Mike GNov 13, 2022
BicycleBen

Seen some posts talk about #moderation worries on the two large #Mastodon instances, .social and .online - scale seems to have outstripped moderation capability; other notable instances (such as .art) have now #silenced them to mitigate harmful content.

If you're on one of the two larger instances, you may want to think about moving/#migration to a smaller one. Doing so has benefits - it better distributes the network and eases the load on big servers.

Boosts for higher reach welcome!

Nov 13, 2022 at 7:07amWeb
Show threadBicycleBenNov 13, 2022
Just to note, silencing is not the same as defederation - it's a step before. So, in this case connections with existing followers are still maintained both ways. But if it reaches the point where defederation does happen, that will affect the ability for .online and .social users to interact with the wider Mastodon network and Fediverse.
Show threadVelocipede RiderNov 13, 2022
@BicycleBen For those following this. Here is the definition of silencing from the Mastodon admin settings
Show threadBicycleBenNov 14, 2022

Muting this now, to give my notifications a rest! Didn't realise just how far it'd go when asking for boosts.

There's talk of improving moderation on the affected instances so hopefully any issues are temporary!

Show threadFish Id WardrobeNov 13, 2022
@BicycleBen Moderation has always been a bit, um, lighter, here though. that's part of it.
Show threadBicycleBenNov 13, 2022

@fishidwardrobe If that's the position an instance wants to take, that's fine, and the business of its admin(s). But if it leads to an increase in hateful or other objectionable content, it's understandable that others may not want to see it.

Given the recent role of .online and .social in onboarding people migrating from the bird site to Mastodon, it's fair that they're aware of the situation.

What people do with that info is up to them.

Show threadFish Id WardrobeNov 13, 2022
@BicycleBen true.
Show threadFluffgar 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 HAS MOVEDNov 13, 2022
@BicycleBen well this explains why my Boosts and Favourites have tanked. Just want to get my work in front of more people than algorithms elsewhere allowed. Initially it was going pretty well. Then suddenly next to nothing.
Show threadBicycleBenNov 13, 2022

@fluffgar If you choose to move instances, it should be moderately easy, taking your followers with you. You might find you need to manually export and import your following list, and you can't move historic posts, but they're the main caveats - you don't lose your original account, so the history can remain online

I'll note problems can happen. My move wasn't smooth as my target instance fell over the moment I started it, but I'll try again when the cool-down period ends.

Show threadBartek PietrzykNov 13, 2022

@BicycleBen

Your instance is also one of the largest - not far beyond mastodon.online from which you migrated, and given that mas.to still accepts new users while .social and .online have ceased to do so for the time being, it could catch up soon.

I guess such problems are bound to crop up, we'll see if (and how) they are ironed out...

Show threadBicycleBenNov 13, 2022

@bartekpi I haven't checked the active numbers here recently. It was a fair bit smaller than the others when I moved, though far from tiny.

Yes, problems could appear here too. I only spoke about the servers I did as that's what was being discussed for .art, but moderation overload and other issues can happen anywhere, large or small.

Show threadChloë LumNov 13, 2022
@BicycleBen it seems like it would make more sense for folks to leave .art if they want eyeballs. As an artist I’m glad I didn’t join that server, I was already really put off that it was invitation only.
Show threadGeorge DornNov 14, 2022
@BicycleBen I know a lot of new arrivals are going to disagree with this viewpoint, but silencing the largest instances in the only tool we have to send a message to their admins that we don't approve of how they're run. And there's a lot to disapprove of; .social used to have a handful of moderators, enough that reports were processed fairly quickly and reasonably fairly. But Eugen got rid of the moderator board and does it all himself now, despite the instance continuing to grow.

Large instances are a bad idea for both technical and social reasons; no one instance should be more than 10% of the network, imo, and even that might be far too large. If the only tool we have to tell them that is silencing/blocking, so be it - it'll either encourage them to close registrations and shrink a bit, or encourage users to move elsewhere, or in the worst case alleviate some of the technical issues of federating with huge instances.
Show threadcrashmatNov 19, 2022
@BicycleBen smaller servers are better in more ways þan one anyway