Wednesday 19 August 2026
9.39pmFederated space and the new gatekeepers
I really thought that I had found a viable home. A place where I could write to my hearts content and maybe actually have it viewed by someone.
The #smallweb is a wonderful thing. But is, at times, it’s like space: cold and lonely. I thought federating my blogs would find life in the universe that is the web.
I was wrong.
All I have found is snobs. #Gatekeepers who, if it doesn’t meet their narrow-minded standards, belittle, admonish, and even suspend accounts for things they don’t see “fit.” I cry bullshit!
I have another blog that I maintain that has articles about tech, computers, the independent web, old and alternative technology, and the ways technology shapes how we communicate, create, work, and live. I have written a few so far and have some already written that I am spacing out so I don’t flood with posts. I use AI generated images for my posts. Why? Because I have a full-time job, I’m in graduate school earning my MA in American History, I play in multiple bands throughout the week… spending time searching for a public-domain, free-use, RELEVANT image for my posts is something I don’t spend time on. AI generates a useful image to get the point across – that’s all that is needed.
But no… one of those snobby, federated gatekeepers decided my posts were ALL AI and they suspended my account. No message. No “we’ve had multiple reports of blah, blah, blah,” just me happening to view my content details and seeing it suspended. A few emails, and Mastodon got me back… but not without damage done.
I now have to prove every single point of my online existence along with just trying to say what I want to say. Fuck that.
The small-web (#gemini capsules, phlogs, etc) are wonderful things. They just fall into the cracks most of the time. But, I can write about what I want to write and how I want to write.
Maybe that is more important than a federated gatekeeper, who doesn’t know me from Adam, judging me.