What the hell happened? … I thought FlyingSquid was OK … I had lots of run-ins with them and every time I saw them as being pretty OK … opinionated and prolific but also pretty liberal and open minded on many things. I know that not everyone will agree with everything all the time, that is just human nature … we can’t all be OK with one another on everything on all issues, all the time.
I also know they had moved to the UK from the US a while ago and that caused a lot of stress and strain … I also notice that many people everywhere are under a lot of stress and strain because of world politics and the way the world is leaning these days, it’s not good and it shows in the personalities and presentations of everyone everywhere. The only saving grace to all that is in being in small communities like this where people are free to talk and share their thoughts and feelings in the spirit of openness, inclusion and equality for everyone no matter their background or situation.
So what happened? … it’s upsetting because when vague posts like this appear, it’s hard on us who are not fully clued into the community of mods and heavy posters who are plugged in with one another.
What the hell happened? … I thought FlyingSquid was OK … I had lots of run-ins with them and every time I saw them as being pretty OK … opinionated and prolific but also pretty liberal and open minded on many things. I know that not everyone will agree with everything all the time, that is just human nature … we can’t all be OK with one another on everything on all issues, all the time.
…
So what happened? … it’s upsetting because when vague posts like this appear, it’s hard on us who are not fully clued into the community of mods and heavy posters who are plugged in with one another.
I’m not 100% read in on the story, and I’ve only heard authoritatively that he has quit Lemmy. I didn’t mean to be vague, but also, I didn’t want to disclose anything I may not be good to disclose (especially when I don’t have a firsthand account of the full story). Basically, I don’t want to spread / start any rumors.
I’m stating this all as an outside observer, but yeah, definitely opinionated and like you said, open minded on most things. Being a prolific contributor, he attracted a LOT of abuse from some real shithead accounts over the last few years. I’ve seen many of those accounts twist his words around, put words in his mouth, and make accusations/name call based off of those twisted and out-of-context quotes. For better or worse, Squid often didn’t know when to quit / just hit the block button. He was also the target of a few particular trolls (as were I and Jordan Lund, so he had a support group for that lol; those were more hilarious than traumatizing though)
I can only speak for myself in this regard, but stress like that is definitely cumulative. I have thought about leaving many times myself, but have instead block/banned my way to mental health. Perhaps he’ll come back some day, perhaps not.
It really is a social media super power. Normal social media uses algorithms to keep us in our safe spaces. Lemmy is far more open, and thus more prone to upset people who can’t walk away.
That’s sad to hear, especially when it involves good people … from what I saw and experienced Squid is good people. But I do know what being online too much does to a person’s mental health. When I first jumped on the Reddit bandwagon years ago, I got hooked to the anonymous nature of being able to connect, chat and engage with people on a regular basis. The whole system is also designed around negativity, anger, fear and anxiety … so if you stay online and engaged long and often enough, you’ll eventually get fished into conversations and discussions about so many stupid inconsequential things that it will drive you into a black hole. You also get attached to people and personalities over time and you also begin to attract bad actors … but it is all by design to keep everyone engaged, commenting, posting, reposting, attacking, defending, reattacking, double dealing, back stabbing and egging people on to send one more message, one more stab, one more point, one more comment. On corporate social media, the negativity is designed to keep everyone engaged … I find on the Fediverse that the negativity is designed to just drive people away.
I take my time with this stuff now … I engage but I don’t engage with bad actors … ever … and when I do find good people, I do my best to treat everyone kindly, openly as possible. I trend lightly because some people are moving so fast and so much that it’s hard to see where anyone is coming from or going.
It’s a warning and a caution for the rest of us. We have to take time for ourselves from this digital world. It isn’t healthy to beat off trolls all day long or to try to find the next meme to share all the time. I enjoy all the work you and the mods do and I appreciate everything you do but at the same time, I’d rather see everyone manage their mental health first than to see another digital friend fall into the abyss.
Take care my friend and all the best to you and mods …
and all the best to @[email protected] - may that wild cephalopod keep flying high - they’re good people and wherever they are I hope they are happy and well.
What the hell happened? … I thought FlyingSquid was OK … I had lots of run-ins with them and every time I saw them as being pretty OK … opinionated and prolific but also pretty liberal and open minded on many things. I know that not everyone will agree with everything all the time, that is just human nature … we can’t all be OK with one another on everything on all issues, all the time.
I also know they had moved to the UK from the US a while ago and that caused a lot of stress and strain … I also notice that many people everywhere are under a lot of stress and strain because of world politics and the way the world is leaning these days, it’s not good and it shows in the personalities and presentations of everyone everywhere. The only saving grace to all that is in being in small communities like this where people are free to talk and share their thoughts and feelings in the spirit of openness, inclusion and equality for everyone no matter their background or situation.
So what happened? … it’s upsetting because when vague posts like this appear, it’s hard on us who are not fully clued into the community of mods and heavy posters who are plugged in with one another.
I’m not 100% read in on the story, and I’ve only heard authoritatively that he has quit Lemmy. I didn’t mean to be vague, but also, I didn’t want to disclose anything I may not be good to disclose (especially when I don’t have a firsthand account of the full story). Basically, I don’t want to spread / start any rumors.
I’m stating this all as an outside observer, but yeah, definitely opinionated and like you said, open minded on most things. Being a prolific contributor, he attracted a LOT of abuse from some real shithead accounts over the last few years. I’ve seen many of those accounts twist his words around, put words in his mouth, and make accusations/name call based off of those twisted and out-of-context quotes. For better or worse, Squid often didn’t know when to quit / just hit the block button. He was also the target of a few particular trolls (as were I and Jordan Lund, so he had a support group for that lol; those were more hilarious than traumatizing though)
I can only speak for myself in this regard, but stress like that is definitely cumulative. I have thought about leaving many times myself, but have instead block/banned my way to mental health. Perhaps he’ll come back some day, perhaps not.
It really is a social media super power. Normal social media uses algorithms to keep us in our safe spaces. Lemmy is far more open, and thus more prone to upset people who can’t walk away.
That’s sad to hear, especially when it involves good people … from what I saw and experienced Squid is good people. But I do know what being online too much does to a person’s mental health. When I first jumped on the Reddit bandwagon years ago, I got hooked to the anonymous nature of being able to connect, chat and engage with people on a regular basis. The whole system is also designed around negativity, anger, fear and anxiety … so if you stay online and engaged long and often enough, you’ll eventually get fished into conversations and discussions about so many stupid inconsequential things that it will drive you into a black hole. You also get attached to people and personalities over time and you also begin to attract bad actors … but it is all by design to keep everyone engaged, commenting, posting, reposting, attacking, defending, reattacking, double dealing, back stabbing and egging people on to send one more message, one more stab, one more point, one more comment. On corporate social media, the negativity is designed to keep everyone engaged … I find on the Fediverse that the negativity is designed to just drive people away.
I take my time with this stuff now … I engage but I don’t engage with bad actors … ever … and when I do find good people, I do my best to treat everyone kindly, openly as possible. I trend lightly because some people are moving so fast and so much that it’s hard to see where anyone is coming from or going.
It’s a warning and a caution for the rest of us. We have to take time for ourselves from this digital world. It isn’t healthy to beat off trolls all day long or to try to find the next meme to share all the time. I enjoy all the work you and the mods do and I appreciate everything you do but at the same time, I’d rather see everyone manage their mental health first than to see another digital friend fall into the abyss.
Take care my friend and all the best to you and mods …
and all the best to @[email protected] - may that wild cephalopod keep flying high - they’re good people and wherever they are I hope they are happy and well.