Being on Fosstodon

The alternative title of this post is Why am I on Fosstodon when the instance is about FOSS. I am more of a consumer of FOSS than a contributor. My toots are mainly shit posting or boosting some interesting content. When mastodon was first launched, I signed up on couple of popular instances, tried to figure out mastodon, found few interesting people, gave up, came back again when some good apps showed up on the iPhone, eventually found fosstodon and never felt the need to move. People generally discuss technical topics here of which most of the times I can neither make a head nor tail of and yet I stick around here - Learning little by little just being around so many smart people. I don’t think I would have even thought of self-hosting some applications if it were not for the very helpful fosstodon community. Sometimes I don’t get answers to my queries but most people here are kind enough to respond and I try to pass on the good deed in my own way while checking out the local timeline. Granted the conversations can sometimes turn tech-bro-ish but I am yet to see any kind of toxic culture that reddit or twitter harbors. It can be incredibly frustrating to hear about privacy this and privacy that constantly on the timeline or be told whatever I do is wrong and there’s only one right way to manage my digital life. Times like these I remind myself of two things: a) People can be extremely passionate and b) To not get swept up by their passion. It’s important to take my privacy seriously but I also have to find my sweet spot without getting overwhelmed. It’s for this reason, I follow many people outside fosstodon too. Federation, ftw! The local timeline is always there if I need a deep dive into foss universe. That being said, if I ever find myself in a situation where I have to leave fosstodon, I would probably add most of the fosstodon follows in a list to better manage my timeline. But for now, fosstodon is where I like to be.

Day 92 - Join Me in #100DaysToOffload