A really phenomenal scientist I know who does incredible outreach re: diversity in science asked me if I'd recommend mastodon and if it felt safe or if they'd get a lot of hurtful trolling and what the ratio of cost to benefit felt like to me. And I truly didn't know what my answer to that question was until this moment.
I don't like to give advice on how scientists use platforms because I think every audience is different. But my answer to my friend was no, it's not there yet for scientists.
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The fact that this reflection is itself gonna be rage bait kind of proves the point but I think it's worth sharing on behalf of people who want to interact with more people like me and who ostensibly care about community choices. We had a nuanced conversation & I encouraged my friend to iterate and experiment but I do think I have important expertise in what it feels like to strike out into a new area and face a lot of stereotype threat. I don't believe in sacrificial lamb models.
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@grimalkina Is the problem mostly on the "too much cost" or "not enough benefit" side? Or roughly 50/50 in your estimation? Also trying to figure out how to advise and help friends
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@elplatt @grimalkina
Interested about this too. I feel that Mastodon may not be for scientists who aspire to have "reach"
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@paezha @elplatt even if you are only looking for a small group of community it's important to recognize how some of us are systematically less likely to be represented here which has a chilling effect
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@paezha @elplatt for instance we talked to about the mental impact of even simply being a lurker and never posting and how it shapes your view of who is doing what. I wouldn't be getting constant dialogue about new papers from young female grad students in psychology if I weren't on bsky
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@grimalkina @paezha @elplatt
How are we defining science here?
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@paninid @paezha @elplatt
What?
I'm talking about engaging with scientific publications in the social and behavioral sciences and with my community of practice that drives this empirical work. What is your agenda in asking this question?
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@grimalkina @paninid @elplatt
Sealion
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@paninid @paezha @elplatt my friend with whom I was talking does basic science in cell biology....
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@grimalkina @paezha @elplatt
My “agenda” is trying to understand what people mean with the words they are choosing to use 🤷🏻♂️
Social and behavioral science necessarily involve being “in the arena” of The Discourse™ much more than cell biology, I think?
I don’t know which decentralized social media platform currently has effective content moderation to mitigate hurtful trolling of biology subjects.
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@grimalkina @elplatt
But if they were here they would not be under-represented? I guess what I am curious about is, why did they decide to make community there and not here?
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@paezha @elplatt I think our awareness of these choices is highly social and contextual, and the lack of diversity on this platform creates a self-fulfilling cycle for that. Mastodon is incredibly niche in the first place and even when known then there's not a sense among my particular communities that it's friendly to us. Yes "if they all came here it would be different" but "coming here" isn't neutral. I'm far further along in my career & I've still struggled with the demotivating impact
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@paezha @elplatt (I know it's not "a single platform" or whatever, I'm speaking about it culturally not technologically!)
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@grimalkina @elplatt
I'm sorry to hear that.
I am not touching BlueSky after it platformed Jessie Singal. But I am also a senior scientist and can afford to not care about my exposure in social media.
Good luck to you! I really hope they don't sell BluSky to Musk in a few years time!
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@paezha @elplatt it saddens me that you feel the need to respond with such condescension when I'm spending the time and effort to dialogue and reflect earnestly about trying to help my communities right now, where they are, and also to understand human behavior on its merits as the complex choices that are both individual but also systemic. I believe such understanding is necessary to create good change.
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@grimalkina @elplatt
I'm sorry that this saddens you. I agree that conversation is important to create good change. I just don't have the energy to engage in it
For what is worth, most of my scientific community also preferred BlueSky to Mastodon
In this way, my contribution to good change, which is to avoid places that platform people like Jessie Singal, comes at a cost, but a bearable one sinc I pay it from a place of relative privilege
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@elplatt we discussed their audiences and my overall best guess about how that differs from the audiences that tend to be here and their norms, as well as their experiences with racism and the sort of things they found more and less demotivating. Shit is everywhere when you're a public scientist but feels like the way it affects you on different platforms can be highly personal? We agreed there's a protective quality in a critical mass of nonwhite scientists on a platform that isn't here
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@grimalkina cannot tell how grateful i am your being here
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@oscarjiminy ❤️❤️❤️
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@grimalkina I don't have to like it, but I believe you.
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@grimalkina The replies to your post are case in point I guess. I'm glad you're here on mastodon, and your perspective is really useful for meeting other scientists where they are at.
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text/gemini
