Moderation.
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We’re a huge server. One of the biggest. So we get targeted. A lot.
For every nazi account you may see for a brief moment, you don’t see hundreds of others that we managed to catch before you saw it. We block some email domains and IPs when we can. We do tons of pre-emptive work behind the scenes.
We’re also volunteers. We have a team that spans many time zones. But that doesn’t mean we have someone on guard 24/7/365. Shit happens. It’s no reflection of the integrity of our team/server.
🧵 3/4
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
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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 why do you open registrations? Genuinely wondering
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@kenjen I can’t speak to what you saw. But I can say that we certainly wouldn’t allow anything nazi-related as a username, real name, avatar, poster, etc.
Unfortunately, we can’t block everything preemptively. Some stuff gets through. We only have the tools Mastodon makes available to us. We do our best with them. But people are sneaky and crafty.
It takes a village. We all have to work together.
@markwyner @kenjen Mastodon 4.5 will have username rules, so moderators will be able to ban some common strings for signup.
If course, people will learn to circumvent that, but it will at least keep away some of the trash.
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@markwyner why do you open registrations? Genuinely wondering
@luciledt it’s a tough call to be sure.
99% of the time everything works as intended. And because of the size of our server, we get massive numbers of registrations. Checking every single one of them would take more time than we have.
Our admin is an exceptional human being. He’s kind, ethical, and encouraging. He makes calls like this, but he respects the mod team’s input. And I respect his decision on this. Usually it’s not a problem.
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@kenjen I can’t speak to what you saw. But I can say that we certainly wouldn’t allow anything nazi-related as a username, real name, avatar, poster, etc.
Unfortunately, we can’t block everything preemptively. Some stuff gets through. We only have the tools Mastodon makes available to us. We do our best with them. But people are sneaky and crafty.
It takes a village. We all have to work together.
Is hybrid possible?
Like if somebody has "88" in their name it gets set on a watchlist or set to need approval on a usually open server.
Or x reports dropping from long term accounts to result in an account lock that can be reviewed.
I get that no automated solution will solve this problem and people misdirect their anger, so thanks a lot for your effort!
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@markwyner @kenjen Mastodon 4.5 will have username rules, so moderators will be able to ban some common strings for signup.
If course, people will learn to circumvent that, but it will at least keep away some of the trash.
Yeah, I have been waiting for that with great anticipation. Our mod team, which includes our admin, has been discussing it. In fact, our admin opened a ticket on the Mastodon repo about this, which is one of the catalysts for moving the idea forward.
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Moderation. It’s a roller coaster.
Today, a (literal) nazi opened an account and began harassing people. We received ~80 reports within minutes. That may be a record.
We suspended the account, of course. But not before a lot of people yelled at us. For the record, this is not preventable when registration is open. We can only react. So be nice.
My gratitude and love for the person behind this report. It made me chuckle. 🫶
🧵 1/3
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@GroupNebula563 the friendly and meaningful kind. Thank you.
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Moderation. It’s a roller coaster.
Today, a (literal) nazi opened an account and began harassing people. We received ~80 reports within minutes. That may be a record.
We suspended the account, of course. But not before a lot of people yelled at us. For the record, this is not preventable when registration is open. We can only react. So be nice.
My gratitude and love for the person behind this report. It made me chuckle. 🫶
🧵 1/3
@markwyner I'm not a language expert, but isn't the right term "neo-nazi"? As far I know the term nazi only used to describe those who were Nazis back then, while "todays Nazis" are referred to as Neo-Nazis, correct me if I'm wrong.
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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 I think I do appreciate this. As a moderator, it takes a lot of work and if you are all volunteers it is difficult. A lot of the good work a mod does does get unnoticed because it just happens in private like you say.
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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 so from what I am told. There are stock options to at the very least prevent the username from being registered.
https://pizza.enby.city/users/domo/statuses/115328690748595820
I get it won’t stop the content, but has that been implemented since?
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@markwyner I'm not a language expert, but isn't the right term "neo-nazi"? As far I know the term nazi only used to describe those who were Nazis back then, while "todays Nazis" are referred to as Neo-Nazis, correct me if I'm wrong.
@legendary_creeper @markwyner Well, we do not call socialists that are after the initial batch "neo-socialists"…
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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 I'm at a different instance, but anyways I'd like to say THANK YOU for your time & know-how in moderating in the "neighbourhood" and THANK YOU for nicely explaining it for non-techy people!
wishing you a lovely day! -
Moderation. It’s a roller coaster.
Today, a (literal) nazi opened an account and began harassing people. We received ~80 reports within minutes. That may be a record.
We suspended the account, of course. But not before a lot of people yelled at us. For the record, this is not preventable when registration is open. We can only react. So be nice.
My gratitude and love for the person behind this report. It made me chuckle. 🫶
🧵 1/3
@markwyner Seven posts before this on my home feed was someone calling out mas.to (and others) as a badly moderated. I just don't see how that sort of thing is in any way helpful.
Thanks for all you do, and please keep up the good fight.
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@GroupNebula563 the friendly and meaningful kind. Thank you.
@markwyner oh yeah, i was just linking to @alice's suggestion: have a means of appointing trusted community members as mods on big instances like yours. no ill will intended!
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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 We thank you, the volunteers, for your dedication and doing the right thing.
Something we rarely experienced on VC/billionaire owned platforms, that rather punish antifascists for calling out nazis than banning nazis. -
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 Hey, well done and thanks for all your hard work punching nazis.
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@markwyner I'm not a language expert, but isn't the right term "neo-nazi"? As far I know the term nazi only used to describe those who were Nazis back then, while "todays Nazis" are referred to as Neo-Nazis, correct me if I'm wrong.
@legendary_creeper @markwyner you're right, the Nazi party doesn't exist anymore, ergo there are no literal Nazis.
But do readers understand what type of person is being referred to when they are tagged incorrectly as "Nazi"? Yep. So it probably doesn't matter one jot.
Or perhaps you'd prefer to think of it as Nazi-the-actual-noun vs nazi-the-personality-disorder?
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@markwyner I'm not a language expert, but isn't the right term "neo-nazi"? As far I know the term nazi only used to describe those who were Nazis back then, while "todays Nazis" are referred to as Neo-Nazis, correct me if I'm wrong.
@legendary_creeper @markwyner it always seems like a diminutive to me - like it is saying they are nazi-light
People who wear swastikas are nazis IMO
In WW2 people were called nazis who were not party members - so it has always been a broader term
Todays Nazis may described as "neo-nazis" - but I think that is a type of Nazi not a different category.
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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
It fills my soul with goodness to see there is an active defense force springing into action when the nazis attack. Thank you!
