Post APRecz1KFxo65pIEoi by ifixcoinops@mastodon.social
(DIR) More posts by ifixcoinops@mastodon.social
(DIR) Post #APRecVLUaQ743gUv5M by ifixcoinops@mastodon.social
2022-11-09T04:36:45Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Shall I post a take about content moderation and federation and then immediately go to bed, what's the worst that could happen
(DIR) Post #APRecVyqE7aY1iuLQ0 by ifixcoinops@mastodon.social
2022-11-09T04:54:13Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Alright heck it yeah go on then
(DIR) Post #APRecWSGSj7lUyfqHQ by ifixcoinops@mastodon.social
2022-11-09T04:54:32Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
Seen a lotta posts about how to use CWs and such, haven't yet seen one about person-to-admin-to-server-level moderation/blocking but have seen some discussions where talking about that would clear up some confusion and worries so, here goes.You have more power here than you did on the other place, both as an individual and as part of a collective, because of how federation works.
(DIR) Post #APRecY5IP5wKYJwWky by ifixcoinops@mastodon.social
2022-11-09T04:54:44Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
You're probably aware by now that the Fediverse isn't one website, it's a whole bunch of websites that speak to each other through a common protocol, passing your posts around and processing replies and faves and boosts and all that jazz, and that's what we're talking about when we talk about federation. Each website is owned and operated by Some Random Community-Minded Internet Person. Not a company, just some rando like you, and this rando has final say on what they want on their server.
(DIR) Post #APRecZoLz3ZluM21cu by ifixcoinops@mastodon.social
2022-11-09T04:54:55Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
This internet rando - probably not rich, has a job just like you, normal everyday person you'd bump into in the pub - is paying for the computer their website lives on, and the electricity and bandwidth it uses. Someone's paying for you to post, paying for the disk space your account takes up, doing the work of moderation and systems administration. So first, it'd be a kindness to find out who your admin is and ask them politely if they'd like some money.
(DIR) Post #APRecbY7WNmNIaS5bM by ifixcoinops@mastodon.social
2022-11-09T04:55:04Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Second, you might well imagine if Jimmy Bigot turns up and posts hate on your admin's hard drive, they may well be quite miffed at paying actual money to enable Jimmy Bigot's Hate Hole. You see it as JB posting on a website, your admin thinks "He's posting that crap on MY MACHINE and I'm PAYING for it!" There's no advertising here. Jimmy Bigot doesn't make Server Admin any money. Jimmy Bigot COSTS Server Admin money, so if you report JB, you're more likely to have your report taken seriously.
(DIR) Post #APRecdMUmZfWv71plA by ifixcoinops@mastodon.social
2022-11-09T04:55:16Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
But what if Jimmy Bigot's not on the same server as you? Say you're on tootings.website and JB's on wankers.horse. Well, you can block Jimmy Bigot or, if you take a look at wankers.horse in general and Do Not Like What You See No Siree Bob, you can block the entirety of wankers.horse, but do be aware that wankers can just log out of wankers.horse and see of your account whatever any other internet user sees.
(DIR) Post #APRecfBE1RqGYjlrTE by ifixcoinops@mastodon.social
2022-11-09T04:55:25Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
The more conscientious thing would be to first report Jimmy Bigot to your server admin and, optionally, to the admin of wankers.horse, and THEN block accordingly. So now your admin's got your report, what next? They'll have a look, crinkle their snout, and in all likelihood block JB from interacting with _anyone on tootings.website._
(DIR) Post #APRech6grHP2XFfGgC by ifixcoinops@mastodon.social
2022-11-09T04:55:35Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
They might then have a closer look at the admin of JB's home server, wankers.horse. They might message them and say "Hey fellow admin, what's the deal with this Jimmy Bigot guy?" and get the reply "Oh ew thanks for the heads-up" and JB gets banned from wankers.horse and has to find a new website to post on.
(DIR) Post #APRecincZ9Kzmgl4Ea by ifixcoinops@mastodon.social
2022-11-09T04:55:47Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
But what if they get the reply "Oh yeah, we're a free speech server, we don't moderate anything," or even "Lol yeah he's hilarious get bent" - well, your admin's gonna DEFEDERATE from wankers.horse. That means nothing from tootings.website makes it to wankers.horse, and nothing from wankers.horse makes it to tootings.website. The whole site is cut off.
(DIR) Post #APReckol3tR42nJ0Hg by ifixcoinops@mastodon.social
2022-11-09T04:55:55Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Your admin might then post using the "fediblock" hashtag, to let other admins know that wankers.horse is bad news bears. Word spreads quick and before long the users of wankers.horse are all alone on their own sad little island, and without people to troll, wankers.horse shrivels up and withers into obscurity and dies the slow bad death.
(DIR) Post #APRecmXodr4VOpOV9c by ifixcoinops@mastodon.social
2022-11-09T04:56:05Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
So you see admins have a very real incentive to act quickly on reports, because if they do a crummy job of moderation then they end up less a connected part of a vibrant Fediverse and more just some dude's lonely website. This is why federation works, there's a social contract going on here.
(DIR) Post #APRecoWTHpBVXEmSKu by ifixcoinops@mastodon.social
2022-11-09T04:56:15Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
And we've been here before; Gab, the social media platform for nazis, runs Mastodon code, and so does Truth Social, and you'll never see a post from them on here. Every competent admin defederated from the bad places because they don't want that crap touching their computers - and further, the ones who didn't defederate got the side-eye from other admins too, enough so that the few still around are treated with suspicion and heightened scrutiny.
(DIR) Post #APRecrkPIT79XKK7yS by ifixcoinops@mastodon.social
2022-11-09T04:56:27Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
What if you've got a crummy admin who won't act on your reports? Well, you can withdraw your support, by deciding not to give them money anymore (tell them why). You can withdraw your attention and content, by moving your account to another server. You can even set up your own server, but that's outside the scope of this post, the point is you have power here that you didn't have on that other website ('cause what were you gonna go, pack up and go to the other twitter? wait a minute never mind)
(DIR) Post #APRectT6tkT0sGFLI8 by ifixcoinops@mastodon.social
2022-11-09T04:56:37Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
You can also use the fediblock hashtag as an individual. See a bad server full of wankers? Hashtag fediblock. The established convention here is to not use it for blocking individuals - even if they really need blocking this does tend to come across as petty drama, even when it really isn't, so do use the report functions for individual-level stuff so you get properly listened to.
(DIR) Post #APRecvaH25NxR3c5jc by ifixcoinops@mastodon.social
2022-11-09T04:56:45Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
The flipside of this is that Jimmy Bigot has power too; he can even set up his own server, nothing's stopping him. There are a lot of single-user servers out there. Does that mean they're suspicious just for being single-user servers? Not especially, because it costs a tenner at minimum to register a domain name and an hour's labour setting everything up, and burning it immediately by acting like a jackass for a few posts until you get defederated gets expensive quickly.
(DIR) Post #APRecxIcegSEktN1V2 by ifixcoinops@mastodon.social
2022-11-09T04:56:53Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
That's the long and short of why federation works way better than having one billionaire weirdo control everything. I mean obviously you already knew that, but I hope you've found the nuts and bolts helpful.
(DIR) Post #APRecz1KFxo65pIEoi by ifixcoinops@mastodon.social
2022-11-09T04:57:03Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Also it's been really fun watching the implications of federation and defederation slowly sink into the admin of journo.host until he ended up posting oh shit yeah, yeah we'll absolutely honour the existing culture around CW's, please don't defederate us, we really don't want to be just a website where you can only talk to other journalists.