@freemo @ohuu @Gargron @trinsec @khird Being a Twitter refugee, all of this history happened before I ever heard of Mastodon. I want to both applaud and thank you for giving your marginalized community members something that even the “good guys” are reluctant to give them — agency. Sure, everybody wants to be safe and deny hate a platform, but people who are vulnerable to these kinds of attacks have a right to decide what “safe” looks like. I think you struck the best balance you could under the circumstances. As a member of a couple of marginalized demographics, thank you for offering respect in lieu of a savior complex.

For my part, I really enjoy QOTO’s unique features and the fact that, compared to some of the big instances, it runs so smoothly and so fast. Sure, that’s just growing pains, but I appreciate this instance’s ability to handle the influx as well as it has. I like that my local timeline is full of science instead of drivel. I’m grateful that there’s a STEM-focused instance accessible to industrial scientists, who are mostly barred from the scholarly science instances due to our lack of current academic credentials. So, thanks for doing a good thing, @freemo. We’re grateful for you and the mod team.