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So it seems joinmastodon removed QOTO from their directory without cause, without contacting us, and without any discussion or due diligence.
Since this is the only way to actually find QOTO for new users if it isnt reversed soon it could mean the end for our wonderful community.
If you care about this place remaining fair, respectful, and inclusive environment I highly suggest everyone reach out to them annd voice your objecttion and your disapointment and having no procedure to keep this fair and inclusive.
If you want to see QOTO stick around you can email your objecttion here:
hello@joinmastodon.org
Feel free to CC me here: jeffrey.freeman@qoto.org
Please be respectful, we want to show them we are the good guys and not give them any reason to object.
What? We said we never faced it and would have to vote onn the incident but would almost certainly block it... what are you on about.
What about it, all changes to the rules must be voted on by the three elected mods... We coted on it shortly after being asked and decided (as expected) it would warrant a block. Our rules were updated to reflect that:
"Offending servers will only be silenced, not blocked, blocks will be reserved for technical assaults only such as DDoS attacks, or legal issues such as sexual abuse and child porn."
@freemo @BilliardLentil @Gargron @trinsec @khird just a heads up. "child porn" is an outdated term. The more appropriate term is 'Child Sexual Abuse Material' (or 'CSAM' for short) because it's not porn, it's abuse. "Porn" is made by consenting adults (for consenting adults). Abuse, is obviously not consensual.
@freemo @BilliardLentil @Gargron @trinsec @khird ultimately it's your choice. But child protection experts and researchers do tend to prefer "phase out" the term 'child porn'
I can use both phrases just to make it extra clear
@freemo @BilliardLentil @Gargron @trinsec @khird that might be even better--perhaps something like, "Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM)--formerly known as child pornography" π€
Also after being asked I discussed with our moderators and we all agreed we would block servers that conduct illegal business including sexual abuse and child porn. We have explicitly put this in our rules since then as is seen on our about page here:
"Offending servers will only be silenced, not blocked, blocks will be reserved for technical assaults only such as DDoS attacks, or legal issues such as sexual abuse and child porn."
So again... nonsennse.
@BilliardLentil @freemo @Gargron @trinsec @khird it seems pretty straight-forward to me (and I think anyone that has the ability to read would agree). But feel free to check for yourself: https://qoto.org/about/more
Thats the problem, people dont do due diligence, they see some conversation in private and outt of context, dont even bother to take the 5 seconds it takes to ask for more info, and then act on it regardless of what damage may come for others…
I expect better from the leaders of mastodon.
Oh dont worry I am not upset with you. I appreciate you bringing it to our attention.
What made you think the CSAM thing was the reason? Are you assuming or did you see some conversation with the mastodon leadership?
Ahh I see, so no reason to think it had to do with the leadership at mastodon.
Brss 
@freemo @Gargron @trinsec @khird
I think I understand eben less.. the directory is the table in https://instances.social/list?
if it is, I see that quoto is listed.
@freemo @Gargron @trinsec @khird this is frustrating, but I would recommend some patients. I choose this instance because it had a sustainable moderation scheme. Many others basically came down to "we all love each other and we will kick off anyone we don't like." With the rapid growth in this space it will not be long until there is some controversy that divides the community. When it comes, Qoto will have a robust policy in place while the Love-and-harmony people will struggle with conflict resolution.
As the new owner of another place is discovering content moderation is hard, nuanced, and not something a community of any scale will agree on. Admins who operate with moral absolutes are going to get run over.
@freemo @Gargron @trinsec @khird email sent and cc: to @freemo
BTW I was chastised for being on this instance because it was on a block list for being insufficiently gay friendly. The reasoning made little sense to me but I took a look at qoto.org policy and decided that the person chastising me was, from my perspective, overreacting.
Yea, we are **very** strongly pro LGBTQ+ and our moderation policies and practices have always reflectred that.
The irony is that it is explicitly our protectionn of the LGBTQ community that lead to a lot of the misinformation about us spreading in the first place.
See this post:
@freemo @Gargron @trinsec @khird From: Don R-C
jeffery.freeman@qoto.org bounced, so here's the email:
To: hello@joinmastodon.org
Cc: jeffery.freeman@qoto.org
Sent: Sat Nov 19 12:03:27 CST 2022
Subject: Removal from directory
Good day,
I am, I suppose, a member of the "Twitter Migration". I arrived at qoto.org as it advertised as STEM-oriented. Indeed it is and I'm pleased to be on that instance.
The moderation policies matched my belief that moderation should be light handed in most cases but firm enough to give me options. Blatantly illegal content is blocked by policy and I have an array of options to further restrict the posts I see. So far, I have seen nothing even remotely offensive so I assume the policies are working.
I understand that qoto.org has been removed from your registry without cause. I found qoto.org through joinmastodon and I can confirm that it is no longer listed as a Technology instance. This saddens me because it means fewer like-minded people joining this instance.
I ask you to reconsider your reasons for removing qoto.org and return it to your registry.
Sincerely,
Don Rideaux-Crenshaw
dgrc@crowswood.com,
@lePetomaneAncien
Onward,
Don
Ahh my first name was mispelled. No worries, thanks for the email.
@freemo @Gargron @trinsec @khird As an educator (a human being) on qoto.org, of course, I'm opposed to abuse of children (and adults or animals). I'd hate to see qoto.org banned and not available at a time when I'm encouraging thousands of educators to come here. I haven't encountered anything inappropriate in my time here. My response? Do whatever is necessary to send that message and be reasonable about actions taken when necessary.
Thats not entierly accurate.
Hachyderm.io reversed our block once the community reached out to them.. mastodon.technology is shutting down and many of its users moved to us.
As for the last three, look at their block lists, its so long your finger will get a cramp scrolling it, they effectively block almost the entire fediverse.
See the following, it just hasnt been reflected on some stale lists yet:
https://github.com/hachyderm/hack/commit/3d8db99e901489264c99499d533550468dd0335b
you will probably need to refollow them.. it may be the hackyderm server didnt update yet with their own block list.
That's true about the last three, octodon even blocks fosstodon.org, I dunno why anyone would be one it.
I'm going from the list from
https://fba.ryona.agency/?domain=qoto.org
I don't know how it gathers it's information, but hachyderm.io is still on it, which has people I really want to follow. I will remain patient though and hope things work out.
@freemo hope you have already looked into this, if not, this might be something to consider doing
https://twitter.com/rahaeli/status/1593819064161665024?t=N5prlazjPaMdJMHW6CLmxA&s=19
Leaving you the original tweet thread.
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Thank you, though i did get an answer not too long ago... He sighted two reasons
The first he mentioned was because I used a tool that happened to be wrritten by someone at kiwifarms (though it wasnt under their domain name so i had no idea) that provited a list of blocked servers. I reached out to a handful of serverrs on that list to see if there were any problems with our server I could resolve.
The other reason is because we leave it to our users to decide who to federate with (this one seems like a weak excuse since this has been the case since day one when we got on the list).
@freemo @Gargron @trinsec @khird I'll try to help this intance to write my objection on email