The Ancient Art of Vache Fetchage

low stimulation

I'll be honest, I considered

But I missed my space to shoot the shit with the Fam, when it goes right and the thread are hilarious !

Moving instance would have solved some (more content control on Fedibird for example) but created other (moderation on Fedibird is shit, they block ONE instance) problems. And collective moderation is THE most important Fedi feature for me, what makes the Fedi better than any alternative (even as shittiliy implemented as it is on Masto right now).

People can ― as it is their privilege ― post whatever they please, however they please. Asking for some mitigation of harmful content (CW, mutable hashtags...) is ultimately fruitless and exhausting in it's own right. And I am not changing people.

So at least I could try to better control what I want to see (and not see) on my own TL.

Believe me when I say that my filters, mute list, alternative TL lists... where becoming so crazy I felt I was back in the Facebook days, spending more time tweaking lists and filtering and screening than enjoying the space with my friends.

Then I realized one thing : uncensored images are abuse. They can be of anything, and pop unannounced on your TL. You cannot consent to their content. At least with text you can just not read (easier when it's not your first language), or stop reading. You cannot not see an image. It can be a pretty flower or a hiking trail. It can be a video of a murder.

At least on Masto you can hide ALL images by default. Then just un-hide (consent) to some of them depending on context, poster's identity, you current state of mind, etc...

But the real issue were people reposting or boosting web links to videos or articles.
A staple of social media now is the web preview card. That card will show an image of the linked content, that image is chosen by the original maker of the web content (some "Open Graph" stuff I barely understand). Not you, not even OP. No one on Masto has control on it. So not being able to censor them feels like a big oversight ― when image hiding is available ― but not totally surprising coming from Masto "bigger is better" Core Team. That the potential harm of unmoderated preview images flew over their head is on brand. Getting the preview cards working was probably more important.

I found some apps (lmst for example) that do not implement web previews. But they had other features ― or lack thereof ― that didn't cut it for me.

Then I remembered how uBlck Origin (ad blocker but also general web content display manager) can hide some parts of web pages, even some recurring elements, in the browser. And it worked with the web preview images !

So I feel I can give Masto another try, endeavoring to pace my use while strictly controlling what I wanna see there, and not getting subjected to streams of images people could risk jail for sharing not 10 years ago.