Sadre Alam 
Gautam BhatiaI had quite forgotten what it was like to go three days without being trolled, abused, or piled on. It's a nice feeling. Thanks, Mastodon.
Indian SocratesHey, are you the Constitutional expert I follow on Twitter?
@Indiansocrates I don't claim expertise, but I believe I am that person, yes. :p
Well, that's enough for me. I just want to read whatever you write in your blogs. It helps a lot to get clarity in legal and constitutional ideas I normally don't understand.
I hope you post your articles here as and when you write them. 🙏
Sai Krishna@gautambhatia waiting for your thoughts on the ayodhya verdict. Do a mastodon exclusive😛
@Saivadla some thoughts are best expressed through silence :)
bharatvarma An opinion Justice Katju shared, evidently.
(Although he did subsequently go on to compare this (unfavorably) with ADM Jabalpur).
https://mobile.twitter.com/mkatju/status/1193097741951324160
guthikonda@gautambhatia @Saivadla almost feels like Gautam is missing being trolled ! That apart, what it the sketch/ cartoon in your DP. Surely, it has some significance.
@guthikonda @Saivadla it's a sketch by the famous satirical cartoonist, Daumier. I believe it depicts a "lonely lawyer." :)
Vinay Aravind@gautambhatia There's a whole Mastodon instance populated with Sanghis called inditoot and they were starting to randomly troll the people here and it turns out the admin of mastodon.social just blocked the whole instance. The simple decentralised elegance of Mastodon.
@vinayaravind @gautambhatia playing the devils advocate here while trying to understand better how mastodon works.How is one person blocking an instance on behalf of all people of one instance decentralized? Was there a vote of some kind?Where can I find out how all this works?
@Saivadla @gautambhatia it's decentralised because if you still want to interact with inditoot you can sign up on any other instance, whereas if you want it to be a fash-free place, you can actually have an admin that will block a whole instance. Like when gab moved to mastodon many many instances blocked the whole instance because it's fash central. Same logic with inditoot. I never claimed the admin did it 'democtatically'. don't think that would ever work in any sort of online forum.
@vinayaravind @gautambhatia so each instance or a cohort of people gets its own admin who determines which other instances are accessible.Better than the birdsite where the platform is the administrator.But what happens when there is disagreement within the instance on whether another instance should be blocked?
@Saivadla @gautambhatia you have a conversation with the admin(s), I guess and reason with them about why it should not be blocked. But end of the day the admin's decision will be final. Which of course is not a death sentence out here because of the decentralised nature, unlike in twitter, where one single bad decision can mean you're locked out of the platform entirely, for good. Here, if the admin does something high-handed you have the choice of other instances or even setting up your own.
@vinayaravind @gautambhatia aah get it now.
Prasanna Venkadesh@Saivadla @gautambhatia @vinayaravind I guess you are asking how come some random user can technically block a whole instance. You wanted to understand any feature that is provided like calling for vote? Is that it?
If that is the case, then all users have the option to hide or mute or block a particular domain only for their account in the server. but when the admin decides to block an entire instance, it is blocked for everyone.
In this case, many people were raising issues and giving calls about this instance and @Gargron being the admin did it.
In my opinion, if hate speech has reached to unbearable levels, it is good to swiftly block that instance instantaneously to avoid larger spams or damages and then users can have a voting process (we have polls) to decide whether or not to unblock that domain.
There is also another approach, where instead of federating openly to all instances and having a list of instances to block (blacklisting), a instance can follow Whitelisting, i.e they federate with only friendly instances right from the beginning and as they discover new friendly instances the whitelist grows.
Recommend reading: https://nolanlawson.com/2018/08/31/mastodon-and-the-challenges-of-abuse-in-a-federated-system/
If that is the case, then all users have the option to hide or mute or block a particular domain only for their account in the server. but when the admin decides to block an entire instance, it is blocked for everyone.
In this case, many people were raising issues and giving calls about this instance and @Gargron being the admin did it.
In my opinion, if hate speech has reached to unbearable levels, it is good to swiftly block that instance instantaneously to avoid larger spams or damages and then users can have a voting process (we have polls) to decide whether or not to unblock that domain.
There is also another approach, where instead of federating openly to all instances and having a list of instances to block (blacklisting), a instance can follow Whitelisting, i.e they federate with only friendly instances right from the beginning and as they discover new friendly instances the whitelist grows.
Recommend reading: https://nolanlawson.com/2018/08/31/mastodon-and-the-challenges-of-abuse-in-a-federated-system/
Bhaukaal@prashere "then all users have the option to hide or mute or block a particular domain only for their account in the server"
I only see an option to hide a particular domain.
I only see an option to hide a particular domain.
@bisaat right, it depends on how you access it. The web interface may provide option to hide their posts from your timeline so you could continue to use peacefully.
This should be the first option for us. If the levels of abuse spreads virally, then it is sensible for the admin to block an instance completely.
How does the admin or moderators know the levels go up? By the number of people reporting a particular account.
This should be the first option for us. If the levels of abuse spreads virally, then it is sensible for the admin to block an instance completely.
How does the admin or moderators know the levels go up? By the number of people reporting a particular account.
@prashere Oh! okay, it seemed to me you said a user could block an instance. Hide and block shouldn't be used interchangeably, adds to the confusion for new users.
There is also ambiguity on what does hiding a server do?
- You will not see posts from that server on the public timelines
- You won’t see other people’s boosts of that server in your home feed
- You won’t see notifications from that server
- You will lose any followers that you might have had on that server
@prashere Does hiding also prevents users of that instance from replying to twoots of the users of instance which blocked it? Can they follow the user back if they haven't locked their account?
@bisaat unlocked accounts are always vulnerable.
@bisaat I guess you got it right. even I am not sure if hiding does all and I also think it varies depending upon what app we use to access fediverse.
I will probably take a look at the source code since it's Free Software, but @Gargron, @kaniini, @lain and other active developers can comment on it as well to save time as they implemented the API
I will probably take a look at the source code since it's Free Software, but @Gargron, @kaniini, @lain and other active developers can comment on it as well to save time as they implemented the API
@prashere Okay, thanks for answering the queries.
apotropaic plush connoiseur@prashere @bisaat @Gargron @lain
officially we do not refer to it as 'blocking' a server in Pleroma, and as far as I know, also in Mastodon, when it's user-level, because a user obviously lacks the admin rights to defederate an instance on their own.
in Pleroma you change the config to defederate an instance, in Mastodon you use the admin panel.
officially we do not refer to it as 'blocking' a server in Pleroma, and as far as I know, also in Mastodon, when it's user-level, because a user obviously lacks the admin rights to defederate an instance on their own.
in Pleroma you change the config to defederate an instance, in Mastodon you use the admin panel.
ajithegdeSanghi trolls must be running around like headless chickens.
The great mystery of their life right now is "how to survive in life without trolling lefties, liberals, muslims".....
If they create accounts here the first harassment toot is their last, If they make accounts in their instance the whole instance is blocked. Pssst.
@vinayaravind @gautambhatia Their government might now try blocking mastodon instances at ISP level.
Sanghis don't give up easily.
@ajithegde @gautambhatia it'll be a futile exercise. they might block a few major instances, but how many can they block?
@vinayaravind @gautambhatia If they block at ISP don't we need to migrate our accounts to other instances? That will be cumbersome...
Maybe we might need to use TOR or VPN in such cases....
@ajithegde @gautambhatia yeah we'll need to migrate. And the fact that a lot of people are on a couple of major instances will make it easier to frustrate a lot of users, but still, it won't be insurmountable.
The Last of her Name@vinayaravind
This is so awesome.
This is so awesome.
Adi@vinayaravind @gautambhatia that's brilliant! I was wondering how all the inditoot stuff disappeared. This is such a welcome change to birdsite.
ashwin@gautambhatia best thing is that you have most of the followers as friends here
Kishor Dagia :verified:@gautambhatia #detox minds need some rest. The battle is going to be long and the opposition strong. Hopefully there is always light at the end of every tunnel.
Rate@gautambhatia I don’t know why I believed you probably never got trolled :P you never showed
@RateUnrate never engaged. Muted immediately. The corrosiveness does get to you after a point.
@gautambhatia wow... I’m really sorry to hear that.
@RateUnrate na na, it's all good. :) I had it much better than a lot of people over on #Birdsite. Gender, caste privilege etc
@gautambhatia oh yeah, but I don’t mean it as a who suffered more trauma olympics. Even keeping that in mind, it was surprising to hear that