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I'm constantly amazed by how many trans people I've seen on social media. Especially fedi. I'm pretty sure there has to be a reason why they're so over-represented online, but I'm honestly to lazy to really analyze it.
@alyx >people
@alyx I wouldn't call those "people"
@benis
And they probably wouldn't call you "people".
@alyx sure, but only one side has a problem with itself 
@alyx My experience is similar, but the first thing that comes to mind is that it might be some sort of a filter bubble that you (and I), personally, are trapped in. Some complex non-intuitive filter causing you to encounter a higher concentration of trans people online for some reason. Confirmation bias can play a role here too.
But then there's the idea that the wired is the frontier of today, and all oppressed, closeted undercover, and isolated people seem to gravitate towards it because they can express themselves, often anonymously, in a safer manner, and use various online filters to increase the chances of meeting others like them. Trans people, Nazis, ex-Muslim apostates, pedophiles, Saudi women rights activists, etc. And as mainstream social media starts reflecting the stigmas and ideological wars of the real world with the floods of average people joining it constantly, the marginalized groups start getting driven away from them and into new frontiers, like the Fediverse.
Well, there might be some other coincidental, but more concrete, reasons for the fedi to be like that. Maybe, for example, some of the first instance admins was a trans person, and they got their trans friends on it, then a network effect started pulling more and more of them into the fedi, starting new instances, and joining existing ones. That admin could have been equally a gardening enthusiast, and then the fedi would have been full of gardeners and florists.
But what do I know
But then there's the idea that the wired is the frontier of today, and all oppressed, closeted undercover, and isolated people seem to gravitate towards it because they can express themselves, often anonymously, in a safer manner, and use various online filters to increase the chances of meeting others like them. Trans people, Nazis, ex-Muslim apostates, pedophiles, Saudi women rights activists, etc. And as mainstream social media starts reflecting the stigmas and ideological wars of the real world with the floods of average people joining it constantly, the marginalized groups start getting driven away from them and into new frontiers, like the Fediverse.
Well, there might be some other coincidental, but more concrete, reasons for the fedi to be like that. Maybe, for example, some of the first instance admins was a trans person, and they got their trans friends on it, then a network effect started pulling more and more of them into the fedi, starting new instances, and joining existing ones. That admin could have been equally a gardening enthusiast, and then the fedi would have been full of gardeners and florists.
But what do I know
@rozenglass @alyx It's a thing I've been thinking about, lately.
I've been around on the net since before there was a www, and there have always been such havens for people who don't fit into the mainstream discourse for whatever reasons. If anything, perhaps less so today than back then, since any place that can be found and joined is more likely than ever to be quickly overrun with newcomers who don't share its soon-to-be-former values. The Fediverse is a lot easier to get into than the average hacker telnet bbs used to be. Also, it is of course now all monitored by the machines of those in power and everyone knows it. So perhaps the level of unorthodox weirdness is a bit lower really.
But as much as masses of people from whatever is left of "mainstream" culture infiltrate previously obscure corners of the network and transform them, they are themselves transformed. I think many of the problems in the world today are related to people having more access to information than they know what to do with. So, idiotic conspiracy theories and such end up with mainstream support to the point where even the president of the USA seems to be into some of them.
To me the answer is not to try and go back to a world where someone like Walter Cronkite told everyone what to think (as I've seen seriously proposed, recently). But the answers I would have in mind, like getting people accustomed to thinking for themselves, seem impossible; so what do I know.
I've been around on the net since before there was a www, and there have always been such havens for people who don't fit into the mainstream discourse for whatever reasons. If anything, perhaps less so today than back then, since any place that can be found and joined is more likely than ever to be quickly overrun with newcomers who don't share its soon-to-be-former values. The Fediverse is a lot easier to get into than the average hacker telnet bbs used to be. Also, it is of course now all monitored by the machines of those in power and everyone knows it. So perhaps the level of unorthodox weirdness is a bit lower really.
But as much as masses of people from whatever is left of "mainstream" culture infiltrate previously obscure corners of the network and transform them, they are themselves transformed. I think many of the problems in the world today are related to people having more access to information than they know what to do with. So, idiotic conspiracy theories and such end up with mainstream support to the point where even the president of the USA seems to be into some of them.
To me the answer is not to try and go back to a world where someone like Walter Cronkite told everyone what to think (as I've seen seriously proposed, recently). But the answers I would have in mind, like getting people accustomed to thinking for themselves, seem impossible; so what do I know.
