Post · bonfire.cafe

I have an apology to issue. Yesterday, I called out a few large, open-registration instances (mastodon.social, vivaldi.net, and mas.to).

I was ticked off because (once again) a blatant Nazi troll account sent me (and several other folx) swastika photos and hate-speech.

I'm not apologizing for calling out large, open-signup instances. I stand by every word I said. But there's something I *didn't* say, and that's what I believe I owe an apology for.

When you have as many followers as I do, it's easy to start a dogpile—even unintentionally—and because of this, I always try to include a "be kind, don't attack folx" message when I rant about something. Yesterday I forgot to do that, and some mods and admins caught shit for it. It was my responsibility to anticipate my (sometimes overly) enthusiastic followers' reactions and head that off, and I failed to.

If you were one of the people yesterday who sent reports or messages that attacked *any* of the moderation team members of those servers, I would love it if you'd apologize to them. They're all volunteers, just like me, doing their best with what they've got. It's on all of us to make Fedi a safe space for each other.

To any of the wonderful volunteer moderators of Fedi who got nasty messages yesterday—or don't wake up every day feeling appreciated for their work—I'm sorry 🫂 you deserve better. I appreciate you 💞

Update: two of the three above instances' admin teams have personally reached out to me about my original post—and that's amazing! I hope we can work together to make Fedi a safer, more inclusive space for everyone (except Nazis).

#FediAdmin #FediMods #Apology

quintessence :blobfoxcofecute:

@quintessence@hachyderm.io replied · 2 weeks ago

@alice

On behalf of mod teams in general, thank you for saying this. It is so hard to balance the things we want and need to say against how people may interpret them, or what actions they'll likely take regardless of how they interpret them.

As an aside, I always love to talk moderation practices with people (this is an open invitation to the thread, other mods, etc.). Comms channels, policies, you name it. My notes usually end up in internal docs that can be used to inform either public-facing docs or blog posts, the goal being to help more mod teams combat stuff like this.

🅰🅻🅸🅲🅴 (🌈🦄)

@alice@lgbtqia.space replied · 2 weeks ago

@quintessence I'd welcome that discussion here (with the understanding that a number of queer and minority mods like to stay anonymous for safety reasons).

My philosophy for technical solutions is that they should shift resource expenses disproportionately towards the bad actors, while costing normal folx as little as possible.

Closed registration? A normal user only has to apply once, and will likely be accepted. A bad actor wants a lot of accounts, hence a lot of applications, and they're likely to be denied (unless they hide their intent, which increases their cost even more).

Sandboxing? A normal user's first few interactions will be delayed until a mod sees what they're doing and let's them out of the sandbox. A bad actor will shout into the void until they give up (more wasted energy on their part). A mod only has to review a message or two before making a decision.

Just those two features would make Fedi a much worse target for harassment than Twitter or Bluesky, so the trolls, spammers, scammers, and bots would prefer to attack those platforms instead.

Would we still get some really dedicated assholes? Sure, but they'd be the ones spending all the energy before promptly being suspended.

Crovanian (CamstonIsland)

@Crovanian@mastodon.social replied · 2 weeks ago

@alice As a normie loser person who has yet to consider how a 'mastodon.social' instance is different from others... um... Should I move?

rainynight65

@rainynight65@aus.social replied · 2 weeks ago

@Crovanian @alice I started out on mastodon.social as well and contemplated a move for some time. Did it recently and it was way smoother than I thought it would be. You currently can't migrate your post history but it stays preserved on your old account.

This guide by @FediTips is possibly the most comprehensive guide on account migration you can find. I highly recommend following it if you do decide to move.

https://fedi.tips/transferring-your-mastodon-account-to-another-server/