celebrating sound, agency, and avoiding walled gardens

April 7, 2023 1:28 PM

Have your Mastodon account already and wondering how you can further participate in the glorious regular people inspired to creative acts of the Fediverse? Head over to Radio Free Fedi, the “small web, consent driven, artist populated, non-commercial mechanism, attribution promoting, community radio for the fediverse.” Something like a cross of Public Access TV and the early days of the internet. Comes in Regular and Comfy channels, for those looking for lighter fare.
posted by Silvery Fish (11 comments total)

Oh, I will have to check this out. I am really enjoying Mastodon, but the big truth there is that a lot of things happen that, without the universal chat feed, simply don't get the eyeballs that might want to see them.

I admit, I'm not using the platform to its potential at all, but then I didn't use Twitter with any power user rating at all, either. I mostly want to chat with friends. But I do like seeing new things.

So thanks for posting!
posted by hippybear at 1:44 PM on April 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

I'm not really understanding what is "Fedi" about this. submissions seem
to be approved by one or a handful of people? Isn't it the same as any other online radio station?
posted by brightghost at 2:05 PM on April 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

should read 'mastodon' My first post I called it mastadon. flagging. nice post and Info.
posted by clavdivs at 2:26 PM on April 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

hippybear - I agree, it can take a bit to get up to speed. I think the first decision is which server to join. I went with https://mastodon.sdf.org/about , because it’s focused on arts and creative projects, and also this:

We host a daily VoIP chat/improv on [phone] 0200 UTC
A few of our members are artists/DJs and have shows on https://aNONradio.net
OpenMIC is open to all daily between 0300-0600 UTC
We host a weekly Amateur Radio NET Mondays at 0000 UTC echolink TECHLINK node 9229
Are you fun and creative? Join us!

I *like* this. It’s so anti-polish that’s overtaken Insta, etc., and way more like the punk rock houses of my youth where we’d have monthly house parties and someone would be like, “I just started playing drums last week and I wrote this song”, and we’d all be like “yay!” It’s the celebration of the Tryings and the Beginnings and the Make Art Every Day and -for me- it’s helped reframe my sense of creative expression, and process over polish, and what SHOULD be here on the internets.
I hit the “local” feed every morning and have started conversations with people who have posted photos, art, poems, etc., that I enjoy. It’s the same dynamics as hanging out at a friend’s party — chances are you’re going to have stuff in common with most everyone you talk with, once you start mingling.

I also found this helpful - https://github.com/nathanlesage/academics-on-mastodon … which is academics on Mastodon, as well as similarly positioned groups and servers. Conversations on Mastodon are so chill, I’m just spidering out from the engaging people in those conversations.
posted by Silvery Fish at 2:31 PM on April 7, 2023 [4 favorites]

clavdivs - thank you! I am having neurological problems so I appreciate the second set of eyes.
posted by Silvery Fish at 2:33 PM on April 7, 2023

I think the first decision is which server to join.

Oh, I'm quite happy with my server, a nerdy furry server. Most of my follows are not there, so I'm always pleased to boost a thing and send it off to a myriad other fedi instances.

I also enjoy perusing the "Federated" channel of my Mastodon because it's like entering the "take a walk on the wild side" part of the theme park after the cushioning safety of my following list and my local toots.
posted by hippybear at 2:38 PM on April 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

brightghost - it’s specifically for artists of any copyright/copyleft status that have a presence in the Fediverse. From their “How did we get here page”:

meant to be a transparent non-commercial non-corporate intermediary for discovery not an end point for consumption

against highly siloed curation that shifts focus away from artists toward a platform. the main stream will always be weird and wonderful drop-in and explore as you wish

also

committed to ALL are welcome and we do mean ALL, all humans (and a few raccoons, possum, badgers, alien deities etc), all genres and genres busters! except nazis, and fascists, and racists, and anti trans, and anti queer. fuck them. we celebrate sound and each other, not otherism.
posted by Silvery Fish at 2:42 PM on April 7, 2023 [2 favorites]

The comfy channel is doing nicely for me on a chill Friday evening. Thanks for posting!
posted by humbug at 5:31 PM on April 7, 2023

I love that Elon Musk's reign over Twitter has gotten people thinking about truly independent internet experiences again. If this will continue for years and decades is anyone's guess, but I am ready to start thinking about the web as a place of hope again. I'd cross my fingers, ubt ti ameks em ytep ufnuy.
posted by JHarris at 6:51 PM on April 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

Also, let me remind everyone of the existence of mefi.social, a Metafilter-themed Mastodon instance! Contact Pronoiac over MeMail if you want in on it!
posted by JHarris at 6:52 PM on April 7, 2023 [4 favorites]

Love the old school vibe, thank you!
posted by kingdead at 4:59 AM on April 8, 2023