The women of the fediverse.

Since I happen to want to contribute to the "fediverse" project, and in a few days I will take advantage of the Christmas holidays to put up a pod, I happen to have a deja-vu. The deja-vu is what I've always had, since I started working in the IT world.

For any technology, there is a phase of "early adoption", where there are so-called "pioneers". At this time, the "fediverse" contains about 4 million users.

For the uninitiated, the "fediverse" is a term that identifies a network of small "social networks" that federate together. It means that instead of just being an entity like Facebook, or Twitter, to manage a social network, it is composed of the federation of many small social networks, and in the end the overall functionality (seen from the user point of view) is the one of a Facebook, or Twitter.

In short, from the point there is a user you have entered a social network. From the point of view of infrastructure, it is not a single centralized monster that is in the USA (and tries to suppress democracy), but it is a swarm of servers, managed by people and companies here and there for the internet , which connect to each other.

For more information: https://fediverse.party/ and https://fediverse.network/ for status.

Now, we can believe or not that the idea will succeed or not, (lately it seems that Twitter wants to support it: we'll see), but from the point of view of those who enter it there is a feeling of deja-vu.

They are all male, or almost. Of course, if you go to the GAB pod, you will also find females (in this case the right has always been more modern), and the same is true for the GLBT pods, but in the end the feeling is that all the geeks in the game are male , and almost all the contributors are male.

It's not an old feeling. In "pioneering" times, when computer science was "men's stuff", the feeling was the same. After a few years, the ladies come out and say "hey, but there is not 50% of women!" Machismo ".

Good.

Now let's make a hypothesis. Suppose the "fediverse" as it is now becomes the new Facebook. The next big thing. Of course, what would happen is that immediately someone would notice one thing: that almost all the pods are managed and built by men, and that almost all the most experienced and followed users are men. Because this is the current situation.

Of course, a doubling of the number of pods, and even a doubling of the number of users would be welcome. Of the fair sex. There is no technological barrier that prevents you from doing so. None. Put on your pod and he will automatically tie up.

THERE ARE NO EXCUSES.

And this is not due to anyone banning women. It is due to the fact that they seem to be absent in the "pioneering" phase of this technology. And then, if by some misfortune decentralized networks become the next big thing, when someone asks "why are there no women?" The answer will not be "machismo", but simply that "those who were not there will not be there '".

Because you can't expect to be 50% when there's flesh, and you keep the males running when something is still pioneering (and it could even end up in nothing). It seems to me, honestly, a situation in which the fools are sent ahead, and if fortunately it turns out that there is good flesh, then the women arrive and ask "where is our destination?"

The correct answer should be: you're not there because you weren't there. If you are not there when you are sowing, you are not there when it is harvested. Is simple.

Now, there is no one who forbids a woman to make herself, by passion and in self-hosting, a pod of Hubzilla, or Mastodon, or GNUsocial, or anything. But it doesn't happen. If unfortunately the thing took a good turn, I am already prepared for complaints "but the fediverse is just a men's thing". Already'.

It is so because the princesses were carefully kept at sea when it was a tiring and pioneering thing, but I am convinced that they will present themselves to collect their half if unfortunately the thing took hold. The fools sow, the crafty ones gather.

Since we talk a lot about the masculine culture that must change, I would also like to understand if by chance the feminine one should not improve for a moment.

Feminists continue to measure the presence of women as the presence of women in the "top" roles: how many general women, how many women ministers, how many top women. Since they always focus on the beautiful and comfortable positions, they are never found when there is to build the pyramid: they are only found when there is to decide how many women are at the top. But the pyramid has a summit after years and years of work. Of hard work. But since the summit does not exist yet, women are rarely seen working hard.

And that's what I'm seeing in the Fediverse case. Now that there is the less comfortable part, when so many volunteers have to spend two lire and sacrifice their free time, women do not see each other. The pods are almost all run by men, created by men. At their expense and their time. (with the sole exception of gab.com, but it is a different matter). The software (some bad ones) are almost all written by male volunteers. It would be nice to double the number of software. This is Open Source. There is no barrier to entry. But women are scarce.

It's the difficult part. It is the base of the pyramid. There is no summit on which to discuss quotas. In this part we are only fools, males. When we get to the top, then feminists will come crying that they don't have half the summit. And this is the damage of feminist culture: only how many women are there at the top. Never how many worked at the base.

When the newspapers begin to write that the fediverse is an important thing, they will present themselves in mass shouting "hey, but all the most popular pods are managed by uomiiiii. Badriagadooo !! Vemminigidio !!! ". But today there are none.

In this case, the answer is "well, put up your pod and don't break the window". Because the fediverse is made by the pods that people spin, and there is no barrier to entry.
But the annoying thing is the sense of deja-vu. The sense of deja-vu of having been, in the 80s and 90s, the only fools (and often derided) who played with computers and in the end helped to build what is now. And we were all boys, young ladies, because in the early days of the BBS there was ONE sysop that ran its BBS. ONE.

But when there began to be flesh, they all gave us sexists because there were no women.

And now I see the same thing happen. Something new is happening. And like all pioneering things, it needs time and dedication to grow. Four million users are few for a social network. But chance, where are the women now?

Show your ass on Instagram hoping to become an "influencer".

And if tomorrow, fortunately, the Fediverse should "break through", then they will remove the thong, put on Nerd glasses, a nice false-toothed device, and come crashing down because the Fediverse is made only by males.

This is the annoying part of Fediverse's birth.

That, as usual, those who are pioneers are all, or almost, males.

But if, unfortunately, we manage to do what we want, the females will immediately come to ask for their half of the cake. Exactly the cake that they did NOT contribute to cooking.

A scene, I said, already seen.

I just hope that, because of the nature of the Fediverse, when they say "but you keep us out", the answer will be: "no one can keep anyone out of the Fediverse: move your ass and make your pod".

And explain where the fuck you are today, which is the hard part to do.

Source: https://keinpfusch.net/le-donne-del-fediverse/