Then perhaps a better phrasing is “may be the only way to feel warm and get to sleep”, even if it doesn’t actually warm you.

I wanted to avoid water propping it because of the tough transition back to soil (and because it would be quite a long cutting, I was worried it might drop leaves). That’s why I wanted to try air layering :)

I see, so a community with asshole leaders would still suffer the same problem in my vision, but they wouldn’t be able to hold other members hostage as in your case since it’s self-hostable - people who do not feel represented or who are not happy with the moderation can start their own community in the same neighbourhood

That’s an interesting idea, I like it! I hope I remember this if I ever have to make another one!

No glue or screws, I just made cuts about halfway down on each piece where they intersect so that they slot into each other. Since the cuts were imprecise, I used a chisel to take off material until it fit nicely.

There are the 5 pieces going vertically, slotting into the one horizontal one each at the top and bottom. It’s easiest if you clamp all the identical pieces together when you make the cuts and fine adjustments, that way you don’t have to cut every piece individually. :)

Thanks! :)

Yes, it’s very gratifying!

It is intentionally facing different directions since it’s a different type of cutlery! But I can see how it might bother you ;)

Thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts and experience!

I can see the problem with getting people to use something different too, my hope is that providing a sufficiently good alternative and making it very local could help - once the platform is mature enough, I would advertise it by physically throwing a letter in the mailbox of every person on my street. That’s when I would find out whether anybody cares or not - getting everyone on at once seems to be the best chance for starting a community from nothing since there would be initial exploratory activity by people who are interested.

I think making it as easy and useful as possible is especially critical here or there will simply be no interest. It has to be better at what it’s doing than established platforms, which is not an easy task.

On the broader topic of positive and negative experiences, as well as toxic behaviour, I share your thoughts and experiences. I think a federated or at minimum self-hosted community has better chances of avoiding the fate of big sites like Nextdoor - I reckon that people who are into self-hosting and community/sharing largely do not hold ultraconservative values. There is the “abuse is free speech” crowd in the fediverse too, but at least anyone could create a different community in the same area.

Effective and transparent moderation tools should be high on the list of priorities though, just as high as other ways to avoid abuse.

Banned by who? How was moderation done on Nextdoor? I am curious if a non-centralized network could do better in terms of building communities that uphold different values. Of course nothing would stop a group of extreme conservatives from coming together and making an instance for being horrible, that’s a more broad problem though in my eyes.