I also don't think it is a serious solution to tell people, especially those from vulnerable communities, to just go find a server that respects them / allows them to criticize racism, etc.

People are joining Mastodon in good faith, but if they encounter these problems once, twice or more, it starts to send them the message they're not welcome here. It becomes a real brand problem and platform integrity issue.

There are a lot of people with good intentions putting work and time into building this platform who are probably frazzled and burnt out by how quickly its growing (first among them, Mastodon's founder @Gargron no doubt).

That said, I think it needs to continually ask itself if its structure and rules are advancing its mission and values or getting in the way of them? TBH, this kind of stuff seems at odds with what I like about Mastodon.

Update: Good to see @Mastodon being responsive and I'm sure it was an innocent mistake, but these mistakes keep happening and they point to deeper issues with the approach to moderation over here that really need to be worked out. A lot of responsibility is left on the shoulders of volunteer mods. Things could be more transparent and less arbitrary.

I hope people take some of these concerns that have been surfacing seriously rather than just tell people to go find a different server or whatever

And here is @Gargron addressing the moderation issue outlined above.

Some bigger questions about how these systems are set-up, but at least someone is stepping forward and showing accountability:

https://mastodon.social/@Gargron/109383947978442853

@llebrun @Gargron I think there are a few questions about the viability and sustainability of volunteer moderators that the Mastodon community need to question, evaluate, learn, and adapt to— and by all accounts they appear to be the type to do that well.

Two items I’d like to (re) raise:

1/x

@llebrun @Gargron
1) the health and safety of the mods and admins. Are they aware, trained, compensated, and protected from harassment, doxxing, threats?
Are they prepared to handle what might be extremely traumatic images and content while sifting through content? Are there supports for their mental health doing this line of work?

Low-paid Facebook moderators have dealt with longterm health issues due to the trauma of seeing content as part of their work.
2/x