wgoodf-

So... a person is booted from mastodon.social.

The admin of, in this case scholar.social disagrees with that decision and blocks mastodon.social - the whole instance.

So.. and this is the bit i am struggling to understand- does that mean all mastodon.social accounts can no longer be seen by scholar.social accounts.. is that right?

To block the instance means that every account vanishes to every member from the blocking instance?

A collective punishment?

Dec 19, 2022 at 5:32pmWeb
Show threadneil howard :verified_paw:Dec 19, 2022
@MM0INH I am pretty sure that it does NOT block you from searching for & following people on that Instance, but rather take all post from that instance out of teh "federated" timeline, so they are not "talking" to everyone on the instance that does not like them... ( I may be wrong though, but I am pretty sure if you already follow someone there you are no affected :)
Show threadneil howard :verified_paw:Dec 19, 2022

@MM0INH I was wrong -- from https://mastodon.help/

Blocking and silencing

If the admins of Instance1 block Instance2, then the users of Instance1 cannot interact with the users of Instance2.
.

To be more clear: blocking is used for Instances that permit horrible things and behaviours, while silencing is used for Instances that your Instance tolerate but doesn’t appreciate that much.

What I described is "silencing" the other Instance
.

Mastodon Help - Guide

A thorough introduction to Mastodon

Show threadwgoodf-Dec 19, 2022
@neilhoward point stands, it's an extreme are arbitrary power.
This is not better than twitter.
Show threadneil howard :verified_paw:Dec 19, 2022
@MM0INH you can move instances if you don't like what your admins do, as remember it is ONLY between instances & not on the whole network ( like Twitter!)
Show threadwgoodf-Dec 19, 2022
@neilhoward yay fiefdom and principalities... seriously, its shite, the federated system appears to be built on shite.
To say this is disappointing is a massive understatement.
Show threadPC1IDec 19, 2022

@MM0INH

Sort off... It seems to me the admin of scholar.social has banned mastodon.world (not mastodon.social) as the admin of that instance banned a user. One admin is "punishing" other admins by blocking their instance? I guess effect will be both instances can not see eachother.

Collective punishment to let the other admins rethink their decision?

Show threadPC1IDec 19, 2022
@MM0INH Just checked the fediblock tag and it seems normally to be used to block instances that promote "The wrong side". Even warnings with existing lists that give false info...
Show threadBernard TyersDec 19, 2022

@MM0INH As I understand it yes - InstanceA blocks InstanceB, then A will not see any updates from any account on B.

In any way, via any timeline.

Show threadBernard TyersDec 19, 2022

@MM0INH where did the screenshot come from?

Is that the response from admin of InstanceA?

In which case, it seems their decision was more to affect InstanceB's admins, and the reach of their Instance, as opposed to any activity of InstanceB's user base.

Which seems misdirected and unfortunate.

Show threadwgoodf-Dec 19, 2022
@bernat Well indeed. A gross overreaction.
Show threadneil howard :verified_paw:Dec 20, 2022
@MM0INH Just found this interesting Blog post about just this issue, and how it is good, rather than bad ( Malware Tech is a well known "security researcher" )
https://escapingtech.com/tech/opinions/i-was-wrong-about-mastodon-moderation.html
I Was Wrong About Mastodon – EscapingTech

I said that Mastodon moderation wouldn't scale, it does. The cultural differences will likely continue to maintain a friendlier atmosphere regardless of size.

Show threadwgoodf-Dec 20, 2022

@neilhoward ..but it all reduces to 'if you don't like it, move.

No global standard, no benchmark, no arbitration,nothing, a literal wild west if you dont like, then move.
If they don't like the cut of your jib, just move.

Have you seen some of the arguments put forward by black mastodon on that point?

It's not the strength it's made out to be.

Show threadneil howard :verified_paw:Dec 20, 2022
@MM0INH I still disagree.. If you get "banned" on a single monolithic system like twitter , you are banned.. if it happens on the Fediverse, you can move on , AND still have all the followers and the followees that you already had.. Bad admins only make you day annoying, mot horrific, AND you can talk to your admin if you don't like what they do.
:)
Show threadwgoodf-Dec 20, 2022
@neilhoward As much as Elon is a petty vindictive dick if he bans me or bans you, I don't get banned by association.
That's the crux of my issue with the federated system and where I started. An administrator blocked an instance because they were upset by 1 person.
Show threadneil howard :verified_paw:Dec 20, 2022
@MM0INH and that is where users need to move away from that Instance or reason with the admin to stop being a dick ;)
Show threadwgoodf-Dec 20, 2022

@neilhoward but....

I may never know that my admin has banned an instance!

(We could be doing this for a while 😁)

Show threadneil howard :verified_paw:Dec 20, 2022
@MM0INH I will keep going like an Energizer Bunny! my last word though - Most Instance admins list "moderated servers" in their about page like this https://infosec.exchange/about but I note that your admin does not ( so ask the admin to update this LOL)
Infosec Exchange

A Mastodon instance for info/cyber security-minded people.

Mastodon hosted on infosec.exchange