my take on the new* bot/“this account is automated” tag meta/drama is that none of y’all actually care about accessibility or whatever and it’s kinda annoying to need to keep reminding myself that this isn’t a meaningful conversation to have like, ever. accessibility isn’t defined by what you consider to be “accessibility” and this argument goes both ways to both sides of the drama.

the bottom line is: if a feature reduces the friction of usage for a particular group of people, then it’s an accessibility option. this means that “having an IRC bridge” is an accessibility option, but it also means that “letting people completely filter out all bot accounts without having to manually mute them one by one” is an accessibility option, simply because it reduces the friction of usage for even just that one person only.

the dilemma of accessibility comes down to “okay but no one else cares”, which is exactly why people keep having this drama over and over again.

reminder that “accessibility” doesn’t give you moral high grounds– and i’m sick of people saying that in order to gain moral high ground. you don’t gain moral high ground by pointing out that something else doesn’t give you moral high ground. you assume so much of the person you’re talking to by assuming they were trying to gain moral high ground. this whole thing boils down to how i’ve felt about cancel culture as someone who’s actually been cancelled before– nobody actually cares about the people that got hurt, everyone is just here to be angry about a topic and then jerk themselves off to the thought of “having a better community”. see also people starting to say that this accessibility thing is “the most <insert instance> opinion ever”

the more i exist on this platform the more i realise that some people don’t know how to socialise and i can’t just go around telling them what to do because they’ll just angrily tell me how they’re actually completely right in being a nuisance to other people publicly.

*this drama is not new at all, this happens like every 6 months. with the same people reaching the same conclusions, and here i remind you that both sides are annoying because they both devolve into a spit war.

i need to remind this to myself very often and i think the world would be a better place if more people reminded themselves of this constantly:

if someone says something upsetting, you don’t have to interact with it. we people have shittalked our friends behind their back since the dawn of time and it’s a normal social behaviour, you don’t need to turn every upsetting behaviour or interaction into you yelling at your friends. i deliberately made a post on my own instead of replying to the threads because i don’t think the fact that the posts upset me needs to be brought up to the person. i deliberately didn’t point out what posts i’m upset about because this isn’t just you or them, this is a repeating drama that happens every 6 months and i like talking about things that are systemic.

it is normal to shittalk your friends. it isn’t an attack on their character. people with their own lives understand that sometimes you just need to talk about something and it needn’t be made a problem. it is normal to continue to be friends with them.

we tend to think of the hero that stands up for the weak but the truth is that that’s the most toxic person you can find in town, a total narcissist who doesn’t actually care about comforting the bullied but is only interested in ousting the bullies. don’t be a hero, be a fucking friend.

it is entirely normal for me to keep interacting with you in a friendly manner even if you don’t follow me or you unfollowed me at some point. it is entirely normal for me not to follow you back but still appreciate you interacting with me. you’re not the sum of your posts. i’m not the sum of my posts.

@twinkle I don’t know if it’s just the fact I’ve been inundated with stupid internet shit for the past decade but hearing this just feels like being splashed with water.

People are complaining about this?