4 ms·

That is a gross misreading of how the Fediverse operates. Yes, there is some locality aspect to the instance you belong to, but in general the instance you log

That is a gross misreading of how the Fediverse operates. Yes, there is some locality aspect to the instance you belong to, but in general the instance you log on to has comparatively little impact on what other instances you can interact with. This isn't absolutely true. The characteristics of a given instance do have an impact on what technical features are available to you. There are a number of supported advanced features such as toot length, Markdown and LaTeX formula support, etc., which apply to only a subset of instances. My primary instance, toot.cat, is based on Glitch.soc, a Mastodon fork, which supports both long posts and Markdown, both of which I (ab)use frequently. Mathstodon, hosted by our own @ColinWright, is amongst those supporting LaTeX-based maths formulae, for some inexplicable reason.... Another is that the moderation practices your instance follows will be reflected in how remote instances interact with yours. Ineffective or beligerent moderators are a fast route to being limited or outright blocked (there is a continuum of potential restrictions, it's not all-or-nothing) by others. And similarly, your local instance might have its own set of criteria for determining what traffic or patterns are or are not permissible in remote instances, again resulting in varying levels of moderation on that basis. The "local community" element mostly shows up in the Local timeline. I ... hardly ever have that open, relying instead on a set of curated, priority-based Lists, or pinned Hashtags. Lists are based on specific profiles you choose to add, and I've found that the best organisational method is not topical but rather is based on interest level. So I keep a relatively small top-priority list, a somewhat broader secondary, and for profiles who are overly chatty, a third which I view rarely. I follow nearly 1,000 profiles, but effectively see perhaps 50--100. I have a small set of topical lists, largely press/journalists and admins, though I use those rarely. I'll also pin hashtags that I'm currently interested in, which might be for anything from a few minutes to months on end. You can also subscribe to hashtags as of recently, though I've yet to do this. There are other topical tools including <https://gup.pe https://gup.pe>, which function somewhat like a mailing list or forum. (There are newer variants which offer more powerful moderation options.) But in general, the instance you're on, so long as it's well-managed and well-behaved, has little impact on who else you can interact with. The misinformation, and disinformation, on this point becomes tedious with time.

BugsJustFindMe 3y ago
> That is a gross misreading of how the Fediverse operates. And then you go on to enumerate various important ways in which it is not a gross misread at all. "The characteristics of a given instance do have an impact on...": "...what technical features are available to you" "...how remote instances interact with yours" "...criteria for determining what traffic or patterns are or are not permissible in remote instances"
- dredmorbius 3y ago
  First, available technical features don't impact community aspects. It's something to be aware of, and influenced my own decision to join toot.cat, though the fact that the admin is someone I've known online for over a decade played a larger role. Secondly, the issues around moderation also matter, but: - Blocks are reasonably rare, but generally implemented with good reason. Well-administered instances which play well with others tend very much not to get blocked. - Increasingly, moderators are sharing blocklists through Fediblock (<https://fediverse.wiki/wiki/Fediblock https://fediverse.wiki/wiki/Fediblock>) or similar mechanisms. So if a block exists on one well-administered instance, it's likely to exist on numerous others. - Blocked instances typically have a small number of members, though there are a few exceptions. (Large Japanese instances on which Loli features predominantly is the principle exception of which I'm aware, or alt-right sites such as Gab and Truth Social.) - Instance moderation is on a continuum. "Limited" simply means there is limited federation, but that content won't appear on the Federated timeline, and that follow requests require an explicit approval. (I see this largely for profiles on infosec.exchange.) That's a relatively low bump. - Toot.cat does moderate instances extensively, with 476 moderated instances listed at <https://toot.cat/about https://toot.cat/about>. 138 of those are "Limited" (see above), 338 are suspended, meaning no federation occurs. The top 20 moderation rationales are: 50 Reason not available 18 Freeze peach instance 17 Transphobic admin 11 Admin using a wide variety of slurs 10 Admin using racist slurs 10 Covid denialism 8 Edgelord admin 8 Racist admin 6 Lamp instance(s) 5 Admin shitposting to #fediblock 5 Anti-moderation admin 5 Cryptocurrency-oriented instance 5 Harassment, slurs, fascism, etc. 5 Transphobic harassment from admin 4 Adming spamming #fediblock 4 Anti-LGBTQ+ admin 4 Conspiracy theory 4 Covid denialism and other disinfo 3 Admin using ableist slurs 3 Anti-moderation instance "Freeze peach" is often code for limited or no moderation, and is associated with pronounced and unaddressed abuse. "Lamp" is a specific abusive user, see: <https://mew.toot.cat/mw/Usr/lamp https://mew.toot.cat/mw/Usr/lamp>. I haven't (yet) checked to see how many profiles exist or are active (w/in the past month) on the blocked instances, but I strongly suspect that most are quite small, or no longer active. Just for grins, I'm looking at a random selection of 10 instances blocked by toot.cat ('sort -R | head -10' off the list of blocked instances): neckbbeard.xyz: Server not found hermitmountain.top: Timeout on Web access dobbs.town: Timeout on Web access ortodogs.info: Unable to connect touha.me: Single-user nnia.space: 282 active users (blocked as pedophile instance) gamers.exposed: Appears inactive? Video site? neenster.org: Unknown (users not reported). Principally Nina Paly's personal instance as I understand. cybercriminal.eu: Timeout on Web access mastinator.com: Read-only implementation, presumably no users. So that's 2 actives out of ten listings, with the largest having 282 members (small by Fediverse standards). Keep in mind that blocks are appealable, both by the remote instance and local users. And the threat of blocks is a strong incentive for both admins and users to execute and expect effective and socially-conscious moderation. Edgelords can play, but they'll play in a vastly reduced space.

BugsJustFindMe 3y ago

> That is a gross misreading of how the Fediverse operates. And then you go on to enumerate various important ways in which it is not a gross misread at all. "The characteristics of a given instance do have an impact on...": "...what technical features are available to you" "...how remote instances interact with yours" "...criteria for determining what traffic or patterns are or are not permissible in remote instances"

dredmorbius 3y ago
First, available technical features don't impact community aspects. It's something to be aware of, and influenced my own decision to join toot.cat, though the fact that the admin is someone I've known online for over a decade played a larger role. Secondly, the issues around moderation also matter, but: - Blocks are reasonably rare, but generally implemented with good reason. Well-administered instances which play well with others tend very much not to get blocked. - Increasingly, moderators are sharing blocklists through Fediblock (<https://fediverse.wiki/wiki/Fediblock https://fediverse.wiki/wiki/Fediblock>) or similar mechanisms. So if a block exists on one well-administered instance, it's likely to exist on numerous others. - Blocked instances typically have a small number of members, though there are a few exceptions. (Large Japanese instances on which Loli features predominantly is the principle exception of which I'm aware, or alt-right sites such as Gab and Truth Social.) - Instance moderation is on a continuum. "Limited" simply means there is limited federation, but that content won't appear on the Federated timeline, and that follow requests require an explicit approval. (I see this largely for profiles on infosec.exchange.) That's a relatively low bump. - Toot.cat does moderate instances extensively, with 476 moderated instances listed at <https://toot.cat/about https://toot.cat/about>. 138 of those are "Limited" (see above), 338 are suspended, meaning no federation occurs. The top 20 moderation rationales are: 50 Reason not available 18 Freeze peach instance 17 Transphobic admin 11 Admin using a wide variety of slurs 10 Admin using racist slurs 10 Covid denialism 8 Edgelord admin 8 Racist admin 6 Lamp instance(s) 5 Admin shitposting to #fediblock 5 Anti-moderation admin 5 Cryptocurrency-oriented instance 5 Harassment, slurs, fascism, etc. 5 Transphobic harassment from admin 4 Adming spamming #fediblock 4 Anti-LGBTQ+ admin 4 Conspiracy theory 4 Covid denialism and other disinfo 3 Admin using ableist slurs 3 Anti-moderation instance "Freeze peach" is often code for limited or no moderation, and is associated with pronounced and unaddressed abuse. "Lamp" is a specific abusive user, see: <https://mew.toot.cat/mw/Usr/lamp https://mew.toot.cat/mw/Usr/lamp>. I haven't (yet) checked to see how many profiles exist or are active (w/in the past month) on the blocked instances, but I strongly suspect that most are quite small, or no longer active. Just for grins, I'm looking at a random selection of 10 instances blocked by toot.cat ('sort -R | head -10' off the list of blocked instances): neckbbeard.xyz: Server not found hermitmountain.top: Timeout on Web access dobbs.town: Timeout on Web access ortodogs.info: Unable to connect touha.me: Single-user nnia.space: 282 active users (blocked as pedophile instance) gamers.exposed: Appears inactive? Video site? neenster.org: Unknown (users not reported). Principally Nina Paly's personal instance as I understand. cybercriminal.eu: Timeout on Web access mastinator.com: Read-only implementation, presumably no users. So that's 2 actives out of ten listings, with the largest having 282 members (small by Fediverse standards). Keep in mind that blocks are appealable, both by the remote instance and local users. And the threat of blocks is a strong incentive for both admins and users to execute and expect effective and socially-conscious moderation. Edgelords can play, but they'll play in a vastly reduced space.