That would require not being blinded by his own ego.

I don't know if there are formal rules around the use of these flags (I assume not), but, fwiw, as a trans person myself, I like seeing them worn in general. I don't really assume or care too much about the person wearing them, but I find it reassuring. Both in the sense of, "hey, at least this one person probably doesn't have a problem with me existing. One less rando for me to worry about", and in the sense of, "hey, at least this one person can openly exhibit a symbol of trans support and visibility without having been crucified for it. Hopefully that means I'm unlikely to catch flak for not passing around these here parts".

Ive Had Enough in my ass

(The Who)

In a professional context, you might end up on servers that don't have nano installed, but do have vi. Or if you're helping out a friend on their laptop, they might not have the same software as you. Or if you often end up tinkering with random devices and/or setting up new systems it might be tedious to install the same applications every time.

It's basically an argument for learning the very basics of the most common editors so you have flexibility no matter where you end up. Even when you have the ability to download and install your preferred software, it's still an extra step that might not be desirable for a variety of reasons. But if it's just your own personal device, I see no problem with just installing whatever you prefer and running with it.

EDIT: Personally, I find that I don't end up using those other editors often enough to remember the abstruse commands of tools like vim, so I'm not worried about it. When it does happen, 99% of the time I can just whip out a smartphone and look up the directions for the n-dozenth time.

My story so far...

For context, I finally came to understand that I'm trans in my late thirties. With the benefit of hindsight, I can clearly see that before then, I'd been an egg my whole life (although that wasn't obvious until several months into transitioning, after much reflection and remembering different long-forgotten things). Became aware of trans people in the authentic, non-stereotype sense somewhere around 2014, seriously wondered if I might be trans starting somewhere around 2019, but didn't manage to properly crack until September 2023. Highlights from that point on:

• Week 1: Soul-searching and binge-reading. Came out to two friends who happen to be trans, who helped me sort out what I was feeling and remove some doubts. They continued and continue to be a huge source of help.
• Week 2: Came out to parents and siblings. Started looking for a therapist.
• Week 3: Started ordering things online to experiment with and identify what would be euphoric (clothes, wig, jewelry, shaving equipment, etc.) to nail down what my gender even was. It quickly became clear that I am a lady.
• Week 4: Started therapy.
• Month 2: Tried breast forms, which immediately led to seeking a physician to pursue HRT. Couldn't decide what to do about hair and settled on doing nothing (i.e., not cut it, but not style it or anything either), which persists to the present day.

...

• Month 4: Started HRT. Began to gradually come out to friends one by one. Attempted a name change with immediate family, but it didn't stick. Tried pronoun change, but it was too awkward and confusing for me to have different pronouns in different contexts and with different groups, so I held off on it for the time being.
• Month 5: Tried makeup and determined it was way too much effort for my level of executive functioning at the time. At some point by this time I'd also dabbled in voice training and arrived at the same conclusion. Both situations persist to the present day. This was also around the time that I gave up on shaving body hair long-term due to the amount of effort and rapid regrowth, and resolved to shoot for permanent removal once I no longer had to be coy about it.
• Month 6: Started experimenting with name changes among friends in limited trial runs. At this time I also started occasionally requesting that friends use she/her in private, but not in public, also for limited trial runs.

...

• Month 9: Got really sick of coming out to people one by one and being secretive. I started making plans to come out at work so I could be fully out and update people with broader announcements instead. Started looking for a place to do laser hair removal and going back and forth with my insurance company over coverage. The latter situation persists to the present day (but I finally made a promising appointment just today! Things are looking up!).
• Month 10: Came out at work and in general. From this point on, consistently using proper pronouns everywhere except in legal contexts and a chosen name everywhere except work, legal contexts, and where impractical. Still haven't decided on a long-term name, but trying a few out.
• Month 11 (present day): Presenting authentically in public. Given the body hair, lack of makeup, being early in HRT, and the fact that I still haven't really figured out feminine clothes I'd be comfortable wearing in public (and therefore continue to mostly wear my old clothes), I probably don't read as feminine. Thanks to that and HRT having blessed my chest, I probably mostly give off "unkempt non-binary" vibes. But it still feels good to make no effort to disguise anything or worry about anyone noticing anything.

And that's about it to date.

Since you mention having doubts, I'll add that I find the most valuable thing you can do is experiment. Try things and see how they feel, even if you expect a certain outcome. For me, at least, some sources of dysphoria don't become apparent until I experience the euphoria from addressing them. Even when you do already know, it can help you become more confident or to prioritize things if you get a better idea of just how much they will affect you. So don't be afraid to get your feet wet. Fuck around and find out!

Falling in love, maybe.

I guess what's got me most down lately isn't the dysphoria per se (although there's plenty of that), but more the fact that between fatigue and executive dysfunction, I can't seem to keep up with any aspect of transitioning that takes effort, which is most of them. Lately I've pretty much just been taking my HRT pills and shaving my face every 3-4 days. It's something, but at this rate it'll be a long time before I can actually make significant progress.

Looks like Pixelfed is about 2%. Try Mastodon, I guess - it's listed as 72%.

EDIT: lol, I just did a quick search - apparently Instagram's monthly active user count is over two Billion. With a 'B'. Even with 10 million, it wouldn't compare.

Clicking through to the additional statistics is really interesting. The equivalent graph for Monthly Active Users shows a big bump in June/July 2023. That lines up with the reddit event, iirc. If those causality assumptions are accurate, it's neat how the numbers for total users is more affected by Twitter, but the numbers for active users is more affected by Reddit.

EDIT: nevermind, I didn't realize the timelines were different. The big Twitter exodus isn't actually in the second graph, so they can't be compared. It probably had a bigger impact there as well.

Love this text. Reading this is what started my final, frantic sprint towards hatching.

I'd just like to say that I really appreciate how this was handled.

In order to curate a space like this, it's important to address issues swiftly and decisively, and I would absolutely consider questionable behavior on the part of an instance admin to be a major issue. It's not really feasible to start a discussion with every instance, nor should you be required to - especially when it's not clear that such a discussion would be welcomed in good faith.

The 48 hour notice is an effective courtesy for local users, and in this case resulted in immediate improvements on the other instance, which would probably have lacked motivation without the impending defederation. And with the problem addressed, the defederation was just as swiftly rescinded.

Well done!

Absolutely agree. I'll always remember this as the place that finally cracked my egg, with gratitude. And it's been welcoming, helpful, and fun since then, too. ❤️