@snow That is true, it's a valid concern. There is a lot of inappropriate images for younger or more sensitive viewers floating by in the Federated lines.
I have seen and read some articles mentioning the possibility of using Mastodon instances in education, but they would all be running in Whitelisted mode only -- selectively federating only with nodes included in the Whitelist maintained in each of those instances.
Smut for profit is not attractive, a shady side, I agree.
@snow @design_RG I've been playing around with Mastodon for a few days now and I have to day I am really liking it, the posts feel different, more real. I've been thinking of suggesting that we use it at work but I am still not clear on the rules (the problem you're highlighting is something I don't understand): each instance can choose their own rules right ? But then, who enforces the rule on the instance ? Are there moderators per instance ? Who pays ?
@activenoisecontrol
The problem Snow was mentioning is that there's materials of an Adult nature, not here in our own instance (qoto.org) but out there, and it shows in posts in the Federated timeline.
Besides nude bodies, there's escort services, sometimes quite aggressive images which might not even be covered by a CW, a Content Warning that will hide the text and image until a user selects to click to show it.
Goinf back to the question of using in a educational or even a business/professional situation:
- yes, each instance is free to create and maintain, enforce their own rules, Theme line (what they intend to focus on), etc.
- each instance needs an administrator, capable of dealing with server maintenance issues, upgrades, etc (unless you contract some hosting provider that can supply these services).
- and each instance needs a team of moderators. In most cases, volunteers, users who chose to support their instance and take on that job (my case here at Qoto).
- staff is in most cases not paid. If it was a professional or educational situation, the admin might be a local IT specialist, and the mods could be experienced users, doing that as part of their daily activities at work, and so compensated as part of their normal salaries.
@design_RG @snow Thank you for explaining this. Could you tell me a bit more about how federation works ? Must all instances be part of the same federated networks or can they be several networks that don't see each others' instances ?
@activenoisecontrol
It's a very interesting concept. The idea is that all systems are self-supporting, self-maintained and can choose who they would like to correspond with (or not)
The whole of this is called the Fediverse (from Federated Universe), and in fact it encompasses a number of projects - Mastodon being the one most people start on, and with the most nodes/instances.
The screenshot attached to this post is from https://the-federation.info/ and they do have detailed stats pages for each of the projects, their individual nodes, etc.
You can chose to install one of the software packages described in that page, for example, the Write.Freely blog posting software.
I do use WF for my blog, really like it's simplicity and how focused in the words, the content it is. I installed a local copy on my laptop to see how it was (the installation process), and chose to NOT federate it at all, since it's for a single user only, me. But I could have chosen to Federate, and it would show up in the stats pages if I did.
Similarly, the much more complicated install of a Mastodon node will have at some point the choice of Federating or not (most will).
And it federating, in principle it would be open to sending and receiving content from any other Fediverse instance using the same software.
It is pretty cool that even different projects can communicate between themselves. People can find a blog account (from Write.Freely, Plume or WordPress) and Follow it (which is the same as an email subscription).
And Friendica nodes, a less common and less known type of instance, they offer a different UI and experience, more similar to Facebook, including the option of Editing posts, plus supporting Rich Text format like Bold. Italicized text, ordered lists, etc.
I have a Friendica account, and it sees my posts here in Mastodon, can boost any of them or reply if so desired.
Now -- as the fediverse started to grow, new nodes started to pop up, and in some cases had users who clashed with some of the other instance's values.
At that point, people started adding Exceptions to their Federated status - Blocking those instances as a whole, if they felt it was appropriate.
Each system has full autonomy on doing this or not; and sometimes being Blacklisted for not blocking others who some have objections to.
Sorry for the long explanation, I hope it makes sense, it's a rich space and fascinating for me, even with the small political clashes we sometimes get involved in.
@design_RG @snow It's actually a great explanation, thanks for taking the time to write it down.
@activenoisecontrol
You are very welcome, I am glad you enjoyed reading it. There are a variety of guides to the Fediverse and I love reading them and learning more.
@snow