Fascinating to see tech people learn that setting up a Mastodon server, keeping it secure, paying the bills for hosting and the 24/7 devops...
...is the easy part.
Proper steering of a community and keeping tabs on moderations is 95% of the work.
Don't start a server if you're not willing to learn and do that.
@thomasfuchs Yep! Moderation is tricky.
But what I think is annoying is admin’s blocking entire instances due to a few bad apples or the instance is struggling with moderation (even though most—if not all—of the larger instances are trying to moderate).
That is why I advocate people simply do solo hosting & connecting to the #Fediverse from their lone instance.
It’s easier to navigate through the #Fediblock feuds & connect with interesting people from every federated instance.
@darnell @thomasfuchs It's cheap to refederate if an instance shows a commitment to cleaning up and ensuring they can be a good participant.
One of the things we've noticed about the defed early/often is that it's a strong indicator to an admin and mod team that their behaviour isn't acceptable. It sets a strong boundary, and how that admin reacts to it tells us a lot too.
@aurynn @darnell @thomasfuchs What do you do if an instance is a victim of a revenge campaign, as mine has been? Write them off? Refuse to listen to the admin and mod team? That seems to have been the accepted approach so far.
@knottedthreads @aurynn @thomasfuchs which instance are you referring to‽ Qoto.org‽
@knottedthreads @aurynn @thomasfuchs Ok, I see why many instances de-federated from Qoto (https://qoto.org).
The 25:35 mark in this YouTube video explains why: https://youtu.be/yZoASOyfvGQ
Summary: Qoto refused to de-federate from Gab, so many instances blocked Qoto. Is that correct‽
@darnell @aurynn @thomasfuchs Members of marginalized and vulnerable communities on QOTO specifically requested the ability to be able to monitor such "hateful" instances that had a history of doxxing and stalking them. Accordingly, the QOTO admin added a feature to the instance that lets users "subscribe" to an account's public-only content without notifying said account of a follow. This has allowed marginalized communities like the LGBTQIA+ community to be able to warn targets when someone on an objectionable instance is planning to launch an attack. It lets them not be sitting ducks who get blindsided by stuff like this.
@darnell @aurynn @thomasfuchs It also gave vulnerable people the agency to decide what "safe" looks like for themselves, instead of playing "great white savior," and I respect that. It's also worth pointing out that subscriptions don't appear in the federated timeline, and there is a zero tolerance policy for hate speech, whether expressed or boosted, on the server.
@knottedthreads @aurynn @thomasfuchs I understand the intent, but the implementation of subscriptions was bad.
It should have been setup on another domain & be very limited in who it could follow (bad actors only).
Otherwise a tool set up to protect your community could be turned against you & others.