If you design a system such that you cannot differentiate people from corporations and bots and that’s your defense for calling all of them “users”, you’ve designed a system that conflates people – who are mortal, have feelings, can feel pain and be hurt and who have human rights that must be protected – with the very entities that oftentimes exist to exploit them.
Design for people. Call them people. All else is secondary.
“The fundamental reason for the
study of #group psychology is that no one can give us democracy, we must
learn #democracy. To be a democrat is not to decide on a certain form of human #association, it is to learn how to live with other men.”
Mary P. #Follett, 1919
⸺
#neighbourhoods #community #organizing #peopleNotUsers #meta #federatedNotDecentralized #FediverseCollectives #decisionMaking 
#sharedGovernance 
#powerSharing #cooperation 
#orgGovernance 
#orgDesign #communityGovernance
@kenny @cjordahl @Sheril
Other #FediverseCollectives have warned of limiting and then blocking mastodon.social and #mastodon.online.
What it does: https://docs.joinmastodon.org/admin/moderation/#limit-user
This happens because too many people there bullying said #neighbourhoods.
#Fediverse #contentModeration #governance #peopleNotUsers #socialControl
As the #twittermigration is in full effect and Hateville is burning down, even more new folks are coming over to hang out. So hit up your local server's feed and say hi to newcomers. Welcome them into whatever weird community you're a part of. We're all here to make connections, including twexpats, and nothing sucks more than reaching out and having no one respond. #peopleNotUsers
The governance of #Mastodon has been a heated subject for a long time: here is an excellent article by Ana Valens (dated 2019) on the power plays in Mastodon development: https://www.dailydot.com/debug/mastodon-fediverse-eugen-rochko/ #benevolence #power 
#alphabetMafia #networkPolitics #devGovernance #longread #peopleNotUsers
⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺
#benevolentDictator #EugenRochko #Rochko #leadership #security #moderation #MastodonHistory #governance #protection 
#dataProtection #dataPrivacy #privacy (to be continued: 
)
{About #MastodonForks; #installment 1}
I have a hint that a conversation on the #governance of #Mastodon flavours would be useful. Here is a #longThread 
Let us talk about the struggle between creator and #community. This time we include newly arrived people.
I will propose how to alleviate with shortcuts.
⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺
#benevolence #benevolentDictator #leadership #power #politics #longRead #peopleNotUsers #networkPolitics #orgGovernance #devGovernance
@aral agreed! There's something wholesome about thinking "hmm, I wonder how many people are peopling this instance?"
@aral @ferreiros Hi there. Agreed. 
I love this too. 
#peopleNOTusers should become trending. I also like #PeopleNotProfit
@ferreiros May I just say that I love the hashtag in your bio. Welcome to the fediverse! :)
@joshuatopolsky totaly agree, i came onto this site looking for #Twitter and found a positive #peopleNotUsers community. different and better!
@aral This makes it sound so much better! When you use "user" in a sentence it makes the person sound like a object or something unconscious.
But take using the word "people" or "person" make it sound so much more alive. So I'm 100% with #peoplenotusers
@gdinwiddie I haven't deactivated my #Twitter yet, but I haven't opened any Twitter client in a week.
I'm posting more here, engaging more with people, and feel less inclined to check and check and check. #peopleNotUsers
Heck, I even updated my personal site to list #Mastodon as the primary way to follow me on the onlines.
There's definitely something different here.
The negative sneering about Mastodon over on the angry bird site is quite something. 
Certainly a stark contrast to the friendliness here.
Maybe large social networks need an expiry date to stop them turning into toxic monopolies?
#PeopleNotUsers I like this hashtag. People are not consumers either. We are all people with dreams, ups & downs and basic needs. Look at what has happened to the American democracy when citizens became consumers of political ads and targets of manipulation.
@aral I love this idea! I'm adding #peopleNotUsers to my bio
@aral
I fully support your proposal of #PeopleNotUsers even if you would not been the original thinker 
I am also a big fan of #REScoops (Renewable Energy Sources Cooperatives) where people are not just consumers but citizens taking energy production into their own hands. We can do way more ourselves than companies and vested interests want us to believe!
Here’s an idea: let’s call people “people” on the fediverse instead of “users” whenever we can.
Compare:
“There are 42 users on this instance.”
vs
“There are 42 people on this instance.”
Which acknowledges our humanity more?
Language matters. We don’t need to perpetuate mainstream technology’s othering/colonial framing of “us” – designers/developers/other “clever folks” – and “them” – the users (usually one step removed from “dumb user” and usually the ones who get used).
