I think it's time to say goodbye to my youjo account. I won't be able to access it anymore anyways since I can't manipulate host files and judging from the things I've read on the issue I don't think youjo will return, at least not in the foreseeable future. it's been a good run peaking at over 1.5k followers temporarily which was my biggest account I ever had on any social media and I connect a lot of fond memories to the unfortunately cut short time I got to enjoy on there.
it's a slap in the face for anyone involved who wanted to escape these exact shenanigans by joining youjo only to be confronted with them again because some person had to start a vendetta against youjo. this whole situation has opened my eyes towards the fact that regardless of if we're here, on twitter or literally anywhere else as long as we use any kind of hard or software that we need to be granted access to by a third party we truly are not safe from being deplatformed at any moment and this is a frustrating realization.
I've seen a lot of instances get taken down in my time here but those were taken down rightfully for actually problematic reasons but to see this happen to youjo which was guaranteed ran clean is demoralizing to say the least.
I want to extend my genuine appreciation towards the admin of youjo who was nice enough to host me on their platform giving me a place I felt I belonged and for working tirelessly to keep the instance running fast and clean.
lastly I want to talk about the future of the pediverse which I don't think is going to be guaranteed especially with the current constellation of instances holding it up being at basically constant risk of getting taken down now. I believe with the departure of youjo we will lose a substantial amount of core users who only felt at home on youjo and I believe that this number will only grow with every new instance shut down. the general split situation with nnia shutting itself off from pretty much any other pedi instance doesn't help either and with the higher risk of open pro c instances I fear that the pediverse as we know it might just die and we're going to be stranded. this may all just be doomposting but in case this actually happens please reach out to me privately so I can give you my twitter and matrix so we can stay at least connected.
godspeed youjo. rest in peace.