so I was reading through a long thread just now re: mstdn.ca. realized there were a ton of responses missing.
opened it in my browser to get the context, and OH LOOK! a boatload of accounts I had muted a loooooong time ago absolutely treating Chad like a convicted criminal, advising everybody to jump ship IMMEDIATELY, calling him ugly names.
"innocent until proven guilty" apparently stops being a thing when you've got your conclusion already formed. wow.
everybody is free to come and go on the fediverse as they please, which is part of the beauty of it.
but to treat allegations as fact and also as a criminal conviction, AND using your "fedi clout" to rile people up against the admin is..... I don't know. ugly.
@arbutus I don't feel like typing this all out again, but - yep, nuance is a thing:
@[email protected] Oh the situation is very yikes, no doubt. Can definitely see people going, oh well, today is as good a day as any to look for a new instance! But there is 1000% a way (multiple, actually) to deal with this that isn't: immediately resorting to ad hominems, dragging an entire race into this (!? lmao), and presenting the situation as if he was already in handcuffs, convicted in a court of law. And what some of these folks are doing definitely ain't that.
@robyn i was surprised by the volume of immediate personal stuff that was lobbed. Also, the, uh, legal situation is often not being described accurately (he hasn’t been arrested or even charged with criminal activity).
Personally, I’m neutral on Chad: I’ve had no bad experiences but I can’t say I have cherished or special feelings toward those interactions either.
The situation is yikes though. I totally get the people scrambling to leave mstdn.ca given the situation.
@linux_mclinuxface Oh the situation is very yikes, no doubt. Can definitely see people going, oh well, today is as good a day as any to look for a new instance!
But there is 1000% a way (multiple, actually) to deal with this that isn't: immediately resorting to ad hominems, dragging an entire race into this (!? lmao), and presenting the situation as if he was already in handcuffs, convicted in a court of law.
And what some of these folks are doing definitely ain't that.
The ones that get me are the people ascribing malice to his bringing the servers off the cloud and onto owned physical hardware, as if that isn't what 90% of the Fedi is constantly screaming that we should all be doing.
Like, y'all know he doesn't have to do any of that, right? He could just wash his hands of the whole thing any time, but has put a lot of himself into keeping it going.
I'm not saying he hasn't done problematic things and I'm not taking any sides around these allegations, but Jesus Christ some people just champ at the bit for any opportunity to dogpile.
@Daveography @robyn well, IMHO, a service that size shouldn’t be humming along in a residential basement. Too many risks, too many sacrifices. It should be in a facility on owned hardware if you want to maximize control and minimize risk.
However I don’t think this decision involved steepling fingers.
@megmac @linux_mclinuxface @robyn
Was just thinking about that aspect, too.
@enobacon Same. I know some folks have a different approach, blocking early & often 😄
I'm not like that, but there are some lines that, if people cross them, I do not ever need to see them in my timeline again & would prefer they don't see any of my content either. And that was the case for a bunch of the really vile "conversations" I came across earlier today.
@robyn There is certainly a subset of people on the fediverse who assume malice when it's just a bumbling but well-meaning nerd operating outside of their depth, slightly clueless about their privileged perspective. Eugen Rochko (Mastodon) and Dan Sup(?, Pixelfed guy) also both get a lot of vitriol.
And that is not to downplay the harms that come when the people who build & run social networks are a little clueless about the risks other people face from harassment (or law enforcement). They do get things wrong, often.
But these aren't fucking billionaires getting rich selling your data to political manipulation advertisers. They're dudes trying to share something that worked for them & their friends, and they are doing it in a context where there is lots of potential to build competing services that address the problems.
Call out the problems, yes. Educate other users on why things should be done differently, definitely. But don't act like every mistake is proof that someone is a shit human being.
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