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>can Mastodon (the real one) nodes protect themselves against "compromised" ones? Yes, you can always defederate from other instances if you want. In fact, a l

>can Mastodon (the real one) nodes protect themselves against "compromised" ones? Yes, you can always defederate from other instances if you want. In fact, a lot of fediverse instances do just that to protect their hugboxes from the rest of us who actually value our ability to communicate with each other. And there are certainly a number of instances that defederate from others on technical grounds rather than social ones.

eddieroger 4y ago
> hugboxes I'm sure there's a nicer way of saying that. I've worried that I would end up in an echo chamber of my own on there, but saying things like "hugbox" are unnecessarily rude to people who have tended to prefer isolation because of the effect the world has on them. We can't choose how others react to content, but we shouldn't chastise them for wanting to protect themselves from harm, even if we don't agree with the definition of harm.
- mcv 4y ago
  I think hugboxes sound nice. It took me a moment to realise it was meant pejoratively. I guess the most famous "hugbox" in that sense, is Truth Social. In any case, instances full of trolls, spammers and nazis also tend to get blocked by others who prefer to communicate normally. Blocking serves a useful function. If FAANG servers show up, I'm sure some would block them out of principle. Others once they start breaking the protocol.
  - UncleMeat 4y ago
    > I guess the most famous "hugbox" in that sense, is Truth Social. It isn't. "Hugbox" is used pejoratively specifically to attack people with perceived left wing beliefs and associations. The idea is that people who aren't interested in seeing a ton of transphobic content or whatever are too "soft" to expose themselves to "real conversation." "Echo chamber" is more neutral in orientation, though still carries a negative connotation. "Hugbox" is specifically slanted.
    - coldacid 4y ago
      Hugboxes go both ways. mstdn.social is as much a hugbox for the left as Gab and Truth Social are hugboxes for the right. They're all anathema to free speech.
    - mcv 4y ago
      Even so, Truth Social is the most notable Mastodon instance that blocks everybody else, and from what I've heard, also quite aggressively kicks out people with differing opinions. It's quite explicitly an echo chamber that shields them from opinions they disagree with. As for not wanting to see transphobic content, I think that's entirely a reasonable position. People shouldn't tolerate abuse. Abuse != "real conversation".
      - UncleMeat 4y ago
        I agree with you that not wanting to see transphobic content is a reasonable position. And yet, I've had a number of people tell me that I'm against free speech for this belief. Heck, I've got a nonbinary friend who teaches at a local university and TPUSA kids all take their class specifically so they can harass my friend with bigoted speech and then whine about their free speech being under attack if anything is done about it. People are weird.
        mcv 4y ago
        Yeah, abuse is not speech. There's a difference between voicing your opinion and harassing someone. What's more, harassing someone is often done with the intent to silence them. And even if it's not the intent, it's often the result. Harassers are not defending free speech, they're attacking it. And even apart from that, I think everybody has a right to choose who they associate with, and that does not have to include harassers. That's more relevant to social media and less to teaching classes of course, which do need to be open to everybody. But if you're choosing to follow a class with the specific purpose to harass someone, there's something deeply wrong with you.

eddieroger 4y ago

> hugboxes I'm sure there's a nicer way of saying that. I've worried that I would end up in an echo chamber of my own on there, but saying things like "hugbox" are unnecessarily rude to people who have tended to prefer isolation because of the effect the world has on them. We can't choose how others react to content, but we shouldn't chastise them for wanting to protect themselves from harm, even if we don't agree with the definition of harm.

mcv 4y ago
I think hugboxes sound nice. It took me a moment to realise it was meant pejoratively. I guess the most famous "hugbox" in that sense, is Truth Social. In any case, instances full of trolls, spammers and nazis also tend to get blocked by others who prefer to communicate normally. Blocking serves a useful function. If FAANG servers show up, I'm sure some would block them out of principle. Others once they start breaking the protocol.
- UncleMeat 4y ago
  > I guess the most famous "hugbox" in that sense, is Truth Social. It isn't. "Hugbox" is used pejoratively specifically to attack people with perceived left wing beliefs and associations. The idea is that people who aren't interested in seeing a ton of transphobic content or whatever are too "soft" to expose themselves to "real conversation." "Echo chamber" is more neutral in orientation, though still carries a negative connotation. "Hugbox" is specifically slanted.
  - coldacid 4y ago
    Hugboxes go both ways. mstdn.social is as much a hugbox for the left as Gab and Truth Social are hugboxes for the right. They're all anathema to free speech.
  - mcv 4y ago
    Even so, Truth Social is the most notable Mastodon instance that blocks everybody else, and from what I've heard, also quite aggressively kicks out people with differing opinions. It's quite explicitly an echo chamber that shields them from opinions they disagree with. As for not wanting to see transphobic content, I think that's entirely a reasonable position. People shouldn't tolerate abuse. Abuse != "real conversation".
    - UncleMeat 4y ago
      I agree with you that not wanting to see transphobic content is a reasonable position. And yet, I've had a number of people tell me that I'm against free speech for this belief. Heck, I've got a nonbinary friend who teaches at a local university and TPUSA kids all take their class specifically so they can harass my friend with bigoted speech and then whine about their free speech being under attack if anything is done about it. People are weird.
      - mcv 4y ago
        Yeah, abuse is not speech. There's a difference between voicing your opinion and harassing someone. What's more, harassing someone is often done with the intent to silence them. And even if it's not the intent, it's often the result. Harassers are not defending free speech, they're attacking it. And even apart from that, I think everybody has a right to choose who they associate with, and that does not have to include harassers. That's more relevant to social media and less to teaching classes of course, which do need to be open to everybody. But if you're choosing to follow a class with the specific purpose to harass someone, there's something deeply wrong with you.