Yesterday was my first bad day on Mastodon, and what happened to me could happen to you, so let me explain what went down, and how I got blocked by a lot of people.
In March, I wrote a post critical of Musk (picture 1). I then asked another Mastodon user (Harriett) whom I have found friendly, if she would help me translate a Danish phrase to English, and linked to the Musk post where the phrase would be relevant.
But yesterday — 4 months later — that blew up in my face. Here is how…
1/7
You see, yesterday someone discovered that my old post requesting translation help had been mirrored onto Bluesky by the so-called bridge system. And that system had made the VERY unfortunate error of removing my link to the context about Elon Musk, and instead now linked to Harriett's profile page.
So it now looked as if I was not talking about Elon Musk, but talking about Harriett (see picture) — as if I was making fun of this Mastodon user behind her back on Bluesky.
2/7
A person saw this unfortunate mishap on Bluesky and rightly found it suspicious looking, so that person then warned Harriett about it. She then got upset thinking I was making posts ridiculing her on Bluesky, blocked me, and then wrote about this to all of us here on Mastodon.
I have no hard feelings about that, because the technical glitch really made it seem like I was a bad person.
But then more people got upset, and a whole thread formed where people agreed I should be blocked.
3/7
And while all of this went down, I was not even here. Because yesterday I hosted a party and was preparing dinner and entertaining guests here in Denmark.
Then late in the evening when the guests went home, I sat down to check in on Mastodon, and all of hell had broken loose.
Because everyone was thinking the Bluesky post came from me, the famous profile Gottalaff now entered the discussion which amplified it to her 33,000 users, and even more people blocked me, called me out etc.
4/7
The only person who stopped to check if all of this was really true was @Gargron. And he wrote a very helpful post explaining that the bad post on Bluesky was created by the bridge system, which had linked to Harriett's profile and thereby changed the meaning of my original post.
But Gargron's post was very technical, and I am not sure everyone understood it, and I was still getting angry responses, and more people blocked me.
So I was very sad to discover all this late last night.
5/7
But here is the lesson we can all learn from this: If you see something strange where someone suddenly seems to change their behaviour and do something malicious, it is important to ask questions before concluding what is going on.
In this case, a post which seemed like it was written by me was actually altered by an IT system that I have never given permission to do so — and it now seemed like I was spreading hatred.
In conclusion: I blame no one for this incident. I fully understand…
6/7
… why someone saw the Bluesky post and wanted to warn Harriett. I fully understand how Harriett could feel shocked that it looked like I was talking about her on another platform. And I fully understand how Gottalaff would amplify that and try to stop me from harassing Harriett.
So please, do not send any negativity their way. Let us just all learn from this:
Never jump to conclusions about other people. If you see sudden strange behaviour from someone, ask questions before concluding.
7/7
@randahl fyi - some of the people in the discussion aren't actually angry over the misinterpretation/changing of the original post, but the fact that the post appears on Bluesky with photo and bio of the user in question ("doxxing").
... others are angry because they believe you don't care about the fact that her details appeared there but only worry about your follower count - while I think it's obvious that what upsets you is being presented publicly as a bad actor.
The awesome @Em0nM4stodon is PSAing about the first case here: https://infosec.exchange/@Em0nM4stodon/114870842797314328
... as for the second I think it's just fallout. Once people get the "bad actor" impression everything else will be interpreted that way as well.
ALERT for Bluesky Bridge Users 🚨 🦋 If you are using a Bluesky bridge on Mastodon, DO NOT TAG Mastodon accounts in your posts without prior informed consent from this person. This could end up showing a preview of this person's profile picture and bio on Bluesky without their consent. Additionally, be careful about how the upcoming Quote Post feature could behave with Bluesky bridges. Some of us don't want our information shared with commercial platforms like Bluesky, and have not consented to this bridge. This practice can even **endanger** some Fediverse users. If you have chosen to share your own data with commercial platforms, make sure you leave the same choice to others. This is important. #Privacy #Mastodon #Bluesky #BlueskyBridge #Fediverse #Consent
@troed @Em0nM4stodon I really don't want to interfere in this situation and won't beyond making the following point, which I hope is helpful to Harriett who I care about and for the general good. My interpretation was that the doxing element caused the greatest distress.. something which I fear may have unfortunately been repeated in the explanation thread above. Perhaps don't repost that screenshot @randahl ?
Peace ✌️
@greenseer @troed @Em0nM4stodon
I understand your concern, and I have now blurred the post to avoid triggering a repeat of the bridge problem.
@kuprijanko @randahl @greenseer @troed @Em0nM4stodon
Yep. The preview is cached.
You could try deleting the post, but I doubt that will matter to Bluesky.
We are on the same page. The problem was that the bridge software did not follow links properly.
It chased a link that was not needed to be searched.
@numb_comfortably @SpaceLifeForm that’s so much against the core value of consent on Fedi I don’t understand how these bridges even continue to be permitted, let alone used.
I certainly don’t want an independent copy of my posts copied to a different platform, especially not one like that.
@mirabilos @numb_comfortably @SpaceLifeForm
Hmm. This has me leary of bridges now. I will reconsider whether I wish to follow anyone at all on Bluesky.
@bruce @mirabilos @numb_comfortably
ConfortablyNumb is is apt handle.
Is there a RobotsTxt handle out there?
Not going to look, won't follow. /s
@numb_comfortably @bruce @mirabilos
All in the spirit of @lowqualityfacts
@mihamarkic absolutely! 🙌
and it's really heartening to see that @Gargron got in on the case and wanted to help ❤️
Sorry you went through this unnecessary drama @randahl. Anyone who has been following you here knows you are not a bully! You couldn't be further from it. This behavior would have been so out of character and worthy of further verification/research. It's depressing to see how people are so ready to grab their (metaphorical) pitchforks without pausing first to analyze a situation
@_elena @mihamarkic @Gargron @randahl as instance admin i've been lurking, considering what to learn from this. Despite the bridged post loses context as an unintended consequence, calling it "unnecessary drama" for Randahl invalidates the consequences. It is an unnecessary burden for the person on the receiving end.
Randahl chose to bridge to bluesky. Will you, Randahl, remove the bridge knowing this unintended consequence now or continue using it?
@chartgerink what happened to @randahl is really serious and I did not mean to invalidate his experience with the words "unnecessary drama". What I meant is that something happened that was totally unnecessary and unintended - who could have predicted such a thing?
I bridged my GoToSocial account for about 2 weeks in January, but ultimately severed that tie. I did not think such a thing could have happened.
Randahl has all my solidarity and support in this.
@chartgerink @_elena I opted out of the Bluesky bridge today.
I do not recall ever having opted in. But nevertheless it should now be sorted out.
Can you share where one see the status of said Bluesky bridge and whether one is opted into it? Hope you don't mind the silly question - today I am a bear of little brain, and until now I thought bridging was something one had to set up on purpose...
Edit: oops, I found the link later in the thread - https://fed.brid.gy/docs#fediverse-get-started
Leaving it here for completeness.
I hope things calm down soon.
@_elena @cruiser @mihamarkic @Gargron @randahl "Hurt people hurt people" - I know Harriet and she's not some trigger-happy person but when you see your identity, including your photo, show up in such a situation, most of us who have been on the wrong end of what is going on in the world would panic.
So, please don't judge someone because they panicked - they may have endured too much pain already and you don't know it.
@ics ZERO judgement towards Harriet, I can understand the panic.
My sadness (not judgement) was over other people not directly involved in the situation, who immediately grabbed their metaphorical pitchforks and were ready to condemn @randahl (without analyzing the situation).
Not everyone, obviously.
I am glad that the situation has now deescalated.
@_elena Sorry, then I had misunderstood your post. Yes, the other people's behavior was, indeed, weird-to-creepy for me.
I waited this out to see what the actual problem/situation is because I know both people involved and couldn't explain myself how something like that could ever happen.
We have blocked BlueSky-bridge on all our servers especially because we have no control over the bridge nor what happens on BlueSky - and this is proof again for me that we acted correctly there.
🙏
@randahl They removed their picture from their profile because they didn’t want it on Bsky, but this is the second or third time you’re posting it, which means third time you’re posting that picture on Bsky as well I presume (because of the bridge).
Maybe stop doing that? Maybe stop posting their bio and handle and everything over and over again?
@teotwaki @randahl
Agreed, that screenshot of the mistake should have been redacted.
It's good to provide screenshots showing what happened, but making sure it doesn't contain any personal information is important, also after you've been called out for exactly that. The first time may have been a technical glitch, this time wasn't.
-rb
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