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From what I could gather, he (it's okay to assume pronouns from 'Nathan', I hope) intentionally created it as "a Mastodon server friendly towards anti-fascists,

From what I could gather, he (it's okay to assume pronouns from 'Nathan', I hope) intentionally created it as "a Mastodon server friendly towards anti-fascists, members of the LGBTQ+ community, hackers, and the like", which includes them. I do think he agrees, which is why he's shutting down the server. If a bunch of people he didn't consider part of the community (e.g. rightwingers, or "trans-exclusionary radical feminists") were doing stuff that put the server at risk of being defederated, I'm sure he would've simply banned them (and would've done so much earlier, because he doesn't care for them). That's the tricky part, if you ban people that are considered part of your community albeit 'difficult', you'll quickly lose support of the less extreme members, because you're banning people who aren't that far away from them. It affects all communities where the vast majority of members are very similar in their core values and beliefs, and those are self-reinforcing by keeping/driving out people that are too different from them. In this specific case it wouldn't have been an issue at all if there hadn't been other servers being involved. Basically everyone on this server agrees that Harry Potter is Mein Kampf (slightly exaggerated), they would've all said that they hate the game and how JK Rowling is genociding trans kids and would've mocked the normies that don't get it, but without interacting with those normies (who are on different servers) there wouldn't have been a problem.

Lammy 4y ago
> From what I could gather I found a summary thread from @jeanburgess@mastodon.lol which broadly agrees with this: https://mastodon.lol/@jeanburgess/109837309981257160 https://mastodon.lol/@jeanburgess/109837309981257160 (https://archive.ph/GZtld https://archive.ph/GZtld) Copying/pasting below for when the instance is gone and the link is unreadable. Sorry for huge. ============================ “So my [@jeanburgess] rough summary of what has gone on at mastodon.lol: 1. The instance dates back to 'early Mastodon', started by a guy known only as Nathan to create an inclusive space for queer and trans folks away from the Twitter cesspit. 2. it has always been a one-man band, with very hardline mod & #fediblock rules against Nazis, TERFs, sexual exploitation, etc., but permissive in terms of (CWed) NSFW content, is now quite popular with all kinds of geeky queers, trans & stans. And generally lovely! 3. for several months there have been tensions and politics around content moderation, as well as clear signs of admin overload and burnout, not helped by said 'one-man band' approach. But lots of good support, patreon $ etc etc and it stayed up despite huge influx of new users. 4. Fast forward to...like, yesterday? as I understand it some ppl wanted anyone posting +vely re new JKR franchise game to get booted out? There was conflict, admin felt harassed, I think it was the last straw... 5. and @nathan announced the instance will be closing in May - and no way is it being handed over to new "owners" (citing privacy concerns wrt the database of users). 6. more conflict ensued, with some posts getting pretty nasty, including going very close to calling the admin a Nazi sympathiser (!! not cool), In turn he instructed some such people to "kill [themselves]" (!! very not cool). The latest post says we "won't be hearing from him again". I'm obviously very concerned for his wellbeing. n/n, lost count sorry, The End for now. Total and quite sudden meltdown, basically. ((and hey, maybe governance, while not punk, is important actually))”
- bbbunic 4y ago
  [flagged]
pas 4y ago
Hm. It's definitely a tricky situation, mostly because it has a very strange new kind of social dynamics. Should the admin somehow moderate those on the server who cause some problems on other servers? Well, socially the answer is yes, because we're all in this together, etc. But like you said, it's likely a community that doesn't want to moderate itself in these topics. The cited "terminally online" messages are very much the smoking gun for this argument, but ... where's the actual abuse that happens on other/various servers? That's where I would draw the line. If someone says very hurtful things and use the same domain as me, I think it makes sense to try to ask them to reconsider, and if there's no positive change, then act.

Lammy 4y ago

> From what I could gather I found a summary thread from @jeanburgess@mastodon.lol which broadly agrees with this: https://mastodon.lol/@jeanburgess/109837309981257160 https://mastodon.lol/@jeanburgess/109837309981257160 (https://archive.ph/GZtld https://archive.ph/GZtld) Copying/pasting below for when the instance is gone and the link is unreadable. Sorry for huge. ============================ “So my [@jeanburgess] rough summary of what has gone on at mastodon.lol: 1. The instance dates back to 'early Mastodon', started by a guy known only as Nathan to create an inclusive space for queer and trans folks away from the Twitter cesspit. 2. it has always been a one-man band, with very hardline mod & #fediblock rules against Nazis, TERFs, sexual exploitation, etc., but permissive in terms of (CWed) NSFW content, is now quite popular with all kinds of geeky queers, trans & stans. And generally lovely! 3. for several months there have been tensions and politics around content moderation, as well as clear signs of admin overload and burnout, not helped by said 'one-man band' approach. But lots of good support, patreon $ etc etc and it stayed up despite huge influx of new users. 4. Fast forward to...like, yesterday? as I understand it some ppl wanted anyone posting +vely re new JKR franchise game to get booted out? There was conflict, admin felt harassed, I think it was the last straw... 5. and @nathan announced the instance will be closing in May - and no way is it being handed over to new "owners" (citing privacy concerns wrt the database of users). 6. more conflict ensued, with some posts getting pretty nasty, including going very close to calling the admin a Nazi sympathiser (!! not cool), In turn he instructed some such people to "kill [themselves]" (!! very not cool). The latest post says we "won't be hearing from him again". I'm obviously very concerned for his wellbeing. n/n, lost count sorry, The End for now. Total and quite sudden meltdown, basically. ((and hey, maybe governance, while not punk, is important actually))”

bbbunic 4y ago
[flagged]

pas 4y ago

Hm. It's definitely a tricky situation, mostly because it has a very strange new kind of social dynamics. Should the admin somehow moderate those on the server who cause some problems on other servers? Well, socially the answer is yes, because we're all in this together, etc. But like you said, it's likely a community that doesn't want to moderate itself in these topics. The cited "terminally online" messages are very much the smoking gun for this argument, but ... where's the actual abuse that happens on other/various servers? That's where I would draw the line. If someone says very hurtful things and use the same domain as me, I think it makes sense to try to ask them to reconsider, and if there's no positive change, then act.