@ern@mstdn.social I felt the same way when I first joined but I’ve come to appreciate a more unfiltered view of things. I mute a lot of bots and block some people who post a lot of NSFW stuff, but I like that it’s my choice to do so. I actually think the big instances should be more upfront about the fact that they block or silence half or more of all ActivityPub users.
@zleap @stux
@b6hydra @ern @zleap I think we are 💪 If we block or silence an instance we announce this on the community plus it's all public data on https://mstdn.social/about/more#unavailable-content
The reason we filter some is quite simple😄 mstdn.social should be acessible for everyone no matter where you are. So for example I want to be able to browse my timeline while at work, or show the network to my parents. But if it's full of unmarked NSFW, nazi stuff etc I pass on that..
The community costs me load of money each month and it's worth it but on my terms❤️ That's the beauty of the fedi, people can always move to a server without the blocks right 
@stux
Just to clarify, it’s not that I think anyone is doing a bad job or being malicious. It would be much worse if you couldn’t run your server on your own terms. Servers here are generally more open about their policies than centralized operations will ever be too. Take joinmastodon.org, for example, though. (Which I realize isn’t your site). On their front page it says 4.4M users, but how many are silenced? If you click to the ToS you can see the domain list. That doesn’t really give you the full picture though. I just think we can always do better.
@ern@mstdn.social @zleap
@b6hydra @stux @ern@mstdn.social
When people come here and see posts such as this
People are going to take serious issues with Mastodon in general, just everyone as racist.
Granted there are different spellings,. meanings and contexts and usage of that word, however that won’t help us one bit.
This small post could be misconstrued as racist and misogyny
🇳🇱
Its a tricky word. Obviously when used with the intent to be insulting it is deplorable. But when the black community itself promoting and accepting the use of the word as a positive identifier used in a positive way in music and everyday conversation, then it simply isnt that straight forward. Ultimately for obvious reasons they, as a community, determine if we embrace or reject the word and what the correct context, if any may be. Generally most (thought not all) seem to find it a perfectly acceptable casual word to us when 1) ending in -a and 2) not used explicitly as a pejorative.
That said while I personally dont make use of the word, simply because I dont tend to adopt much slang in general, it is socially more or less acceptable given the context here.
@freemo @b6hydra @stux @ern@mstdn.social
Yeah, however not everyone is going to see it that way.
Also people will judge you if you even have that in your stream.
Japanese anime porn (referenced here) is also in abundance, and sexualising the female gender mostly I think too.
I appreciate this is a cultural thing but given what is going on with #MeTo and attempts t(in the UK) o make women feel safer, combined with the worrying cases of spiking by injecting drugs in the UK (one case is too many) This sort of thing may shock new users and leave them with bitter taste.
To some extent that goes both ways.
A community that treats things like the term “nigga” when used in a positive way, or japanese anime porn (assuming it is of adults and doesnt depict rape), will leave a sour taste in peoples mouth who find such things acceptable and normal and in general dont want a politically correct atmosphere that, to them, border lines on oppression of expression.
A black person whos persona includes the use of “nigga” as a positive way when talking to his friends, if all of a sudden is disparaged for using the term will cause many of the intercity blacks with a similar culture to be dismayed, and may even come across as racism against them. Same with japanese, if their culture is labeled as offensive over cartoons they may very well be offended by this.
Its a double edged sword, trying to control the entire community to present as one end or the other of the spectrum can be equally harmful and off putting. Many people leave facebook because they find the control unacceptable and the political correctness daunting. Still others leave because facebook doesnt ban everything they find remotely objectionable. No one will be happy no matter what side is taken.
The solution for me has always been exactly what mastodon gives you. You pick the server that represents your ideals when it comes to censorship and let that happen organically. It shouldnt be about controlling what content is or isnt ont he fediverse, simply controlling whether its in your sphere of influence or not. Everyone being able to see the type of environment they want to see is the only way everyone is happy.
The issue of course is if the casual passerby will understand fediverse enough to know that is what the fediverse offers, rather than just seeing it was monolithic entity.
Yes that is certainly true. But to my point you will get that result on either end of the spectrum. So damned if you try to censor everyone, damned if you try to give free speech.
If you are damned no matter what you might as well go the route of empowerment and give both sides what they want.
Agreed, I think the approach we have here is the best middle ground we could hope for. Of course people will misunderstand and cause drama, thats inevitable. We can just try to explain the why and do the best we can to be ethical and inclusive at the same time. A challenge yes, but I think here at QOTO we are an example of that being possible.
Yes as a STEM instance the point oif inclusivity of fringe ideas is essentially for us to discuss and learn how to approach those subjects. We have to be able to ask questions even if those questions are uncomfortable.
But I’d say the same is true even of non-STEM instances. We need to get back to being okay with being uncomfortable and not to equate uncomfortable with immoral.
@zleap
Well, the Japanese porn is a huge cultural divide that won’t be reconciled anytime soon. A lot of the porn the comes out of the US/UK would be illegal there just like some of the anime is here. I don’t really have an answer for you on that. Racial epithets and referring to women as “females” isn’t a great look, I agree, but at this point is anyone unfamiliar with the fact that people are dicks on the internet?
@freemo @stux @ern@mstdn.social
I think you may be confusing hentai (sexual cartoons) with lolicon (sexual cartoons of small chested tiny characters that may or may not imply they are children). Anime and hentai have nothing culturally or legally questionable about it. Lolicon is another matter for obvious reasons.
Lolicon aside sexual cartoons in japanese style in general is not something I see at odds with #MeToo. Porn, in this case cartoon porn, but still just porn, is not something that will make women feel any less safe nor is it, anything that is psychologically hurtful. Now if your talking specifically about cartoons depicting rape of women, then yea, that can leave a negative impression for sure.
I mean sure, the truely extremist and oppressive end of the spectrum of feminists I’m sure would be offended by anything that depicts sexuality. While im all for the fediverse giving them the power to exist and be able to block the vast majority of servers that allow this I think it would be counter productive to try and care about the presence of sexuality in the fediverse in an attempt to appeal to a radicalized extremist group that represents a small portion of the population.
@b6hydra @ern@mstdn.social @stux
+1 to this approach.