Someone asked, "Who gets to decide what gets moderated on the Fediverse? And who decides what's seen or unseen?"
You do!
If you don't like someone, block them!
If you don't like an instance, block it!
If you don't like your instance, leave it!
If no instance is to your liking, start your own!
If you don't like other instances, de-federate them!
If you don't like federation itself, turn it off!
Ultimately, the Fediverse gives you the freedom of association—exercise it as you see fit.
On another note, I'm noticing a lot of trolls coming here recently—and they're not happy about being moderated.
I have no doubt some may try methods to skirt moderation.
But I also suspect most will give up and leave.
When trolls find out that I'm generally pro-moderation, they give me a big lecture about free speech and bubbles and silos—and how we should listen to "everyone".
When they go on about this, my natural conclusion is, "Okay, they're not talking about a hypothetical—they *know* they're going to be moderated eventually but are trying to postpone the inevitable."
Trolls, themselves, don't tend to believe in listening to everyone.
They're certainly not looking for debate.
To them, a discussion is not even about uncovering a truth or—more unsubtlely—being right or wrong.
It's about winning or losing.
From a troll's perspective, all interactions are a game with a desired outcome: winning.
In order to deal effectively with trolls, you can't even let them play their game.
As someone else pointed out, trolls might not be strategic in their interactions.
They want to inflict pain and hurt—and will do whatever action enables their pursuit.
This is why I call this a "game".
It may not be a literal game like Monopoly but the effect is the same: a zero sum outcome for which they hope you will lose.
But just because a troll may lack foresight, doesn't mean you have to.
It's worth asking, "When this person talks to me, what's their goal?"
Might as well talk about the most motivated troll I came across on the Fediverse.
First bad interaction, I blocked him.
He came back on another instance.
I blocked that.
Then he said, "I can keep doing this, I have hundreds of accounts."
"Fine," I replied—so I looked up every variation of his username on all instances I could find and blocked them. There were indeed hundreds.
He came back, and seriously requested, "Can you stop doing that? It's costing me a fortune in server costs!"
🤣
No, it wasn’t merely an opinion, nor was it an attempt to engage in a positive manner.
I don’t bother myself with disagreeable individuals online and rarely IRL.
I have ADD so my posts don’t always make perfect sense.
Many of them I have to edit.
(that was irritating) would have added more context to the story and I wouldn’t have sounded like an ass.
Thanks for asking.
@atomicpoet this is like some twisted reverse uno card on the (definitely very hilarious and not at all cringy) "now pay [a billionaire] $8" meme that's become their favorite thing to post on the 
(and I love it.)
@atomicpoet You might want to consider the United Federation of Instances as an interesting new dynamic in this conversation
Since I'm trying to phase out tagging everyone individually, as it feels a bit scammy, but everyone asked to be kept in the loop... so here are some alternate "official" ways the conversation should continue: 1) On the official Gitlab repository, which is where all voting and formal discussions will take place https://gitlab.com/ufoi/constitution 2) The group found here for mastodon discussions (just tag them instead of everyone): @[email protected] 3) On matrix chat. #UFoI:matrix.org And of sourse you are all welcome to contact me directly. I am very excited how there is so much talk about it and it hasnt even been released for 24 hours yet! @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @skanman @[email protected] @[email protected] @robryk @[email protected] @[email protected] @Romaq @ichoran @AlanOutback @[email protected] @aebrockwell @[email protected] @tatzelbrumm @Gaythia @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @trinsec @khird @[email protected] #mastoadmin @[email protected]
There is a logic there, but it is both hard to recognize and harder to comprehend.
He’s spot on that this is an effort to inflict pain on others, but why does he go to such lengths?
My opinion, which admittedly could be wrong and if it is please tell me so, is that the moment of smug superiority from “pwning the libz” is his drug of choice. Instead of handing a street pharmacist $x for a chemical fix, he pays $x to cloud providers for a mental one.
I attempted to speak freely like this on the Fowl Site but commercial algos prioritize conflict over resolution so the angy boy i responded to got all the clicks and my genuine inquiry why got few clicks and a cv lot of rage.
Meh.
I’m more passive-aggressive…I ignore with a vengeance. 🤨
Bravo sir
That's a funny story. Sounds like you put in a lot of work, though.
Can you tell more about the process you used to find the different variations on his username and how you conducted this search on many different instances?
What is this process going to look like as the fediverse continues to grow and the number of instances multiplies?
But how much work would you need to expend if 20 or 200 trolls expended half as much effort as that one?
My question is about how well this approach will scale.
Thanks.
I suspect that's where we'll all be headed eventually---a world where federation is an earned privilege and not the default. I'm really glad that there is at least some social infrastructure for server administrators to communicate about issues and to start to build a trust network.
And I think it's very important that the fediverse community actively pursues these kinds of conversations *now*.
@dynamic
> a world where federation is an earned privilege and not the default
...is a useful approach for those who want a bounded social network. Some people always do this. Those who want to blast out social media to the widest possible audience will continue to federate openly and block as necessary. As @atomicpoet says, these are among the many options fedi tech gives us for using our freedom of association.
I disagree. In the world I see coming, people who want to blast out social media to the widest possible audience are not going to be able to reach the widest possible audience are going to need to build homes on servers unless they adhere to behavior norms that will earn themselves a place on other servers' white-lists.
This is my prediction for where we are headed, regardless of whether it is how I want things to be.
@dynamic I guess we'll see. But I've been observing these dynamics play out in the 'verse for more than 10 years, over multiple waves of immigrants from DataFarm platforms. So far open federation has remained the norm, with only a minority of servers going for a more cloistered approach. Imagine how much less useful email would be if the standard approach to federation between email servers was opt-in. I think the same is true in the 'verse.
@atomicpoet
> Email's not very useful at all nowadays.
That's not my experience. There's a perception that the clustering of most email usage on a handful of corporate email servers prevents independent email servers being viable. But I still use RiseUp.net and Disroot.org for email and correspond with people on corporate services with no issues. Email remains one of the few ways to message a stranger without creating an account on a DataFarm.
@strypey @dynamic So really, the problem with email is that even if you think you're doing everything right, if someone else does something wrong, you're f*cked.
The only way Google and Microsoft give a damn about you is if you're big enough and important enough for them to sit up and listen to you.
Start up a single-user email server? Not feasible nowadays.
@KLB That's a sort of game. Because, you see, the general reason they do this is because they de-humanize you.
I've heard many of them justify their behaviour by saying, "This isn't real life—go outside and touch grass."
@atomicpoet anyone who thinks that Mastodon is all sunshine and roses — thank your admins, since that means they're doing a *great* job!
because trust me, there are certainly some cesspools out there...
IridescentOx
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