𝓜𝓲𝓪

PieFed Flagship Instance Shadowbanning Instances from Discoverability & Other Questionable Updates

This morning while checking if Quokk.au’s new instance logo was federated out, I discovered that overnight we had been shadowbanned from the PieFed.Social Instance Chooser (This is a tool to help spread out users across the platform and help avoid funnelling users into the largest.)

Knowing that Rimu was happy to explain, I just asked for some clarification as we were visible on every other PieFed instance except his.

Apparently for ' obvious reasons ‘, of which I can only assume is our left leaning anarchist/pro-trans stance we were chosen not be advertised on the PieFed flagship instance and first point of contact for many potential new users. Seeing as a large portion of our new users found us via this method, it will have a tangible effect on a small instance such as ours.

This was a pretty sad sight to see, and reflects the sort of petty drama that is emanating from the PieFed project lately. It’s now the third such move to discredit and harm left leaning instances by PieFed’s lead developer. This also shows a trend towards autocratic unilateral decision-making on Piefed.social, of which is starting to be run as a personal fiefdom without consulting the team or users.

I must commend Lemmy.ml for remaining neutral and not letting its own political leanings influence join-lemmy.org, while simultaneously condemn PieFed.social for this immature move that is harmful to the health of the Fediverse.

Following this exchange, Rimu announced a new update to PieFed allowing for some rather concerning things.

  • Modlog: Reason for the action is only shown from trusted instances, so abusive mods won’t have an audience. Admins can still see the reason though. Which instances are trusted is set in the admin UI.

This feature means problematic users can now go undetected, and will harm moderators ability to view their past moderation history. For example PieFed.social runs a ‘trusted’ list of only 34 instances, meaning any mod action taken by any of the hundreds of instances outside of this will not show up. So for example if Quokk.au was to ban a user for transphobia (our most common ban), this will not be reflected for piefed.social users potentially leading towards more hate speech on the Fediverse.

  • Instance silencing similar to Mastodon. A silenced instance is not defederated from but their posts do not show in the Popular or All feeds and their communities are not shown in Starter packs aka Topics. Their communities can still be found in the communities list and joined in the normal way. Once joined, posts in there show up in the subscribed feed as usual.

This is another way to shadowban instances and not ‘advertise’ them. Surely if an instance is problematic enough that a defederation would be in order rather than this reddit-like move.

Lemmy - Browse servers

Lemmy

May 10 at 6:20pmWeb
Show threadmeowmeow4d ago

Not directly related, but many different instances are very buddy-buddy and share user info. Lemmy.world and sh.itjust.works and discuss.social for example all share information like user emails, etc. this leads to shadowbans, defedding, and all sorts of privacy offenses.

Likely quokk is cause up in that.

This is why it’s important all users use a VPN and unique burner/alias emails.

Show thread𝓜𝓲𝓪3d ago
This is something different. The PieFed dev is simply being a massive jerk lately and declaring war on the left.
Show threadmeowmeow3d ago

Well, the reason those did this was because my content is too… far left. Antifa, even. And World, SJW, and DS are all pretty conservative these days.

That anti-left mentality is pretty wide spread in the tech industry—surprisingly. If the PieFed dev is in that circle, it wouldn’t surprise me.

Show threaddavel3d ago

That anti-left mentality is pretty wide spread in the tech industry—surprisingly.

Not surprising. The dot-com boom was mostly libertarian techbros vying for their stock options to go stratospheric, and many in the industry today are still temporarily embarrassed billionaires. The industry’s origins were in the US military-industrial complex. There’s still a visible Western male chauvinist, imperialist through-line.

The Californian Ideology | Mute

'Not to lie about the future is impossible and one can lie about it at will' - Naum Gabo There is an emerging global orthodoxy concerning the relation between society, technology and politics. We have called this orthodoxy `the Californian Ideology' in

Show threadthatsnomayo3d ago
Well, this is going to keep happening as long as people treat Stallman’s witticisms like a dang bible
Show threadRedWizard [he/him]2d ago

“Always has been”
Show threadeldavi3d ago

that explains why my account got banned before i had a chance to use it.

atleast it ended up working out in my favor: i had intended to switch away from lemmy.word and the ban led me to lemmy.ml; where my social media diet hot a million times better and it made me stop doom-scrolling all the time.

Show threadmeowmeow3d ago
Well, on ML they just ban you from ML when you don’t agree with the hive ;)
Show threadeldavi3d ago
They ban you when you make it clear that you’re unwilling to learn how to deprogram yourself.
Show threadParlimentOfDoom3d ago
Lol, no. They ban anyone not willing to buy the building propaganda they spew
Show threadeldavi3d ago
history’s full of empires that swore they were the only ones without propaganda; you’re just repeating their script wo knowing it.
Show threadParlimentOfDoom3d ago

I never said anything about anyone else’s propoganda.

It’s ironic you’re saying this while Whatabouting away criticism of the propoganda you’re covering for.

And you’ll plug your ears and cheer when I get banned for saying this here.

Show threadeldavi3d ago

I never cheer when they get banned; I feel like each one would be me if life hadn’t kicked my ass hard enough to force me to learn that western/capitalist contradictions are everywhere.

The fact of the matter is that the western hegemon – our hegemon – has been legally forced to admit that they fabricated their propaganda in writing thanks to the freedom of information act since the 1980’s yet westerners – Americans in particular – cling that that proganda nonetheless. (And the fact that you can learn of this propaganda just as easily as reading the Epstein files is icing on this cake).

The worst part is that they use the propaganda to defend their world view wo ever knowing it.

Show threadmeowmeow3d ago
Sorry bud, China is a capitalist country. Just like all the rest. ✌️
Show threadeldavi3d ago
Funny how ‘just like all the rest’ still manages to shrink billionaires instead of worshiping them or letting them control the gov’t; but sure, totally the same. Lol
Show threadmeowmeow3d ago
Yawn. The billionaires control all the governments. Keep on showing us how you simp for the billionaires.
Show threadeldavi3d ago
project harder. i just pointed out one system actually restrains the rich — you’re the one who needs all governments to look identical so you don’t have to update your tired, lazy worldview. now go tuck your billionaire boogeyman back into bed and maybe read a book.
Show threadmeowmeow3d ago
You just simped for the billionaires while trying to get out of being accused of simping for billionaires.
Show threadeldavi3d ago
reading comprehension isn’t your strong suit, is it? pointing out that one system actually curbs billionaires isn’t simping — it’s just a fact you can’t handle because your whole personality is ‘all governments bad, me smart.’ you’re not woke, you’re just lazy. now run along and practice arguing with someone who confuses cynicism for intelligence.
Show threadmeowmeow3d ago

Ahh yes, right on queue with the personal insults. How many alts do you have because everyone I talk to from ML sounds identical. 🤖

Thanks for giving up. Have a great one.

Show threadeldavi3d ago
That’s cute — you throw the first punch, play victim when someone hits back, then pretend you’ve won because insults hurt your feelings. that’s not an argument, that’s a temper tantrum with a keyboard. and yeah, we sound identical because we actually read theory instead of cosplaying as a contrarian on reddit. now go clutch your pearls somewhere else — you started this, i just finished it.
Show threadmeowmeow3d ago
Bye bye sweetie. 🤡🤣
Show threadeldavi3d ago
right on cue with the emojis — the official surrender flag of someone who ran out of points three replies ago. run along now, sweetie. try not to trip over your own smugness on the way out.
Show threadCowbee [he/they]3d ago
No, the PRC is a socialist country, same as Cuba, Vietnam, the DPRK, Laos, and former USSR. The working classes control the state since 1949, and public ownership is the principal aspect of the economy. I have yet to see a compelling, rational argument for why this should be considered “capitalist” that doesn’t treat socialism like a fantasy in test-tube conditions, rather than a real mode of production and distribution.
Show threadteslekova2d ago

Evidence? I see this a lot, but nobody provides evidence that the market is in control of China. There are billionaires and companies there, yes, but they seem to be kept in line by the PRC.

I mean, they execute corrupt bankers there. Would a capitalist country allow that? They do things for the long-term future, not the short-term profit of companies. Are you asserting that they are long-term capitalists?

Show threadCowbee [he/they]1d ago

Exactly, if China was capitalist why does it seem to be the one capitalist country capable of long-term planning and avoiding the same pitfalls every other capitalist country runs into? If China is capitalist, then that fundamentally means capitalism can work.

Of course, the reason for all of this is that China isn’t capitalist, it’s a socialist market economy, and as such isn’t constrained to the same systemic failures intrinsic to capitalism.

Show threadthatsnomayo3d ago
I think you’re mistaking “don’t agree” with an ideological refusal to engage with criticism. You’re either engaging in the discussion or not. Maybe you tell yourself “it’s just time to log off”, but everyone can see your evasiveness.
Show threadteslekova2d ago
They haven’t banned me so far. Maybe they don’t actually like Russia, which is a terrible fucking country, as others keep claiming. Maybe they have read a history book.
Show threadmeowmeow2d ago

Go on ML and say “Russia is the baddie for invading Ukraine” and watch the fur fly.

They don’t actually care about Russia or China. They’re all teenagers from America and they just want to crush the US.

How can a person be pro-Palestine and anti-Ukraine?!?! It’s pro-little guy. Always. Fuck the big 3.

Show threaddavel2d ago

They’re all teenagers from America

You have no idea what you’re talking about. Many of those admins are not from the US, and none are teenagers by any stretch. I’m older than Danny Glover was when he said he was too old for this shit.

How can a person be pro-Palestine and anti-Ukraine?!?!

We’ve explained how, with receipts, hundreds of times. Previously.

Roger Murtaugh - Wikipedia

Show threadCowbee [he/they]1d ago

I’m curious if you think Donetsk and Luhansk are in the wrong for requesting the Russian Federation to support them against Kiev in the Ukrainian civil war, sparked in 2014 after the Banderites took power. This is ultimately the reason Russia joined the civil war, so it’s a question of the rights of self-determination for those in the Donbass.

As for saying we’re all Statesian teenagers, this is both false and impossible to prove on your own end. No idea why you think this is some sort of coherent point.

As for not seeing how one can be pro-Palestine and pro-Donetsk and Luhansk, I don’t see how someone can be both pro-Palestine and pro-Ukraine when Ukraine is one of Israel’s strongest allies, has helped supply the genocide in Palestine, and serves the same role as Israel, as a forward operating base for western imperialists to threaten surrounding territories. Israel and Ukraine are firm allies and are both tools of imperialism.

Show threadclean_anion3d ago

All that data sharing and sh.itjust.works mods and admins still haven’t removed the links to CSAM websites that I reported and messaged them about several months ago. They aren’t directly hosting CSAM, but the fact that they ignored the requests to take down the links in question is not particularly pleasing. (not sharing details publicly for obvious reasons)

Edit (1778443722): I messaged them on Matrix. The report was through the default reporting interface.

Show threadimaqtpie3d ago

You didn’t message me afaik.

@imaqtpie.communick.com

Also why does your edit have that number in parentheses?

Show threadthatsnomayo3d ago
Why did you steal the handle of a League of Legends streamer? Odd behavior. Just invent your own name. I invent like 30 a day. Practice.
Show threadimaqtpie2d ago

Because it’s clever and I like it.

Your handle sucks 😅. I could invent 30 mediocre usernames in a few minutes, it takes you all day?

Assuming you upvoted yourself, @mathemachristian is like a 3/10. So good work on that one I guess. Thatsnomayo is just abysmal though

Show threadthatsnomayo2d ago
I don’t see how it would be clever if you came up with it. Thank you for reinforcing the perception brainrot and narcissism are everywhere on these instances. You have no original thoughts.
Show threadmathemachristian[he]1d ago
The fuck did I do lol, wait until you come across imaqtpa2-t
Show threadDiva (she/her)1d ago
wait until they conclude that you’re all just my alts
Show threadInEnduringGrowStrong3d ago

SJW doesn’t ban email domains, IPs nor VPNs.

To my knowledge, we’ve alsp never shared specific details about users with dotworld or other instances for that matter.
I myself would take offense about leaking any of this info.

The only thing I can even think of is we might have shared something like this once or twice during bigger spam attacks:

this last wave of spammer were all made in the last hour and fit the following pattern “5 letters, 5 numbers @ sketchy domain dot com” without sharing actual user info.

Edit:
I don’t know about dotworld, but at least on our end, there’s only TheDude and me who even have access to see a user’s email address.
The only other times we’ve really even checked one was before 2FA & password reset worked properly.

We even have users who didn’t want to provide an email at all which we’ve verified manually through matrix.

Show threadmeowmeow3d ago

to my knowledge

Right. Are you an admin?

Show threadirelephant [he/him]3d ago
They are an admin. You can check if you go to their original profile on sjw
Show threadthatsnomayo3d ago
We’ve investigated ourselves, and this will shock you: we found no wrongdoing. “To my knowledge,” that’s adorable. The words of someone who fantasizes about doing well in court, but would be bent over.
Show threadirelephant [he/him]3d ago
LW and discuss.online are ran by the same team.
Show threadTiredTiger3d ago
I have no idea what other instances are like, but you can join lemmy.ml without even giving an email. Unless you’re allergic to communism, I’m really not seeing the benefit of choosing one of those instances, let alone something like PieFed, as your home base. No captchas or VPN blocks, either.
Show threadmeowmeow3d ago

I love communism. I condemn state capitalism and simping for existing governments who claim to be communist, yet allow billionaires.

So, that sort of eliminates Lemmy.ml as an option.

Show threadvagrancyand2d ago
You can just say you’ve never read any theory, you know.
Show threadmeowmeow2d ago

I can say I disagree with parts of some theories and how they have been implemented without getting dogpiled for not sharing the opinions of a hive mind.

Agreeing with any theory word for word is just saying you have no actual opinions, because no theory is perfect when put into practice.

…You know…

Show threadvagrancyand2d ago
Which parts, specifically, do you disagree with? And can your source the evidence that lead you to this from sources other than the National Endowment for Democracy?
Show threadmeowmeow2d ago
Evidence? Source? You act like theory is fact, and it’s not. Do you ever read something and think, I like a lot of this but not everything. Or do you just force yourself to accept everything you hear without considering your own personal feelings on the matter or other theories and opinions you heard?
Show threadCowbee [he/they]2d ago
Theory isn’t a “fact,” it’s a guide to action. Action affirms or denies theory and helps us write new theory. Theory isn’t just something in the political world, but in all manner of fields. Physics, for example, is the theory used as the basis for engineering. This doesn’t mean what we commonly understand to be true in physics isn’t subject to change, just that by applying physics in real life we better understand it and this can inform future decisions. Political theory is the same way.
Show threadCowbee [he/they]2d ago
Nobody is saying that you should commit book worship, but instead that you should engage with the hard work of theorists and those that have put theory to practice. Your argument sounds more like you just want to use scary words like “hive mind” to dismiss the fact that a lot of people agree with theory as it has been put to practice and refined over time as the two inform and reinforce each other.
Show threadCowbee [he/they]2d ago

I think we all hate state capitalism like in the Republic of Korea, Germany, and Singapore. Capitalist economies where private ownership is principal and capitalists control the state are ultimately highly exploitative, and nationalization in this context doesn’t advance socialism but capitalism. What Marxists do tend to support are existing socialist countries, like the PRC, Cuba, etc, where public ownership is principal and the working classes govern the state.

I think we all hate billionaires, just like we all hate poverty, underdevelopment, and encirclement. When socialist market economies have billionaires, it’s because they have private property, and they have private pproperty in secondary and non-critical industries as a concession to help foster development and alleviate poverty, with a working class state that prevents billionaires from having capital. If your choice is slower development but no billionaires vs more rapid development but having billionaires, from the perspective of the average worker the more rapid development has more of an immediate impact on their lives.

In other words, socialism is not the absence of private property or billionaires, it’s a transitional system between capitalism and communism, just like capitalism is a transition between feudalism and socialism. I’m not sure how one can claim to love communism while condemning every group building it right now, it sounds like you just like science fiction while hating science.

Show threadLefterShark3d ago
PieFed has been giving me the ick the last few weeks, it looks likes it’s heading in a bad direction.
Show threadeldavi3d ago
diet reddit
Show threadbirdwing3d ago

Yup, I considered PieFed due to its great features (especially the ability to migrate where your account was set, that’s a great one), but was uncertain due to their governance. Lemmy also has its issues (such as a certain dev), but still.

Had PieFed had a governance like that of Debian, I think it’d have worked out much smoother.

I wonder if someone could establish a fork off PieFed on Codeberg, and from the start having a decentralised governance, ensuring to close possible loopholes that could enable autocratic governance.

Show thread𝓜𝓲𝓪3d ago

What’s the Debian governance like?

I know of one fork in the works, not sure I’ve I’m allowed to share it just yet one.

Show threadbirdwing3d ago

You can find it here. In a nutshell, it’s decentrally organised. Developers have collective ownership and responsibility.

They also got their own social contract.

Debian Constitution

Show thread𝓜𝓲𝓪3d ago
Oh that is nice, I’ll look into that some more.
Show threadbirdwing1d ago

Important to look for though, would be to establish the community at start as for and by the people.

A left-focused community, by extension can be friendly to all that aren’t left - just not those that are assholes (far-right and its allies). And on those, I have two tangents.

On the Left

A tangent… but on marxism-leninism I admit I have my reserves, and I do not support a majority leadership by them. However, I do support them to the extent of dividing up the far-right. I’ve noticed that fascists often easily switch forth to supporting marxism-leninism. I sometimes have thought of constantly questioning fascists’ views directly by alts and bots, to eventually get them to understand ML views. If the horsehoe theory works, then it’s also possible to do a reverse fishhook; hoeing a fascist into MLism, then hooking them into anarchist communism.

On Marxism and Anarchism

Crucially, I think it is possible to have a society, with cooperation between marxists and anarchists, communists and socialists. All wish for a society of social ownership. All agree on a reduction of the state and corporatisation in the end, with equity for all. What we have in common, we must stress; what we differ on, we relax discussion about. If we wish to avoid a tyranny, it is necessary that all leftists cooperate against the face of fascism (whether red or brown) and capitalism; embrace communism, accept socialism,
cooperate with social democrats,
tell christian democrats and liberals,
criticise fascism when with non-fascists,
and no podium to fascists.
A state is understood as a centralised entity with a monopoly on violence, by which it exercises the capacity to repress labourers. All who aren’t straight up multimillionnaires, are by definition labourers, for they are forced to live to work, rather than to live and work. We can build this stateless, moneyless, classless, society from both ground up and the top. And that starts with ensuring that basic needs are met. Off-grid homes w/ beds, worker-owned co-op farms (for food and clothes), water supply, education. Mines (such as Opco) and factories must be worker-owned, which is a second step. We must establish our own communal hospitals, with our own supply of medicine. We exercise and train mutual defence. We best start within clumps of communities near each other, and spread out from there. Away with “right to work”; all for “right to strike”,
away with “freedom of religion”, all for “freedom from religion”
away with “right to bear arms”, all for “equal arms against tyranny”, away with “private property”, it’s “theft from the masses”!

Show threadeldavi3d ago
it read’s like congress’ super majority rule and it has an electoral system much like the american electoral system; no wonder why debian is such a conservative distro.