to be subject to discrimination, marginalized people need even more and better moderation - and they likely have to do it themselves, as others are unlikely to even recognize many forms of harassment.
So, stick to Twitter/X and experience lots of harassment... or move to the Fediverse where you will also experience a lot of harassment unless you spend lots of time and resources on moderation? Time and resources you might not have in the first place?
When put that way, it's not such an easy choice to make. Especially if the vast majority of your community is still on Twitter/X, and is unlikely to move to Mastodon without a clear demonstration that the Fediverse is better for their community.
I don't have a solution for this dilemma. But we can't find a solution without recognizing the problem in the first place.
Since video hosting requires so many more resources than image hosting, I have these questions about #PeerTube :
What are the hosting costs of PeerTube instances?
How do these instances deal with financing themselves?
As I understand it, if a Fediverse user views content from a different instance, then this content will be downloaded to their own instance. Is this understanding correct?
If so, is this also true for PeerTube videos - which means that, say, a Mastodon user following a PeerTube account will cause a lot of additional load (and thus hosting costs) for their home instance?
I haven't followed the #TheBadSpace discussion in all details... but isn't the whole point of the #Fediverse that people can curate their own experiences rather than having their own timeline be determined by corporate algorithms?
And obviously, different users with different backgrounds have different perspectives and needs. Obviously, #BIPOC people - who represent a much smaller percentage of users of Mastodon than it is the case with, say, Twitter - have different perspective on what they need for curating block lists.
Thus, I think the concept behind TheBadSpace is sound. And if it doesn't work out in practice, then I hope that other BIPOC Mastodon users come up with their own systems.
But "one size fits all" lists for defederation are not and will never be sufficient. We desperately need different perspectives if we are to grow, and hopefully supplant corporate social media.
And supplanting corporate social media should be the goal, since they are all riling people up against each other for the sake of "engagement". We are already seeing where this leads.
