@evaristus Federated timelines are usually improved by you muting the whole instance. There are only a gew instances that show porn so its easy to block it all in one go.
But generally we dont silence instances at the server level unless they engage in harassment.
@freemo @evaristus Well this is interesting. I thought admins usually block instances that break their rules...and IIRC porn isn't welcome here...
Sort of. Most instances will have different rules for what they allow federation with vs what they allow locally.
We do not have a no-nudity rule, strictly speaking, but we do require it to be CW'ed
Our rules are elaborated on in our about page. But we federate with every instance that protects a users right to disengage (a rather strict definition of harassment). Locally we are more strict though.
I see no reason we should be dictating who our users want to follow or interact with though from other servers.
> I see no reason we should be dictating who our users want to follow or interact with though from other servers
But we just discovered a reason here, right? Plenty of people didn't even know how to mute domains until this thread. So there's a technical onus to having people decide on their own which domains to mute.
By activate moderation of fediverse connections, you're relieving the onus on users to deal with objectional content on their own, each time they see it.
Thats pretty much the age old argument of security vs liberty... But worse yet, it isnt really security as just laziness. Less work for the user at the sacrifice of liberty (preventing them from hearing objectionable material if they wish to).
It comes down to, are you willing to have someone dictate to you what is or is not objectionable just to save a few minutes of work?
But that's what moderation is. Are you suggesting this instance is unmoderated?
I am suggestion the instance is minimally moderated in only the most essential ways.
That means for federation purposes we garuntee ones right to disengage.
For the local instance we guarantee people will interact with each other reasonably respectfully.
Obviously the level of moderation we hold for our local users is somewhat stricter than what we impose on entire instances.
Of course everything is open for discussion. If you think this is a bad policy I suggest you open a topic in the moderation section of ur discourse instance and myself, other moderators, and users would be happy to discuss it and consider changing our current policy.
@freemo @realcaseyrollins Wouldn't presume to tell you how to moderate things. If you think you've struck a good balance, then that's great!
I just wanted to give you an impression on the ground, as a new user joining the instance. When I see a federated timeline filled with disinformation and lolicon, my first thought isn't, "wow, this instance must have a minimal moderation policy", it's "wow, no one is looking at what the timeline is showing our users, and new users are getting shown lolicon and disinformation."
I'm just happy to have reasonable discussions Online!
Tagging other mods (And nominated mods): @design_RG @arteteco @mngrif @Surasanji
@arteteco @freemo @realcaseyrollins @design_RG @mngrif @Surasanji @evaristus
Arteteco used a red flag word -- harassment.🚩
My experience persuades me that the word "harassment" has no place in the vocabulary of a QOTO moderator. There are other words and phrases which can be used to make the same point with better precision.
For administrators of QOTO, one of the costs of doing business is -- or should be -- the loss of this shorthand label because it's a loaded term.
BENEFIT OF DOUBT. It's easy to grasp how the default benefit of doubt in most other contexts lies -- or should lie -- with the person who feels somehow harassed or bullied.
But I'm troubled when the President of the United States claims to be harassed, bullied, abused, treated unfairly. There is an asymmetric power relationship which skews my assessment of complains we have heard regularly from Donald Trump.
And I'm troubled when any Mastodon administrator posts any variant of the verb "to harass."🚩
To me clear, this isn't about specific facts or perceived factoids. It's about tactics.
UMBRAGE. As a rhetorical tactic, Presidential candidate Trump often found cause to feel umbrage. -- see Webster definition: "a feeling of pique or resentment at some often fancied slight or insult."
As President, this Trumpian pattern continues.
Trump labels whatever annoys him as "harassment." And he repeats his complaint over and over -- dismissing, distracting and overwhelming all other topics.
The umbrage tactic works well for Trump in American politics. And I've observed that it works here in QOTO.
I'm troubled when any synonym of the noun "umbrage" is used as a tactic by any Mastodon administrator.🚩
BOTTOM LINE. I see no evidence of umbrage in the words of @arteteco; and I can't yet parse how this has happened in his prose.
I think his post is an example of what I want to see but I don't understand what I'm reading. This is a nuanced POV. I feel what I feel clearly, but I don't have words to explain my mpression that I'm seeing something good.
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QUESTION: Is QOTO flexible enough to embrace complaint and its opposite in the same post?
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QOTO = Question Others to Teach Ourselves?