I came out just over 7 years ago, so people have had quite a bit of time to adapt.

My mother started at 2. Now she's 1 in intent, but 1.5 in practice.

My kiddo started at 2, but has since gone through their own journey of queer self discovery, and is now a loud and proud 1.

My ex (the kiddo's other mother) and I were broken up for many years before I came out. We don't get on, but even so, she was instantly supportive of my transition and remains so to this day. She started at a strong 1 and is still a 1.

My grandmother, who was in her late 90s when I came out started at a 2. She has since passed away.

Other than that, I don't have much family in my life. My father passed before I transitioned, and aside from funerals, I don't interact with my cousins or aunts and uncles. If I had to rate them as a group, there somewhere between 3 and 4, but I don't really know, because I basically have no interaction with them.

but I kinda forgot about it

Me too! Can you drop me a DM with the details again, and I'll poke Kaity to have a look :)

We're trying to get some organised :)

As long as they're not ignoring the instance guidelines, I'm not going to get involved in issues regarding moderation of individual communities. If people are unhappy with the mods, they will just go elsewhere. I'm not in the business of telling moderators how to run communities they're more connected to than I am.

If the community or its mods are ignoring the instance community guidelines though, then I want to know about it, because that will get dealt with.

I am not willing to exclude trans and queer folk over a difference of opinion, when those opinions are genuinely held, and on issues that directly impact them.

I am not going to tell queer folk that there is a right or a wrong way to deal with the rising tide of bigotry, racism and intolerance we are all facing.

As long as the their community rules live up to the instance community guidelines, they're allowed to moderate on their own terms.

I get that you see me as "giving them a voice", and I guess, ultimately it is. But that's because the goal of blahaj zone is to create a space for trans and queer voices. And that's what those voices are.

And that's s perfectly reasonable perspective. But it's not a reason to moderate or ban the community...

The issue is, the old logo was a copyright free image I found online when we were first getting this instance set up, and it was basically just me here. Since then, I haven't been able to find the original artist, or work out exactly what I was allowed to do with the image. We had this one commissioned though :)

There is no harm free choice here.

I'm not going to remove a community for pushing back against a system that forces them to vote for genocide.

I don't think that not voting is the answer, but I also don't think that me telling people they're not allowed to feel differently is the answer. The majority of the people in that community will be forced to live with the consequences of their votes. They will be directly targeted by Trump. And if they still feel that pushing back against genocide in Palestine is more important than the consequences of Trump on their very own personal safety, I'm not going to stand in the way of that.

This isn't outside trolls and agitators. This is a community of folk, directly in the line of fire, choosing to stand there for a cause they see as important. As long as their intentions are genuine (which I believe they are), It's not my place to tell them that they're not allowed to take that stand.

That being said, I am going to reach out to the staff there, and address the insults and the like being thrown at other users. It's against both the community rules, and against the Blahaj Zone Community Guidelines.

Yep, brown is a challenging colour, but this guy makes it work!

Strange then that my documents all say "female"

Traditionally, I haven't been that type of birder...

But I've been tagging and organising all of my photos, and I'm tagging them by their genus and species, so I've become that type of birder :)

Yep, I'm officially a lost cause... I recognised the bird by its genus and species before I saw the picture...

Here's another photo from the same day that one was taken, but showing a different angle. To give some context, to the right of the image, and not in frame, is where the McDonalds and cinema used to be. The three story section behind the yellow construction machinery is near the Bakers Delight and Cinnabon

Image description: A long shot of Toombul shopping centre, showing the eastern side nearest to Kedron Brook. It looks like a war zone, with walls torn down and building interior exposed along the whole length of the centre.

Xenophobia.

Personally, I prefer an apartment that I have to clean myself, because it means I don't have to worry about random strangers coming in to my apartment all the time.

Hotels just don't work for me. They're completely disconnected from the location and people around them, and full of people just as unfamiliar with the surrounds as I am.

When I was in Puerto Iguazu in Argentina, if we'd have been in a hotel, we'd have been in a sculpted, serviced space completely disconnected from the town around it. Instead, we stayed in a tiny little apartment in the back streets of the town. We got to actually see and experience the place, in a way that would have been impossible with a hotel.

Even if changes like this become universal (and I hope they do) I'll likely to continue to use Airbnb over hotels when I can.

Yep!

As long as they raise it above flood level! :)

It's still not decided.

I started at 41, and I turn 50 next year. You've got this :)