We're badly in need of better decentralized moderation tools.
Individuals blocking individuals is not an effective way to handle abuse.
I want the ability to have an automated way to block instances if they do not handle abuse reports. If I see an abusive user from an unfamiliar instance, it's not easy for me to know whether their behavior is the norm or will go unpunished. It would be nice to have a one-click:
1. Block this user for me from an abusive post
2. Report to *their* instance admin "If the linked behavior is acceptable on your instance, I will block your instance."
3. Autoblock the instance if no response in, say, 3 days
4. If the admin responds, give the option to block the instance.
@peterweyand I'm coming at this from a perspective of how you build a place that works for a broader community work. I see the Fediverse as a potential alternative to the centralized social networks. But I don't think that actually happens with replacing the moderation layer with something decentralized.
But since you can't make your points without being abusive, this is the last you'll hear from me. Consider yourself liberated from my opinions.
@peterweyand I'm honestly starting to regret inviting you here.
While there is such a thing as undeserved social stigma, there comes a point at which you should probably look in the mirror to see why so many people seem to dislike you.
@acjay
@acjay
It's maybe not 100% what you wanted but as I see it there's two ways to go about this pre-emptively:
- Check @freemo pinned first toot, it'll point to the fediblock site which you can import and be reasonably assured that most bad actors are removed from your timelines. Anything else bad you see you probably can report to their admins with results.
- If the above isn't sufficient, you could consider moving to a 'walled garden' instance. They have their own downsides too (like blocking an instance that you were actually interested in following people to), but at least you might be fairly assured that you won't see bad actors, but others will decide which are bad actors and which are not.
That's how I see it at the moment. I wish the moderation tools and such were a lot better too.
But I see a lot of people really gearing up the ban-button for instances. If your users don't interact with those instances, you won't be bothered by them (meaning: probably some of your users are interested in those instances)
Be careful with blacklists, or whitelists: they will cause the fediverse to centralise ("get an account on mastodon.social, because it's the easiest way to be sure you're seen...")
@acjay , my old pattern was to warn folks, but I am rethinking this. Should I warn, or just block when someone is openly a jerk to a stranger? How about when you see someone being a jerk to a 3rd party?
@JonKramer I think there are many reasonable ways to approach it. It would be cool to have tools to track warnings. I would probably do it if there were. I don't like blocking people, but it's also hard to justify spending my attention on people who are jerks from the very first interaction.
I try to chime in if I see someone being a dick on someone else's post, if it hasn't been called out already. But I think the pile-ons that can happen on Twitter can be excessive.
@acjay I'm currently working on something like this. I'm sure I'm not the only one. Thank you for offering such detailed feedback... I'm sure we'll have these tools before long.
I blocked some dude who was a jerk in his first interaction with me. That sort of thing I think is fine to handle as an individual. I wouldn't report someone for being a jerk.
I'm talking about serially abusive people who interject slurs into threads. There's no reason every Fediverse user should have to individually deal with these people and the instances that facilitate their behavior. And to the extent that they have to, give them good tools.
#fediverse #mastodon #moderation