Silencing Spinster Instance for all of QOTO, CW for Length
After much discussion among the mod team we've decided to silence the @spinster instance for QOTO users.
We do not take the silencing of an instance to be anything less than totally serious. We have had issues with being silenced and we do not wish to simply ban an instance because they disagree with us.
Abuse and harassment without moderator comment, however, is a different story.
There are many showings of misandry, anti-trans ideologies, and abusive behaviors dressed up in the guise of 'Protecting an Oppressed Class'.
We at QOTO do acknowledge that there are a great many issues facing women in this world, and that indeed the current social structure of society is almost certainly stacked against them, as it is other oppressed and minority groups.
We cannot, however, support an instance that has little to no moderation of it's more extreme elements that cross the lines of understood acceptable behavior on Mastodon.
It is important to note that this is not necessarily a permanent decision. Should Spinster change their moderation stance on their users and begin to better police their instance we will be happy to unsilence and try again to have a relationship with these people who are undoubtedly trying to fight for what they feel is correct.
As I have said before, and will say again:
It isn't what you say that's important, it is how you say it.
Silencing Spinster Instance for all of QOTO, CW for Length
@Surasanji @alex @mk @freemo @arteteco I do not agree with your decision. No one is forced to follow Spinster and I guess most of QOTO users are not interested in what happens there so this is not an issue for them. Instead, I am interested and your decision affects me as a QOTO user. If I don't like their "extreme elements", as you say, then I do not follow them and if they engage with me I mute them. I joined QOTO because its description says "A free speech space. No censorship here. We do not silence or block any instances." Why are you changing this now?
🇳🇱
Silencing Spinster Instance for all of QOTO, CW for Length
There is a big difference when we talk about someone harassing a user after they are asked to disengage.
No one will ever be silenced for an opinion they hold. But if a user is being spammed by unwanted tagged messages and that continues after they ask not to be, then that is the line.
How would you feel if someone wrote a bot that every 15 seconds created a new account ona server and spammed you, and the mods of such a server would do nothing to stop it? Obviously that isnt the exact case here but it does go to show there needs to be a very basic level of moderation that amounts to "1) if someone asks you not to send them messages or other spam that is repsected 2) if a ban is intentionally evaded"
Without these 2 basic rules then no, a user can not actually choose to disengage someone, they are in fact "forced" to listen even if they dont want to.
