Romaq @Romaq@social.cleverlibre.org

I mentioned this in a private message to someone recently about why a small handful of servers block qoto. I wanted to reiterate it here for the new comers on QOTO who dont know the history:

So there are some servers out there that demand every server int he network block every instance they do, and if a server doesnt block an instance they block then they block you in rettatliation.

Their reason for this is quite flawed but it goes like this.. If we federate with a bad actor instance and we boost one of their posts then their users will see it and defeat the purpose of the block. The problem is, this isnt how it actually works. If they block a server and we boost it, they wont see the boost, thats how blocks work.

The issue becomes even more complicated when you consider the fact that these servers, by virtue of their policy, have huge block lists where they block tons of major servers. So in order to satisfy them we too would have to block a huge number of servers.

This means you have a choice, you either join a server that isnt blocked, but has a huge block list themselves, or, you join a server that doesnt block and be blocked by a small handful of servers. Obviously that means on QOTO you will have bigger view of the world than you would on any of these others servers. In fact QOTO has onne of the largest federation footprints of any server in the network.

I want to also explain why we choose the decision we did. Years ago when this controversy started and servers across the fediverse started blocking there was a divide of people taking sides. WOTO was one of the few servers that didnt take sides and allowed people read content from any server (but with strict hate speech rules). This caused a huge influx of people,s pecifically from the LGBTQ community, onto our server. It turns out many people relied on us not-blocking for their physical safety. There were big name biggots (like milo yanappolus) who were on the network. They used their accounts here to watch his account for doxing so they could warn themselves and their community and protect themselves accordingly. In fact we added a feature just for them called subscriptions which allowed them to monitor accounts without following them so they could do so anonymously.

In tthe end for the safety of the LGBTQ community here we refused to engage in mass server blocking and instead encouraged our users to block servers on an individual basis and provided access to block lists for them to do so. But some really misguided servers blocked us anyway.

Thankfully the servers blocking us are few and far between and are limited to only the most excessive and aggressive block lists. As I said, QOTO has one of the largest federation footprints on the fediverse,

#mastoadmin

So I reached out to admins of the few instances that block us with a polite email explaining some of the misinformation spread about us in the pastt and describing the situation in some detail in the hopes it will be resolved.

Luckily nearly all the instances are very small and its not a big deal since our federation footprint remains one of the largest int he fediverse, but I felt it was an effort worth making.

Anyway, seems the drama is already begining and even more flat out lies are getting thrown around be a few:

https://cloudisland.nz/@aurynn/109361052656757061

https://cloudisland.nz/@aurynn/109361011483467968

Luckily despite a few bad actors most of the people I contacted reached out to me in good faith and several seem to be willing to reverse the ban. Lets hope the people who actually bother to fact-check win out on this one.

Demand election officials disqualify Trump now: http://bit.ly/3OfXYcL

I’m boldly going where I haven’t gone before, which is right here at this site. Apparently this is a “toot.” I would appreciate a follow!

The fat orange monster in Florida continues to fume.

Launch stil scheduled for 0604 UTC but there could be a delay due to the leak. No word yet if the leak has stopped.

Boost this toot if you're planning on sticking around Mastodon whether or not it becomes more popular than the birdsite.

"Try reading the following out loud:

Hashtag screenreaders for the hashtag blind and hashtag VisuallyImpaired read every hashtag HashTags out loud and so it's hard for people with hashtag VisualImpairment to get the sense of the post because it's being constantly interrupted by well-meaning hashtag accessibility hashtag allies.

Easier to read with a block of hashtags at the bottom:
#screenreaders #VisuallyImpaired #blind #allies #Hashtags #accessibility"
--original author unknown

To this extent I'm really interested to know how the age breakdown of people on the #Fediverse. On one hand it would seem to make sense to me that most people here remember the "old internet" before the centralization and they're here to rekindle that flame of independence. On the other hand the youths are generally pretty up on this whole technology thing. I grew up on the internet and since then smartphones have become even more ubiquitous.

(Please boost for reach)

For those of you struggling with an unwieldy new animal in your house, he’s a 1-page RPG to help you settle in!

https://linktr.ee/oliverdarkshire

@mistakenotmy it's because of the way servers federate posts between themselves. If no-one follows me on a particular server, none of my posts exist on that server. As soon as someone there follows me, the server starts getting my new posts, but it doesn't go back and get the old ones.

I have a thread (on twitter, apols) with some observations about the unexpected ways Mastodon differs from Twitter.

https://twitter.com/stevehunt4hiop/status/1589800124905291776?t=0Fn9Y1PE50xez0HeUorRZg&s=19

@lavenderlens

Agreed. The back story is long and crazy. But in short the LGBTQ and others in the community at the time were being mass banned simply for following bad actors, even when they didnt boost, promote, or in any way show sympathetic leaning towards those bad actors.

The reason they were following them was to watch their account for violent threats and then disseminate that throughout their community for safety. But many instance admins didnt care and blocked/banned anyway.

As a result the LGBTQ community in masse migrated here for their safety.

We added a feature for them called subscribe. It lets you follow a person without them knowing you are following them. BUT it only lets you access the posts that person gives you permission to view (basically public posts, you cant see follower-only posts on a subscription). We did this so members of our community could follow these bad actors without alerting them and putting themselves at risk of violence or retaliation.

People again twisted this feature into being privacy violating despite the fact that it honors the privacy rules set by the poster.

Needless to say a lot of people were very mad that their blocking and banning abuses were coming back to bite them in the ass and ultimately distorted and lied the truth about QOTO and our feature to try to make it sound like something evil when it wasnt... those lies persist to this day.

@trinsec @War_Kittens