Fediquette
TODO:
Some more advices
Fediverse has a very different culture compared with other networks. Users of Fediverse are a lot more considerate of others, so that Fediverse could be accessible and be a safe space for everybody. Though, depending on an instance on which you start, there might be no one to tell you that and to teach you how to keep Fediverse the way it is (this is what’s happened to me, the writer of this article). So here are some advices that will help you on your way of becoming a fedizen.
Add an alt text to your media
Alt text is a description of what is shown in a media attached to a post. Alt text has a plethora of uses, such as:
- Alt text is shown in place of the media if it cannot be rendered. That can happen if, for example, someone with a bad connection is trying to watch the media, or in case the software someone is using does not support a specific type of media.
- Alt text is used by screen readers to describe a media out loud.
- Alt text can be used to describe a meaning or a joke behind the media.
So by writing an alt text to your media, you are making Fediverse at least three times better! Maybe even more as I’m sure I missed some other usefulness of an alt text!
You might think that you will not be able to write a good alt text. But what might seem a bad alt text is infinite times better than no alt text at all, as long as it describes the meaning behind the attached media you wanted to convey, and it’s connection to the post. You don’t have to describe every little detail in the media.
You might be tempted to go with an option to generate alt text automatically. This will describe the media in great detail, but it may not convey the meaning behind it and the connection with the post.
Don’t be shy to use content warnings
Content warning is generally a short description of something that post contains that might trigger someone or a certain group of people. It may also be used to give a short context to the post or even just set the general theme of the post.
Something, that might trigger others, might be any of those:
- Pornographic material or anything close to that, like kinks
- Artistic nudity
- Genitalia
- Anything that is deemed disgusting by most, especially if the post talks about it in a kink way (pee, poo etc)
- Any kind of gore and violence
- Illnesses
- Discrimination (homophobia, transphobia, sexism etc)
- Slurs
- Disturbing topics (death, suicide, war etc)
- Politics
- Anything about AI in its modern/buzzword meaning, generative AI in particular
- Something that might cause a seizure
- Food
- Anything that can trigger any kind of -phobia
This list is not exhaustive and may change depending on what is currently happening in the world.
It is also nice to hide under content warnings:
- Mentions of physical or mental health (usually signaled with «ph» or «mh» respectively, with optionally a minus, a tilde or a plus sign depending on if it’s a negative, a neutral or a positive thing)
- Yearning
- Venting
- Vagueposting
- Subposting
- Relationship stuff
- Post, containing media without alt text
- Post, which contains caps
- Mutual aid requests
Use tone indicators
Since you're on the Internet, it's harder for other people to see the real intent in your words, since they can't see your face and don't get other clues which may suggest that, for example, your comment was actually sarcastic. This is especially a problem for neurodivergent users, who struggle with understanding the tone of the conversation even more. Thus it is popular on the Fediverse to use tone indicators to denote the intended tone. Tone indicators are added to the end of a sentence or a post. One may also use tone indicators in content warning if it applies to the whole post. Some of the common ones are:
/j,/jk(Joke)/s(May be used for both sarcasm and serious, even though most of the time it is assumed that it's sarcasm, using a tone indicator which may stand for more than one thing defeats the purpose of the tone indicator in the first place, so instead use variants lower of this entry in the list)/sarc(Sarcasm)/srs(Serious)/hj(Half-joke, when only a part of the statement is a joke)/gen(Genuine)/genq(Genuine question)
/lyr(Lyrics)/lh(Lighthearted, to signal a playful intent behind, for example, an insult)/pos(Positive)/neg(Negative)/ref(Reference to something)/c(Copypasta)/nm("[i am] not mad")/sil,/silly/nbh("[directed at] nobody here", vagueposting/venting but it's not directed at anyone who may read the post)