Moderation.
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The barriers to entry on the Fediverse are already really high for many people. For me, being able to join a server with open registration made a big difference at the time.
@markwyner Thank you so much for the work you do!
@vakleanda facts. That’s the argument for open registrations. And thank you for your kind words.
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Hey @markwyner! Thank you for dealing with that asshole quickly, and sorry for any shade you got when I called out mas.to (and other big, open reg instances) in my post.
I know y'all are doing your best
️🩹 and I'm sure you get a similar percentage of bad actors trying to register as we do, but with a higher volume of registrations.I was irritated that I'd been targeted by yet another blatantly horrible troll account (it happens regularly), so I made a pretty blunt post.
I should have specifically said *not* to be rude to any mods in the post (like I usually do when a post might incite actions by my followers).
@alice thank you, Alice. I really appreciate that you took the time to say this. I respect and appreciate you for the human being you are and for everything you do for fedi.
I’ve been targeted since I posted about this. Some people have sent me some really nasty shit (some anti-Semitic). It sucks. And it’s ironic given the context. I just wish people would stop demonizing us.
Anyway, thank you. Your kindness is a gift. 🫶
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@markwyner Honestly, I looked at your instance location and time zone and figured you would all be fast asleep.
I felt sorry for how many reports you were going to wake up to.Thank you. But our team actually spans multiple time zones. So we can cover quite a bit over a 24 hour period.
That isn’t exhaustive, though, because moderation isn’t our full-time job. We’re volunteers who do what we can when we can. But that time-zone span sure helps.
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@welshpixie @markwyner To clarify, it's the hyperbole that I think is unhelpful. Throwing "nazi bar" accusations at an instance because it took their mods, what - an hour or two? - to suspend an asshole account is unfair. Also I suspect that Mark takes user safety very seriously, and it would be insulting to suggest otherwise.
Instead it would be more helpful to spread the word that those in marginalised/high-risk groups may be better served at a smaller, more curated (non-open reg) instance.
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@markwyner Just to balance all the "wahh you should be closed" comments (with no understanding or experience of why that might not be practical/sensible at your scale) - I'd just like to add my thanks, to you and the team.
I for one deeply appreciate all the hard work y'all put in. Please keep punching nazis.
Thank you.
Thank you. Truly. I’ve had lots of dirt thrown at me since I posted this. Some of it ironically discriminatory. Some of it misplaced venom. But I’ve had MORE love floating in my direction. That’s telling.
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Thank you. No, THANK YOU!
In the fediverse, encountering bigots etc doesn't have the same effect on me as doing so on Facebook etc did -- in corporate sites it was part of the rising background radiation and reporting them was hit and miss at best.
I'm the fedi, I KNOW AND SEE them be dealt with. I can see and hear -- eg this, from you now -- that it is dealt with. And same day or next generally. So instead of feeling like I'll soon be drowning in shit, were all involved in the management of trouble. So my reporting a post etc to an admin is again, peer to peer.
Fundamental relationships have been changed in fediverse methodology.
@tomjennings thank you. Truly. And, yes, that’s the beautiful thing. We’re all on the same side, fighting the same battle.
The major difference with Mastodon is that moderators actually moderate. There’s no hidden agenda of harboring horrible people. No CEOs welcoming fascists and dictators to their platform.
Yes, there are rogue instances. But by and large Mastodon is a community of ethical folks.
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@markwyner can't there be a cooldown so new users only can post only once per day.
@gunstick I know of no feature or tool to do this. But it has been suggested by a number of people. Perhaps Mastodon has something like this cooking.
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@matildalove Calling people “dipshit” for trying to achieve a goal *you share*, but in a way that you don't believe strikes the perfect compromise, surely seems like an excellent way of spreading positivity and convincing people. /s
Thanks, @markwyner, for your unpaid labor of love!
@yProd 🫶
I can feel the love from y’all. Thank you.
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@markwyner thank you to you and yours for the efforts you make trying to keep the spirit of what the web should be alive.
If it weren't for you guys we'd be crushed by the big tech shit.
Keep on rocking my friend!
@Fooker beautiful. Thank you so much. 🫶
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I appreciate you trying to be transparent about the process @luciledt @markwyner
I wonder if part of the ‘massive numbers or registrations’ is because it is open though? You mentioned that you temporarily close it from time to time. Does that mean you already have good stats on how this status alters the incoming registration rate?
We close them when there’s an influx of bad people. Sometimes they come in waves.
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@alice thank you, Alice. I really appreciate that you took the time to say this. I respect and appreciate you for the human being you are and for everything you do for fedi.
I’ve been targeted since I posted about this. Some people have sent me some really nasty shit (some anti-Semitic). It sucks. And it’s ironic given the context. I just wish people would stop demonizing us.
Anyway, thank you. Your kindness is a gift. 🫶
@markwyner fuck, I wish folx would take a moment to think about who and what they're mad at before taking action. I always try to be really careful with my wording and calls to action, specifically so that my well-intentioned, but often overly excited followers, don't rush in and mob someone.
If you want to send me private screenshots of any abuse you received, I can check if they're someone I know and have a little chat about apologizing for that. If not, please accept my apology for their actions. I should have explicitly said to be kind and not to flood the your server with reports for an account that had already been reported.
I appreciate you too 🫶
And I hope the rest of your week is more pleasant️🩹 -
@coalburner3000 @markwyner @kenjen my credit union won't allow user name changes
@sarae @coalburner3000 @markwyner @kenjen I have ween the 8's in Asian casino spam account names
The new account name rules feature will have a choice of outright blocking or putting the account in a moderation queue to be approved manually.
Number codes can be tricky, so those better go into a queue rather than outright blocking them.
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@markwyner fuck, I wish folx would take a moment to think about who and what they're mad at before taking action. I always try to be really careful with my wording and calls to action, specifically so that my well-intentioned, but often overly excited followers, don't rush in and mob someone.
If you want to send me private screenshots of any abuse you received, I can check if they're someone I know and have a little chat about apologizing for that. If not, please accept my apology for their actions. I should have explicitly said to be kind and not to flood the your server with reports for an account that had already been reported.
I appreciate you too 🫶
And I hope the rest of your week is more pleasant️🩹@alice 🫶
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Thank you. Truly. I’ve had lots of dirt thrown at me since I posted this. Some of it ironically discriminatory. Some of it misplaced venom. But I’ve had MORE love floating in my direction. That’s telling.
@markwyner Yeaaah, in my experience - a lot of the dirt is just from people who _really_ haven't thought about the situation, even close to how much you will have.
Ie, it's just ignorance, not malice, explicitly.
But yeah, that ratio is the thing to pay attention to.
Ultimately, Dirty Harry was right - opinions are like assholes, everyone has one.
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One last note, then I’ll STFU about this…
Feedback is appreciated. IF it’s kind and helpful.
It hurts me that a nazi slipped through today. Like, it crushes my soul and makes me sad. And I want for us to prevent that.
So we’re going to use this as a learning moment to see what else we can do moving forward.
🧵 4/4
@markwyner Another moderator here. We used to have open registrations but moved to closed after one of the spam attack waves. But before we made that change we've been in a position similar to yours (but less extreme, since we're not nearly as large and it wasn't a Nazi).
So: Much love to you and the moderation team. I know how frustrating it is when something like this happens. If it's incredibly uncommon, I'd say you're doing a terrific job. I know I've heard only good things about mas.to.
(We saw two reports of Nazi accounts yesterday, and at least one of them was on a site other than yours.)
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@markwyner Another moderator here. We used to have open registrations but moved to closed after one of the spam attack waves. But before we made that change we've been in a position similar to yours (but less extreme, since we're not nearly as large and it wasn't a Nazi).
So: Much love to you and the moderation team. I know how frustrating it is when something like this happens. If it's incredibly uncommon, I'd say you're doing a terrific job. I know I've heard only good things about mas.to.
(We saw two reports of Nazi accounts yesterday, and at least one of them was on a site other than yours.)
