To be more transparent about server blocks, I have decided to follow the example of others and publish a list: https://github.com/Gargron/mastodon.social-misc/blob/master/README.md
That list is now linked from our about page. It also explains how different block severities work.
You might notice that bofa.lol is on the list. It's at the very least a temporary measure because our mods had to deal with a lot of problematic content coming from that place yesterday.
@Gargron Perhaps a good feature would be the ability to share/import server blocks?
@ramsey I don't think shared server blocklists are a good idea. It's better for every admin to examine the accuracy of the decision, otherwise something like the Randi Harper situation can happen again but on a much larger scale.
@Gargron I’m unfamiliar with that situation, and I can’t find any news source on it that’s not Breitbart or related in some way to the alt-right. 😔
@ramsey Randi Harper took the ggautoblocker after it went defunct and put her own spin on it, which people (including wilw, which is part of what the targetting yesterday was about) picked up and distributed, only to later discover that she's a TERF and was adding to the list on her own, blocking trans folk and basically being a jerk.
I think Eugen's comment on "the RH situation" is that bad actors could add innocent instances to the blocklist and people may not know until it's too late.
@SpikeHitman Thanks for the explanation. I vaguely recall the situation now, and I did briefly use that block list. I just wasn’t aware of the other issues around it. I clarified to Eugen afterwards that I didn’t mean a central blocklist managed by one person or group—just a way to import blocklists into your instance, for you to manage yourself.
What is the problem of shareable self-hosted blocklists?
site owners have the rights to block anyone who they didn't like.
However, due to self-hosting, it will not cause everyone to use the same blocklist.(Or do you mean microsoft and twitter services are self-hosted)
site owners have no right to force other sites to use the same shared blocklist with them.
Twitter is not a good example, unless it is connected Twitters running by many different small companies and persons.
Additionally, everyone can host/use lists from many different sites and can modify the list to make it suitable for their own sites.
@Acer @SpikeHitman I think we were specifically talking about a shared blocklist that updates everyone’s account who is using it, so one person/entity controls it, and everyone using it gets the updates.
I think people can host blocklists and anyone can import them.
@Acer @SpikeHitman There have been a few problems with central blocklist services (for Twitter, in particular) where someone else gained ownership of the blocklist and started blocking others they didn't like or approve of. This, in turn, caused everyone using that blocklist to start blocking the same people, which caused many folks to assume they were bigots.