====== Harm Reduction — Practical Steps ======

Moving toward [[indieweb:good_web|the Good Web]] doesn't require burning everything down first. Start somewhere. In increasing order of effort:

===== Easiest =====

**Try RSS**\\
Readers: [[https://netnewswireapp.com/|NetNewsWire]] (macOS/iOS, free), [[https://feedly.com/|Feedly]], [[https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-subscribe-news-feeds-and-blogs|Firefox built-in reader]]. Follow hundreds of personal sites, journalists, and newsletters without giving a platform your attention. One of the simplest acts of digital self-determination available.

**Leave a comment**\\
If you read a personal blog post that meant something to you, say so. This is how community forms on the Good Web — through the specific act of one person telling another: //I was here and this mattered.//

**Export your data**\\
Every major corporate platform (Instagram, Twitter/X, Facebook) has a data export feature buried in settings. Use it. Your own memories and connections should not be exclusively in someone else's hands.

===== Medium =====

**Get on Mastodon**\\
[[https://joinmastodon.org/servers|joinmastodon.org/servers]] has a good instance picker. [[https://fedi.tips/|Fedi.tips]] is an excellent non-technical orientation guide. You don't have to leave corporate platforms first — exist in both for a while and see where you feel better.

**Get on PixelFed**\\
[[https://pixelfed.org/|pixelfed.org]] — as simple as Instagram was in 2012. Federated, no algorithmic feed, no ads.

**Join a forum**\\
[[https://discourse.32bit.cafe/|32-Bit Café]], [[https://forum.melonland.net/|MelonLand]], [[https://tildes.net/|Tildes]], [[https://join-lemmy.org/|Lemmy]]. Spaces where conversation is the point, not the product. Lurk first, then introduce yourself.

===== More Involved =====

**Start a site**\\
See [[indieweb:getting_started|Getting Started on the IndieWeb]] — Level 0 options require no code and cost nothing.

**Help one person**\\
If you have technical capacity, use it for someone who doesn't. Walk a friend through setting up Mastodon. Help a community organization get off Facebook Groups. That's being a good neighbour.

===== Beyond the Screen =====

The Good Web can supplement community — it cannot replace it:

  * Attend a city council meeting (rooms are changed by whoever shows up consistently)
  * Join a mutual aid network ([[https://www.mutualaidhub.org/|Mutual Aid Hub]])
  * Go to a potluck with strangers
  * Participate in a community garden
  * Join a reading group at your local library

The library is one of the last good-faith public institutions. It needs your presence as much as you need its books.

===== On Hobbies =====

Passive social media consumption without output is harmful. A [[https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7364393/|meta-analysis of 141 studies]] found consumption-without-engagement reliably tracks with lower wellbeing across age groups. The antidote: make something.

Anything. It doesn't have to look like a hobby. Urban sketching. Foraging. Fermentation (kombucha, sourdough, kimchi). Amateur radio. Bookbinding. Seed saving. Zine-making. Embroidery. Amateur astronomy. Birding by call. Terrarium-building. Beekeeping.

The point: you are making something that belongs entirely to you. The Good Web is built by people who make things — it's a natural home for sharing them.

===== On Organizing =====

Good Web social media is appropriate for local organizing; corporate social media is structurally compromised for it. Law enforcement used corporate platform data to surveil and track protesters; 70% of police departments claim social media for evidence collection. The infrastructure isn't yours. The moderation isn't yours. The data isn't yours.

===== See Also =====
  * [[indieweb:start|IndieWeb Index]]

  * [[indieweb:good_web|The Good Web]]
  * [[indieweb:getting_started|Getting Started on the IndieWeb]]
  * [[indieweb:onboarding_gap|The IndieWeb Onboarding Gap]]
  * [[indieweb:community|Community — Mastodon, Webmentions, RSS]]
  * [[start|Return to wiki home]]