Compiling this data was not as hard as I expected, let’s go through the data and the shiny graphs!
Age of Beeple
Most are above 24! Seems we got an older average age compared to a lot of social media. It would be interesting to see how many came here with experiences from independent forums before Reddit.
Where Beeple reside
This one’s a big graph. Though we can notice most people are from the US. Would be nice to see more countries represented though a big part of it likely has to do with language. (You will need to open the big graph in another tab, it’s too big to show properly.)
Gender identity of Beeple
So, as expected, mostly men. However, less than expected which is nice to see. There should be outreach to at least equalize this.
Sexual orientation of Beeple
This is kinda surprising. It seems we managed to get a lot more LGBTQ+ people than expected considering most of you all come from Reddit - so this is nice to see. This is most likely because of our focus on a safe space.
Whiteness of Beeple
As expected, mostly white which is unfortunate. I think there’s outreach to be done in that regard as well.
Neurodivergence of Beeple
We seem to have a really surprising amount of neurodivergent people! Definitely nice to see.
Beeple with disabilities
I… have no idea how to interpret this data so I’ll just say, shiny graph.
Beeple’s awareness of the Fediverse
Most knew about the fediverse but still a good 20% had not heard about it so glad to see you all managed to find your way here!
How Beeple have been dealing with Beehaw
It seems most people feel relatively confident in their ability to use Beehaw and most people seem to enjoy it. That makes me really happy to see. Feels rewarding, feels good.
Conclusion
I wanna thank everyone for the feedback about the survey and its questions - we’ll do better next time! I’m glad we did this survey because it shows the areas to work on in terms of outreach! Thank you all for your participation!
The part where he says it’s “mostly white people which is unfortunate” was an odd thing to say.
Doesn’t make white people feel very welcome I’d imagine.
I’m as white as driven snow and I took that as “it’s unfortunate we don’t have more diversity in this area”
I understood the intent, but words mean things and phrasing matters. As written, it doesn’t seem welcoming or inclusive. They phrased the other sections much better–(which almost makes it seem more targeted even though I sincerely doubt it is)
“We don’t have as much diversity as we would like in this area, so in an effort to cultivate a richer community, we’ll need to do more analysis and outreach. We are open to ideas!”.
The reality is: you can’t force diversity. You can only make an environment where its welcome and encouraged–and you should be welcoming to everyone. Obviously this rubbed some folks the wrong way.
As an aside: it’s also a little short sighted to assume that bucketing people in a “white” group means they aren’t diverse in their own right. I’d imagine there is quite a diverse makeup of “white people” on here-- people from Western Europe, Eastern Europe, the US, Canada, Australia, and elsewhere who all have very different perspectives, cultures, and norms that they bring to the table.
this is the sort of sensitivity and white fragility–the idea that we as white people are diverse too, damnit!–that makes me think it genuinely is “unfortunate” our community is even as white as the survey suggests (and it’s not that white, to be clear!). respectfully: the “diversity of opinion” between various white people in the world is not nearly as interesting as you think it is on a lot of issues, and on those issues i’m not super interested as a non-white person in getting the “diversity” of five opinions from five white people with the same privileges just because they also happen to be from five different majority-white countries.
A couple of things: It sounds like you are assuming I am white.
This response doesn’t seem all that nice or inclusive. Calling someone with an, ironically, slightly different opinion than you (read: diverse), fragile and sensitive seems to be counter to the community you are trying to build here. Right? Am I crazy?
I think we need to strive to have an environment where we can have open, honest, and sometimes uncomfortable conversations about all of this stuff. Being dismissive of it as “white fragility” isn’t productive or helpful.
As I said in my initial comment, I understand the intent of that section of the report, and I think more diversity is better than homogeneity, but the way that information was conveyed, and almost specifically that information, seems unwelcoming. For what its worth, I very intentionally joined Beehaw vs any other instance because I truly appreciate what you are trying to do here. So hopefully you take this in the manner it is intended: (hopefully) constructive criticism and food for thought.
if you are not: you sound completely indistinguishable from every white poster on here who thinks the idea of not being the center of attention is some sort of attack on their identity. the fact that you immediately jump to “well, you’re assuming” does not help you beat the allegations here either.
very bluntly: this is white fragility and you are again demonstrating to me that maybe the “unfortunate” phrasing is actually the correct one here despite all the ire it’s drawn. if your “diversity” is when five white people in a room have opinions and those five white people happen to be from different countries and have distinct culture that’s essentially just white people jerking themselves off. there are a million other spaces that cater to that online, so if you’re interested in that i’d recommend going literally anywhere else.
Can you elaborate on that? Like, I honestly think an American, a Russian and an Albanian having different opinions would be considered diverse. Aren’t those vastly different cultures despite the fact that they’re white?
Same thing goes for other skin colors as well. What you’re saying in my opinion is akin to calling Japanese and Chinese people “the same”. Or Persian and Arabs.
And also,
Please, is this the language we’re using here? The person above is clearly not trying to be a white supremacist, neither were they indecent. You could have used a better phrasing.
we’ve had a pretty productive convo in the Discord about this so to quickly summarize for non-IronTwo people since i think my wording there captures better what i’m getting at:
the beliefs of europeans and english-speaking peoples are some of the most hegemonically represented opinions in the world. we recognize there are incredibly distinct cultural beliefs between even these groups–but for our purposes we’re not interested in the granularity of those. overwhelmingly that granularity is already represented everywhere else and in almost every conversation we have here just by virtue of the language we’re using and constituency we serve. we don’t need to go out of our way to find those opinions. we do for non-white opinions, voices, and community members, though; and on many issues there’s opinion granularity that can’t be found just by talking to europeans and english-speaking peoples.
I agree. I don’t see the response of the mod (alyaza) as being productive. I feel even more alienated now. All i wanted to do was be in an environment that welcomes people and conversation and encourage productive kind conversation. This thread feels like none of that.
Couldn’t agree more. I can understand why people from the US may think that a graph showing mostly white people would mean a lack of diversity, but this is not a US-only website. There are so much diversity amongst white people. As a Turkish person, my skin is white yes, but I have grown up in a vastly different culture and environment than a white American, or a white Russian, or a white French. Or while my skin is white I’ve yet to have a “white privilege” because again, I’m not from the US.
I know, in a poll like this you can’t just make every ethnicity and background an option -there are just too many of them. But again in an international community like this, saying that a white majority means a lack of diversity is just wrong in my opinion.
It was precisely white people that created the concept of whiteness, without taking into account any cultural differences (or, actively trying to hide them), in order to create a us vs them situation.
We don’t get to complain about POC using a term that we created, the way we created it.
As someone who isn’t it was odd, since most the social media I’ve been drawn to has been ones where I don’t ever really know anyone’s identity.
Has primarily been the draw of message board type places for me, since it allows me to just be judged on my text I write. At least the communities I participate in like games and tech. It’s nice being able to just blend in I guess as opposed to always just standing out depending on the location in real life.
Unless some place is outwardly bigoted I don’t really see it as bad if it just happens to be a specific groups that respectfully comes to have conversations. I don’t get the sense that places like this is has been unwelcoming so whoever congregates here is what it is and not really a negative. Like I don’t know how to push for more diversity. It’s just an internet message board to me that is welcoming of everyone, and that’s enough.
The entire point of white supremacy has been to make an in class which unquestionably dominates in all spheres of life.
There is no place white people are not “welcome”.
There is no space white people cannot go.
You can see in the response to (relatively weak) Covid restrictions of white people reacting violently to (likely for the first time in their lives) being told there was somewhere they could not go. And what did the signs they held say? “I Need A Haircut!”. They felt the withdrawal of not being waited on—being able to feel superior to someone—like a drug.
Further, a main power of whiteness is its invisibility. To not only have the freedom to go anywhere but to have that freedom never acknowledged or commented on. To never have to hyphenate. American. Not Mexican-American. British. Not Black-British. A person, who never has to consider that they are indeed “a white person”.
I would ask the imaginary white person referenced in your post if they are really being made to feel unwelcome by other white people asking if they’re white, or if they are experiencing discomfort at having to confront the fact that they –are– white and not “default”.
I would question how often they even consider “Am I welcome here?”. I would ask them to examine if they ever ask themself “is this a space for me?” or if they conversely tend to move through anywhere and everywhere with no thought to the idea they might be stepping on someone’s toes.