KuJoe 💞Nov 18, 2022

I feel really bad about this decision, but we've decided to make Mindly.Social an English only server.

Due to the issues with moderating other languages and people unable to filter the languages they understand, we will only be allowing English on our server for the foreseeable future.

If this new change impacts you, please work to move your account to another server at this time.

We apologize to those impacted, but it's not viable for us to continue down the current path we are on.

Show threadKuJoe 💞

I truly feel awful for this decision, but it's not fair to everybody else if we ignore reports and hope for the best.

Between the massive influx of users this past 2 weeks that has generated way more reports than since the server opened, and the huge increase in politically focused discussions, I'm just not equipped to moderate a global server.

In the past 12 hours the Local timeline was just overwhelmed with languages I don't read, and I realized this is going to end badly if unmoderated. 😞

Nov 18, 2022 at 6:31pmWeb
Show threadddc0660Nov 18, 2022
@KuJoe What does moderation here look like?
Show threadKuJoe 💞Nov 18, 2022
@ddc0660 We mostly act on reports from users but while I'm online I do proactively remove hate speech, spam, and similar posts.
Show threadddc0660Nov 18, 2022
@KuJoe Is it a distributed process? Can someone contribute to that cause casually or is that something that requires commitment/investment?
Show threadKuJoe 💞Nov 18, 2022

@ddc0660 Currently I have 3 people helping me that I've known for a while outside of Mastodon and I really hope they're doing it casually because they're all volunteers and I'd hate for them to be spending as much time as I am handling reports. 🤣

We've had a handful of people offer to help moderate but I purposefully haven't grown the team because I don't want their time spent here to feel like work and I need to be able to trust them, so I need to know them for a while.

Show threadCraig HarrisonNov 18, 2022
@KuJoe Don't feel bad about it mate. I am sure we all understand. I hope I can speak for part of this influx of users when I say that we really appreciate the work that all the instance moderators do and really do aim to add to, not detract from the environment created. Having said that no one can be expected to have all language skills that are being attracted here. Other instances exist for other languages, do what you can and what you are comfortable with. We will support you.
Show thread@JakkiNov 18, 2022
@KuJoe I'm new...and thrilled to meet new people who just want to hang and chat. What can I do to help you? Maybe others will feel the same way?
I have been a political animal and am burned out beyond belief. I just want to not think about politics for a while. Maybe a long while.
Show threadDoug Massey ✅Nov 18, 2022
@KuJoe You shouldn't feel bad about this decision. You're doing it for the right reasons and that is taking moderation of your server instance seriously. When one of your posts came across my feed, I'll never forget clicking on your profile and feeling warm and fuzzy that an instance admin had my community's back as an ally. You're making the right decision, regardless if you get any negative reactions, you're keeping people safer from online harassment, plain and simple. Thank you
Show threadSon Gohan 🐘Nov 18, 2022
@KuJoe Don't feel bad, you are doing your best for the site and that's something I'm sure we all thank you for.
Show threadJohnNov 18, 2022
@KuJoe how can we help?
Show threadLula SolorzanoNov 19, 2022
@KuJoe I'm so confused. I am bilingual Spanish-English speaker. Am I not allow to post in Spanish? 😔
Show threadKuJoe 💞Nov 19, 2022
@lulasol Sadly right now we're only allowing posts in English. As our moderation team grows, we will re-evaluate what other languages we can support.
Show threadmomentaNov 19, 2022
@KuJoe Considering the circumstances you're doing a great job. Thank you.👍
Show threadInhaeNov 20, 2022
@KuJoe
You really don’t need to feel bad for this decision. In fact, I’m the one feeling bad, because I didn’t realise how much work was needed to moderate and check out reports, etc.
It’s really nice that you accepted so many new people like me, even though this meant so much more work…
Show threadChristine SykesNov 20, 2022
@KuJoe I feel bad. I've been wondering if all of us birdsite refugees are going to break Mastodon/change it for the worse. I hope not, you've got a good thing going here. 🙂
Show threadAlexanderNov 20, 2022
@KuJoe If you should ever decide to let other languages back (English only is fine with me tho)- I’m bilingual, I speak German (native speaker) and English, I can therefore offer some help with German. But for now this seems like a wise decision, you can’t cover all languages here and given the influx of new members things would indeed get out of hand quickly.