What can we do?

• Think critically about your actions and behaviors, online and offline - and about your relationship with the internet. Why do you do what you do? How does it make you feel? Where do your behaviours come from? Who do they benefit? Read and think as much as possible, and try to come in contact with a diversity of opinions - and come to your own conclusions.
• I believe that the Yesterweb movement managed to distill some awesome guidelines in their Social Etiquette and Manifesto. I personally agree with the objectives stated in their Manifesto, and love the simple, yet effective guidelines presented in the Etiquette. I can positively say those have radically changed my relationship with the internet.
  I will be re-posting these guidelines, distilled by the Yesterweb Community, in full here as well:

Social Etiquette

These are guidelines for social behavior that can be applied in online (and even offline) spaces.

1. Engage in good faith
   • To engage in "good faith" means to assume that others have sincere, honest and respectful intentions.
     • Bad faith discussions are approached with:
       ❌ Personal attacks
       ❌ Assumptions about bad intent
       ❌ Misrepresenting others' ideas
     • Good faith discussions are approached with:
       ✅ Honesty and openness
       ✅ An effort to understand others' thought process (where they are coming from)
       ✅ Mindfulness of potential misunderstandings that may arise
       ✅ Assumption that others are not deliberately trying to be harmful
   
   
   • It's important to note: When dealing with sensitive issues that go against the dominant worldview (e.g., "commonly accepted ideas"), others will likely not have all of the knowledge they need to come to a complete understanding of the issue. We should not attack seemingly-well-intentioned people for this, and instead work toward coming to a mutual understanding when possible.
   • Even when bad faith is evident, do not attack others or lose your cool. If help is needed, reach out to the mod team.


2. Engage in constructive conflict
   • Conflict is necessary for growth. It can be uncomfortable, but it also fuels change. There is constructive and destructive conflict. We can only engage in constructive conflict when all parties engage in good-faith discussions.
   • Destructive conflict looks like:
     ❌ An effort to win at any cost
     ❌ Treating questions or criticisms as personal attacks
     ❌ Mocking or ridiculing others
     ❌ Ignoring, dismissing, mocking or ridiculing others' ideas
   • Constructive conflict looks like:
     ✅ People interested in coming to a mutual and, ultimately, better understanding
     ✅ Listening closely to others' viewpoints
     ✅ Openness to reconsidering your own perspective
     - Reconsidering your perspective doesn't necessarily mean reconsidering your position. Perspective is how you view something, and perspective is always clearest when we analyze all parts of a situation.
   
   
   • We should approach conflict as a dialogue instead of a debate.
   • What is the difference between a debate and a dialogue?
   • A debate is oppositional: two or more sides oppose each other and attempt to prove each other wrong.
   • A dialogue is collaborative: two or more sides work together toward common understanding.
   • If it becomes apparent that constructive conflict is not possible, the best thing to do is to disengage.


3. Be mindful of participating in a shared, public space
   • Community space is shared with other people.
   • We should not speak over, interrupt or interject a conversation with unreasonably off-topic comments.
   • We should not make our own voices louder than others, being careful not to take up more than our own share of space.



Manifesto for a New Web

This is a set of three core commitments derived from the practical experiences of the Yesterweb staff after two years of community organization. They concentrate what we have learned and how we operate into a general template that can be applied to any community at a foundational level. We propose these commitments as the basis of unity for those individuals or groups who wish to move in the same direction, while allowing a diversity of focus, interests, and missions. They are neither rules nor guidelines: they are expectations that are upheld by all participants, to the best of their ability, who believe in building a new culture for the web.

1. The commitment to social responsibility and partisanship:
   
   Safety and self-defense are a basic necessity of any community, which includes the recognition that it is impossible to accommodate all people in the same social space due to the inevitability of antagonistic beliefs. Diversity of opinion is respected up until certain bounds that reflect oppressive intentions such as discrimination against age, sex, gender, class, nation/race/ethnicity, religion, or disability. When these conflicts inevitably appear, the community must strive to understand the situation and take the side of the oppressed at any cost. In cases where it is ambiguous whether the harm is intentional or accidental, an investigation through dialogue is necessary to determine malice or ignorance, as ignorance can be resolved with education.


2. The commitment to collective well-being and personal growth:
   
   Sustainable amounts of selflessness and sacrifice, ideally from all individuals, are required to build a healthy community. Building and maintaining a new culture requires a consistent social effort as well. We should be mindful of collective health, taking compassionate consideration of the personal growth of everyone (actively or passively) involved in any situation. In our communication we should train our ability to listen and to empathize, patiently striving for unity and dialogue rather than division and debate, and approaching conflict with the intention of resolution. It is important that the community does not create goals purely out of opposition or antagonism toward something, and instead works in a positive and creative manner, toward building solutions either in individual or collective practice.


3. The commitment to rehumanizing social relations and reversing the process of social alienation:
   
   The development of information technology capital has further disintegrated our social being, but being social is a mental necessity. We are left with the burden of re-learning the way we relate to each other and rebuilding our social bonds in a way that treats everyone as equals. This includes unlearning dehumanizing behaviors such as treating others as potential sources of profit/assets or romantic/sexual objects without knowledge or consent, and establishing rules to demarcate separate spaces in which all participants are aware and do consent (if such spaces are deemed necessary by the community). We should question the impact of our environment on our behavior, and carefully conscientiously transform that environment so that a better culture and humanity can flourish.

• If you have the means, try to foster constructive communities. Otherwise, just put in practice what you learnt. Transform yourself. Lead by example. If possible, tell people why you act the way you act. Hear what they have to say back to you.
  I believe the Socratic Method is a powerful tool to have constructive conversations, and unhearth truths. The wikipedia link I provide is about "Socratic questioning", intended as a teaching method. But, I've also had the experience of starting a conversation using this method, and coming out of it with a new perspective, effectively having been the student.
• This can be done anywhere. You don't need coding skills, you don't need a fancy website, you don't need a mastodon istance. You could probably adapt your message to most digital mediums. (why not all of them? I believe some communication methods are inherently more hostile to conversation. I think it'd be much harder to have a conversation via tweet-sized messages - though, I do believe it could be done.)
  I try to carry this nugget of truth with me offline as well, but that's just my prerogative. I've found that it's a good way to live.