4 ms·

This is a nice analogy for starters. It's inaccurate, but I think clarifying those differences is something that can happen later if explaining to a new user.

This is a nice analogy for starters. It's inaccurate, but I think clarifying those differences is something that can happen later if explaining to a new user. Fwiw main inaccuracy is: > A Mastodon server (often called an instance) is just a shared blog host. Kind of like putting your personal blog in a folder on a domain on shared hosting with some of your friends. This is technically true but in practice this kind of thing was never common for blogs outside of university servers, so imo doesn't make for a great analogy. It's also important not to fudge analogies like that because Mastodon's shared instances are different to a shared blog host in some interesting ways. Most interestingly: moderation. The moderation model of Mastodon instances is pretty fascinating in practice. While it resembles moderation on oldschool indie bulletin boards, or subreddits, the federation aspect makes it really weird. If Mastodon takes off in a major way (overall network at modern corp social network scale) I think we'll start to see really insightful patterns of network interconnectivity emerging as a result of instance-level federation limit/suspensions lists.

sureglymop 4y ago
I have been using mastodon for years and what I've observed is that most instances will basically ban/blacklist "free speech/hate speech" instances. I guess those servers start to federate amongst themselves or stay unfederated. Personally found it to be working well, i never saw content i didn't want to see.
- nathias 4y ago
  "come to Mastodon - you'll never see content you don't want to see"
- lucideer 4y ago
  That's been the case for a long time and it works well. Already that will introduce some slightly interesting shapes in the network graph as not all instances will have matching blocklists, even though the reasons for blocks right now are similar. It's also not a black and white action - instances can be blocked completely, or just limited (blocking files & attachments or post visibility without blocking user follows, etc.). However I'm curious to see as the network gets a lot larger whether that network graph shape gets a lot more complex as certain instances start blocking others for a broader variety of reasons. For example I've seen discussions of blocking sources news/journalistic content on an instance intended for friendly community chat. I think it'll be interesting to observe what bespoke & unique moderation policies emerge.
- IshKebab 4y ago
  The fact that you don't see bad content doesn't mean the moderation is good. You also need to check that good content isn't being filtered out.
  - lucideer 4y ago
    That's not really how this works - it's instance filtering, there isn't content analysis happening. If there's "good" content on the filtered instances it'll also be blocked indiscriminately - that's known & intended. The "solution" is to move instances (which is very well facilitated by the platform, including data portability).
    - debugnik 4y ago
      > The "solution" is to move instances (which is very well facilitated by the platform, including data portability). Can you move to an instance blocked by your current one, though?
      - lucideer 4y ago
        Good question. I don't know & haven't tried, but the fact the "blocks" are tiered/layered makes me think yes. Whether the ability to migrate is also tiered or is more absolute though I don't know for sure. It would still be workaround-able with a double-move (hasslesome as that would be it would still be much easier than e.g. a Twitter->Mastodon move), but it might not be needed.
- yarg 4y ago
  According to what definition of hate speech? (For context, I just got perma-banned from reddit for hate speech; I left a comment saying I wouldn't bother with your (non-default) pronouns unless I know you, or they're obvious.)
  - imwillofficial 4y ago
    Apparently that makes you a bigot now. There is no definition of hate speech. That’s why it’s such a powerful tool.
  - rocket_surgeron 4y ago
    >I left a comment saying I wouldn't bother with your (non-default) pronouns unless I know you, or they're obvious. No person has ever been banned from Reddit for this and anyone claiming this is a liar. A strong persecution fetish often accompanies bigotry.
    - yarg 4y ago
      I'm not lying. Since they've deleted the comment, I cannot actually post it here. I probably also said that if you're running with zi/zir or whatever the hell it is, I'm really just not going to fucking bother. The mods on that site are losing their fucking minds.
    - yarg 4y ago
      Also, you're breaching the hacker news guidelines: > Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
simonw 4y ago
I did consider extending that piece to talk about some classic shared blogs, such as Kuro5hin and MetaFilter and Artima - but I decided the piece had enough material already!

sureglymop 4y ago

I have been using mastodon for years and what I've observed is that most instances will basically ban/blacklist "free speech/hate speech" instances. I guess those servers start to federate amongst themselves or stay unfederated. Personally found it to be working well, i never saw content i didn't want to see.

nathias 4y ago
"come to Mastodon - you'll never see content you don't want to see"
lucideer 4y ago
That's been the case for a long time and it works well. Already that will introduce some slightly interesting shapes in the network graph as not all instances will have matching blocklists, even though the reasons for blocks right now are similar. It's also not a black and white action - instances can be blocked completely, or just limited (blocking files & attachments or post visibility without blocking user follows, etc.). However I'm curious to see as the network gets a lot larger whether that network graph shape gets a lot more complex as certain instances start blocking others for a broader variety of reasons. For example I've seen discussions of blocking sources news/journalistic content on an instance intended for friendly community chat. I think it'll be interesting to observe what bespoke & unique moderation policies emerge.
IshKebab 4y ago
The fact that you don't see bad content doesn't mean the moderation is good. You also need to check that good content isn't being filtered out.
- lucideer 4y ago
  That's not really how this works - it's instance filtering, there isn't content analysis happening. If there's "good" content on the filtered instances it'll also be blocked indiscriminately - that's known & intended. The "solution" is to move instances (which is very well facilitated by the platform, including data portability).
  - debugnik 4y ago
    > The "solution" is to move instances (which is very well facilitated by the platform, including data portability). Can you move to an instance blocked by your current one, though?
    - lucideer 4y ago
      Good question. I don't know & haven't tried, but the fact the "blocks" are tiered/layered makes me think yes. Whether the ability to migrate is also tiered or is more absolute though I don't know for sure. It would still be workaround-able with a double-move (hasslesome as that would be it would still be much easier than e.g. a Twitter->Mastodon move), but it might not be needed.
yarg 4y ago
According to what definition of hate speech? (For context, I just got perma-banned from reddit for hate speech; I left a comment saying I wouldn't bother with your (non-default) pronouns unless I know you, or they're obvious.)
- imwillofficial 4y ago
  Apparently that makes you a bigot now. There is no definition of hate speech. That’s why it’s such a powerful tool.
- rocket_surgeron 4y ago
  >I left a comment saying I wouldn't bother with your (non-default) pronouns unless I know you, or they're obvious. No person has ever been banned from Reddit for this and anyone claiming this is a liar. A strong persecution fetish often accompanies bigotry.
  - yarg 4y ago
    I'm not lying. Since they've deleted the comment, I cannot actually post it here. I probably also said that if you're running with zi/zir or whatever the hell it is, I'm really just not going to fucking bother. The mods on that site are losing their fucking minds.
  - yarg 4y ago
    Also, you're breaching the hacker news guidelines: > Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

simonw 4y ago

I did consider extending that piece to talk about some classic shared blogs, such as Kuro5hin and MetaFilter and Artima - but I decided the piece had enough material already!