Moderation is critical. We need to be taking it seriously and also being seen taking it seriously. There seems to be a misperception that Mastodon is just a competing social network company. Consequently, bad moderation on one instance reflects badly on the fediverse. If there is hate speech or CSAM on a few instances, some would see it as a stain on the whole fediverse. They would not likely be especially interested in the mechanics of federation etc. It wouldn't matter whether those instances are defederated by the broader fediverse. Nor would it matter whether those instances are even running Mastodon. People are starting to call the fediverse "Mastodon" and this facilitates a misunderstanding of a coherent system that tolerates bad behavior.
There are also some who understand federation but think it is a weakness and want to see more being done, beyond per-instance moderation and defederation of bad instances.
@coderCyclist why do new users need to be babied?
IMHO, being a new user is an opportune time for someone to understand that they technically have a choice of servers. Appreciating such a choice and the anti-FOMO tendencies organic in the federated timeline are what would give them value out of it. Otherwise, they might as well go to alternative silos.
Current moderation needn't remain as-is, new users could perspective.
@tetrislife Even in the short term, I've seen people saying they won't move to Mastodon because of a story they heard about a bad moderation experience someone had on one instance.
@tetrislife I think you and I see things the same way. Not everyone will. I think the fediverse could have a serious problem if the world misunderstands it and governments bring down a misguided hammer.