@austinkocher @Mastodon Austin, I hear you. For someone who resigned from #Twitter's Council, it has been bittersweet leaving the bird app. But I'm very happy here on #Mastodon. Good peeps and such a healthy climate. Good for our collective #MentalHealth.

I'm curious to see how this decentralized #fediverse develops further. Props to all the amazing #moderators!

@eirliani @austinkocher @Mastodon For me, Twitter has always been a strange place in this regard.

A town square with access for almost everyone. But one in which the local leader led the group of rockers past the radical vegans to put on a show for the bystanders. To protect the individual there was the equivalent of headphones ...

Eirliani, you should know much better than I, which dynamics play a role there. ...

@eirliani @austinkocher @Mastodon What I find interesting is that Mastodon instances can and do block other instances. Whereby blockades are also removed again when a consensus is found. I.e. social interaction on group level is possible. The social acceptance of a group is equivalent to their reach in the Fediverse ...

It will be interesting to see which strategies of which user groups successfully achieve their goals. Everything from the digital hermit to the puffer or demagogue ...

@h_albermann @eirliani @austinkocher @Mastodon For myself, I'm most apprehensive about problems of scale - moderation at scale is a Very Hard Problem™, and even at relatively small group sizes is an effectively endless stream of unpleasant and typically uncompensated labor.

Similarly, impersonation, abuse, and bad actors become much thornier problems with greater scale. It will be interesting to see how these things are addressed as the #fediverse grows.

@hankteford @eirliani @austinkocher @Mastodon I see similar to you Hank.

As with any human attempt to organize in a new environment, much or all can go wrong.

The model of the voluntary moderators in Mastodon has already led to ideas whether an outsourced, professionalized moderation would not be the right idea. Would not rule that out for certain like-minded communities. But with the current size, we need to get the basics right first.

@h_albermann @eirliani @austinkocher @Mastodon For the very worst content, moderation is trauma-inducing, so I have real concerns about the ethics of outsourced professional moderation.

Even in a hypothetical situation where those concerns are ethically addressed (well-paid moderators with adequate recovery time and mental and emotional health care?), how would such moderation be funded and overseen in the #fediverse? What kinds of structures and governance would be required?

@hankteford @eirliani @austinkocher @Mastodon
I am very skeptical myself about "outsourcing" moderation. But you make good arguments why professionalization could be beneficial: Can volunteers really be expected to go through these experiences?

But our society also leaves other potentially traumatizing tasks to volunteers: Firefighters, disaster relief, refugee workers …

I don't know the answer, but the discussions about it are necessary and probably we will have to try things out.