Posted this in a small community, curious to know what everyone here thinks.

Let me preface by saying, I would love to hear counter points and am fully open to the fact that I could be wrong and totally out of touch. I just want to have some dialogue around something thatā€™s been bothering me in the fediverse.

More and more often I keep hearing people refer to ā€œnormiesā€. I think by referring to other people as ā€œnormiesā€, whether you intend to or not, you inadvertently gatekeep and create an exclusive environment rather than an inclusive one in the fediverse.

If I was not that familiar with the fediverse and decided to check it out and the first thing I read was a comment about ā€œnormiesā€, I would quite honestly be very put off. It totally has a negative connotation and doesnā€™t even encapsulate any one group. I just read a comment about someone grouping a racist uncle and funny friend into the same category of normie because they arenā€™t up to date on the fediverse or super tech savvy or whatever.

I donā€™t want to see any Meta bs in the fediverse. I barely want to see half of the stuff from Reddit in the fediverse. I donā€™t want to see the same echo chamber I do everywhere else.

I do want to see more users and more perspectives and a larger user base though. I want to see kindness and compassion. I want to talk to people about topics they are interested in. I want to have relevant discussions without it dissolving into some commentary on some unrelated hot topic thing.

I think calling people normies creates a more toxic, exclusive place which I personally came here to avoid.

Just my two cents! I know for most people using the term it isnā€™t meant to be malicious, but I think it comes off that way.

Love to hear all of your thoughts.

  • stopthatgirl7@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Tangentially related, but Iā€™m really put off by a lot of the negativity Iā€™m starting to see on kbin. I kind of feel like, can we leave that over on Reddit? Maybe Iā€™ve been spoiled by Mastodon, which doesnā€™t have the same almost aggressive toxicity Iā€™m starting to see over here. Iā€™ve stopped posting some things to magazines (specifically the gaming magazine) just because I know folks will take it as an excuse to be toxic.

    Unless we want the worst of Reddit to come here, it needs to be discouraged now.

    • quizzicl@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      A suspicion Iā€™ve had is that any community thatā€™s based around not being or liking something (like religion, or cars) will start exhibiting toxic behavior more quickly than ones that do not (humanism or urbanism, to mirror my previous examples). Since kbin and lemmy are at the moment unfortunately pretty defined by not liking Reddit, itā€™s becoming a one-uppance of who can push against the ā€˜normieā€™ Reddit and Thread users more than actually building a sustainable community. Iā€™m not certain how to combat that, except to learn to ā€˜let goā€™?

    • Kaldo@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      People really are trying to get upset over the most inane and irrelevant stuff, this shouldnā€™t be a platform where everyone just rants about their pet-peeves - thatā€™s what twitter is for.

    • Domille@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      I noticed the same, but only in the last couple of days. Seems there is tons more toxicity and I wonder if itā€™s redditā€™s astroturfing to blame.

      • stopthatgirl7@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        It is a really recent thing, isnā€™t it? Iā€™ve been on kbin since the Blackout, and this feels like itā€™s only been in the last week or so.

        And the people being toxic really arenā€™t talking kindly to people asking them to not be. I actually started wondering if maybe kbin isnā€™t the place for me in the last week, and Iā€™d never thought that before.