This is mentioned so often in digital gardens. I think this is one thing stopping me from digital gardening, because I know the public can be mean. Constructive criticism? Cool, thanks, much appreciated. Snarky dismissive comment, “this is dogshit” with no “how to improve” nearby, and outright slurs? No thank you. If I build something I plan to release to the public it probably does not make a difference, there will be an opinion anyways that they can post wherever they like. But if I build something private for myself and make it public in order to digital garden? Yeah, that’s one avenue for cruelty that I could have otherwise left shut. Harder to insult something you do not know about and cannot see.

Thankfully, I have not seen that kind of low-tier interaction on anyone’s digital garden so far. Probably because the ones I have seen do not usually have comment sections, at the most a contact form or link to their email or something. And I bet not too many people are reading the gardens, so less people overall means less chance of running into a troll. But I’m just scared of building in public specifically because I’ve seen people (people, not just a flaw-filled thing they are building) get ripped apart online and I know I’m too sensitive to take the same risk myself.

It is probably ironic that I am worried about this given I willingly post on the Fediverse, including in-progress work. Maybe because I feel this is more anonymous. But who says I have to do a digital garden under my real name? Or maybe I trust mods and downvotes to deal with cruelty, instead of just me seeing it and removing it alone without other people piling on the “that was mean and unnecessary” train to make me feel better. Because it seems utterly irrational I’m so worried about building in public but have already exposed projects to the wider online public, and I’m wondering if it’s just me being irrational or if there is some difference behind it.