Ancestors

Toot

Written by Dave Alvarado on 2024-08-13 at 15:01

Hachyderm.io has its problems as an instance, but they published a GREAT explainer for moderation on Mastodon. It's part 1 of a series, but I found it particularly useful for describing the experience of BIPOC folx compared to white folx.

https://community.hachyderm.io/blog/2024/08/12/hachyderms-introduction-to-mastodon-moderation-part-1/

I want to share some sections from the document below, edited for length.

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Descendants

Written by Dave Alvarado on 2024-08-13 at 15:03

Some context: a common paradigm we see

Person A: YOU HAVE NO IDEA THE HARASSMENT I RECEIVE!

Person B: Oh no! Have you tried changing instances?

Person C: OMG is your instance not moderated?

Person D: I don’t see it? What are you even talking about?

Person E: Are you reporting these to your mods? People can’t fix what they don’t see!

Person F: Are you reporting these to other mods? People can’t fix what they don’t see!

https://community.hachyderm.io/blog/2024/08/12/hachyderms-introduction-to-mastodon-moderation-part-1/

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Written by Dave Alvarado on 2024-08-13 at 15:04

Limitations of “Oh no! Have you tried changing instances?”

• Did you know that when you migrate instances you lose your posting history?

-Did you know that migrating instances is not as simple as “create account on new instance, point old account to new account”?

• Did you know that changing instances does not necessarily address the root cause of the harassment? In other words, harassers may and will try to follow targets to new instances?

https://community.hachyderm.io/blog/2024/08/12/hachyderms-introduction-to-mastodon-moderation-part-1/

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Written by Dave Alvarado on 2024-08-13 at 15:06

Limitations of “OMG is your instance not moderated?”

• Did you consider that when someone files a report they’ve already experienced the harm being reported?

• Have you considered that some communities may have a higher risk of impact than others when it comes to moderation?

• Is the issue they’re experiencing systemic and omnipresent? If so, while moderation will help, it cannot stop what is happening by itself.

https://community.hachyderm.io/blog/2024/08/12/hachyderms-introduction-to-mastodon-moderation-part-1/

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Written by Dave Alvarado on 2024-08-13 at 15:09

Limitations of “I don’t see it?”

• Are you a marginalized person? If not, then you’re not a target of what Person A is experiencing.

• Did you know that depending on what your instance is or is not moderating on a server level influences what you see? If one or more sources that are targeting Person A are moderated on Person D’s server, then no one on Person D’s server will see those posts without logging out to see them.

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Written by Dave Alvarado on 2024-08-13 at 15:11

-Did you know that you can choose to limit who can see your reply to a specific post to “followers only”? Did you connect that this same feature can be used to harass so that the only people who can see the harassment are the harasser and the target?

[Dave's note: this is THE BIG ONE that harassers use. The only people who can see the post are the target and all their harasser buddies, who join in on the harassment]

https://community.hachyderm.io/blog/2024/08/12/hachyderms-introduction-to-mastodon-moderation-part-1/

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Written by Dave Alvarado on 2024-08-13 at 15:14

Limitations of “Are you reporting these to local or remote mods?”

• If a user needs to report their own harm, that’s additional harm experienced.

• If you see, for example, a slur do you, as in you personally the ally who Wants To Do Good, know if that instance will moderate that? Do you know if the moderators for that instance use reports as vectors of harassment, screenshotting their report queues for their followers?

https://community.hachyderm.io/blog/2024/08/12/hachyderms-introduction-to-mastodon-moderation-part-1/

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Written by Dave Alvarado on 2024-08-13 at 15:15

Why this is important

Issues with All the Suggestions, Broadly

They assume that the problem Person A is experiencing is easy to solve. If it was easy to solve, then a better assumption would be that Person A would’ve done those things to protect themselves already.

https://community.hachyderm.io/blog/2024/08/12/hachyderms-introduction-to-mastodon-moderation-part-1/

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Written by Dave Alvarado on 2024-08-13 at 15:23

Addendum to this--I started my time on the Fediverse at Hachyderm. I left to spin up a private instance because I didn't agree with some of the decisions the mods were making, specifically related to Meta/Threads. That doesn't mean the mods there aren't thoughtful or that their ideas should be dismissed out of hand. That's why I'm sharing their blog post.

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