Darius KazemiDec 9, 2022

So Seth Abramson is one of the sloppiest public thinkers I have ever encountered, who circa 2016 helped invent the rhetorical style of the buckle-up-for-some-politics Twitter mega-thread. He has advised people who listen to him that they should avoid "Mastodon" (he means the Fediverse I think).

https://post.news/article/2IanIj231d7nc5bxqOxIJpFfGwe

I cannot overstate how much this means we are doing something right over here.

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Show threadBerkubernetusDec 9, 2022
@darius I really love the whole uber-privilege argument of "If they can suspend me, what will they do to you?".
Show threadindri

@fuzzychef @darius

Interesting take here in one of his comments. How exaclty is the admin going to know that he might have made a mistake if he isn't contacted? Mind reading?

Dec 9, 2022 at 10:54pmWeb
Show threadTim PalmerDec 9, 2022
@fuzzychef @indri @darius
I was willing to give him some benefit of the doubt until that. FFS, there’s a button.
Show threadT.WllmsDec 9, 2022

@indri @fuzzychef @darius

Sounds like that one orange f’cker… …

Show threadBerkubernetusDec 9, 2022
@indri @darius But you don't UNDERSTAND. Seth isn't just some user. He's IMPORTANT PEOPLE. And Important People are handled differently!
Show threadChris [list of emoji]Dec 10, 2022

@fuzzychef @indri @darius

This.

Show threaddeutrinoDec 10, 2022
@indri ahh yes, another important and deeply culturally relevant Blue Check who quite properly insists that everyone attend to his self-perception of clout @fuzzychef @darius
Show threadDanDec 10, 2022
@indri @fuzzychef @darius hahahaha good luck with that eh
Show threadmvanderheideDec 10, 2022
@indri @fuzzychef @darius

What really helps in these cases, is to be *member* of a small instance and know who the admin/moderator is/are. Then you can simply talk-it-out. And if you really have an issue with each other, then simply find an instance that matches your way of thinking better.
Show threadYusuf ToropovDec 10, 2022

@indri @fuzzychef @darius So basically what we have got here is a situation where if you cop an attitude and get snarky you might get banned. Even if you were or are a big deal on the bird app.

He is not a customer and this is not a failure of customer service. This is him being a jerk.

Show threadDarius KazemiDec 10, 2022
@YusufToropov @indri @fuzzychef "He is not a customer and this is not a failure of customer service." that's possibly the best summation I've seen out of literally dozens here, well said!
Show threadYusuf ToropovDec 10, 2022
@darius @indri @fuzzychef I used to thread through all his stuff on the Bird App, thinking that doing so and retweeting it would eventually get rid of 45.
Show threadBerkubernetusDec 11, 2022
@darius @YusufToropov @indri one of the things we'll continue to see for the next 3-6 months is folks who were Big Parrots in Birdland being shocked to discover that it's a status that doesn't transfer elsewhere.
Show threadYusuf ToropovDec 11, 2022
@fuzzychef @darius @indri yep, also conversations matter more than lectures
Show threadJoostDec 16, 2022

@YusufToropov @indri @fuzzychef Counterpoint: banning people from social media because they're snarky about the admins/service/owners seems... bad?

Like, Elon could ban half of Twitter with that logic. He still might! And we'd presumably think that a bad thing?

Anyway, this is Seth Abramson we're talking about, so who tf knows what happened. But "get snarky and you might get banned"? Eh.

Show threadindriDec 16, 2022
@almodozo @YusufToropov
I'd say there's a difference between a company with lots of employees and a monopoly in a certain area and a private citizen volunteering his time and money to provide a service for free in a system where you can move somewhere else without losing much (or nothing in this case, since he didn't post).
I'd expect the admin to make it possible to move the account with followers when asked though (unless there's major misbehavior).
Show threadBerkubernetusDec 16, 2022
@indri @almodozo @YusufToropov please leave me out of this discussion, thanks.
Show threadJoostDec 17, 2022

@indri Yeah, I dunno...

The message he got was that "You can still login to request a backup of your data," but I don't know if that also means being able to access the settings you'd need for initiating an account migration.

Yeah maybe if you ask the admin and they're willing to individually enable you to (but that seems like a big if?).

Then you could take your followers with you, but everything you tooted so far would be gone forever. (Not a problem in this case, but it would in others.)

Show threadJoostDec 17, 2022

@indri I get what you say about "a private citizen volunteering his time and money" — they run and pay for it, so they can do what they want, right?

But I keep thinking about the question what that means for people fleeing Twitter because they don't want to depend on the whims and (intransparent, inconsistent) decisions of one guy.

The social risks of a similar structure on a single Mastodon instance would obv be infinitesimally small. But to the individual user the downsides are the same, no?

Show threadJoostDec 17, 2022

@indri Sorry, just want to make clear I'm not comparing whoever the admin of Seth's instance is with Musk, obv! Pretty much anyone is likely to be a better human being than him... 😊

Just that, if the Mastodon offer is, like — "with us the admin of your instance can also throw people off just cause they feel like it, or you talked to them wrong — but don't worry, our guy is a good guy" — that would be.. not so persuasive maybe? 😁 Dunno.

Show threadindriDec 17, 2022
@almodozo
No question that there are problems with this system too. Difficult to solve though, moderation will always have some subjectivity unless it's extremely lenient and leaving it to an AI is probably worse.
I'd think in the long term it would be good to have some list/site where the servers are described in more detail, including the moderation principles.
Show threadindriDec 17, 2022
@almodozo
There's the additional problem of mods limiting or blocking whole servers they don't like, in addition to the obvious block list of nazis or porn. That's even more difficult to appeal, especially when you don't know it.
Lots of issues to work through, but I think it's also quite fascinating to see whether this kind of decentralization can work otu.
Show threadDianne HackbornDec 11, 2022
@indri @fuzzychef @darius Hm, sounds like he needs to have a journalist investigate this suspension.