I don't know if it was just my post or if there were others but it seems like my previous post got a response from November. I generally like November's posts so I don't want to cause any drama or anything, but I would like to respectfully respond.
Some people around here get really annoyed if you express the desire to not read content you dislike.
This is where we agree, I don't think anyone should be forced to read anything they don't like, but I do think you should at least know it exists. I can't count how many times I've clicked on a Gemini site only to read the first couple sentences and realize I'm not going to enjoy the following paragraphs and stop reading right there.
I also can't count the amount of times that I've clicked something, read the through half of the page, only to realize the author and I see a subject in a very different manner, but still read through the rest of the way because it was engaging.
Not even “let’s censor this content”, just “let’s make our own spaces without this content”
This is where we disagree, I do take issue with creating a feed explicitly created for excluding a certain group. Generally, when one of the features of any collection is that it is without a certain subject or idea, it quickly devolves into being solely against that subject or idea. I've been off reddit for a while but a couple years back there was a subreddit called "EnoughCommieSpam" which, as the name implies, was dedicated to being a place without communists. It quickly became filled with fairly extreme right-wing posts praising Pinochet for killing communists.
Instead it's better to create collections around a certain subject. These are generally far more positive and less prone to creating in-group out-group dynamics. The social media website pinterest is probably the best example of this, The site is viewed through collections surrounding a given subject and likewise is one of the least toxic social media websites. This is also true on other social media sites with groups surrounding activities; Hiking, biking, foraging, and non-team sports groups are some of the most pleasant places on the web.
Ironic, when the smol web movement is entirely *about* making a space without shitty corporate content and garbage web bloat
I can't speak for the web side of the smol web, as I am unfamiliar with it, but Gemini's purely textual interface means that it will never be filled with bloat and corporate garbage. It is unprofitable by design through it's lack of functionality. Text is king and creates a space where people can truly express themselves through the written word. Everything on Gemini was written by a human with a purpose and for that reason alone should not be relegated to the same lowly tier as the hyper-manufactured, algorithmically inclined drivel that pollutes the web. If you do view it as such, you should reflect on that.
The web created a place where in-group out-group dynamics thrived, because they were easy for the algorithms of content curation to exploit. The average right-winger has a caricaturised view of the average left-winger and the average left-winger has a caricaturised view of the average right-winger. The media either group sees from the other group is the variety which sparks outrage, because outrage causes more engagement with the site. Gemini is a beautiful place where we can move past these in-group out-group dynamics and find a common humanity with one another. We shouldn't emulate the algorithmic curation through the creation of exclusionary feeds.
The following post reflects what I mean with the importance of each post in a beautiful way:
There is no FOMO in the Small Internet