๐ณ๐ฑ
Sp I wrote a pretty lengthy blog post entitled:
Eugen Rochko, CEO of Mastodon, Found to Support Nazi’s Agenda
Sadly I wish it was clickbait.
You can all read it here:
https://jeffreyfreeman.me/eugen-rochko-ceo-of-mastodon-found-to-support-nazis-agenda/
It is the pinnacle of the recent drama. I will also be sharing it on twitter, linking the joinmastodon account there. I tried to include most of the evidence in the article. Hopefully this will have some positive result
So far it has worked in our favor.. about 20 instances have reversed their stance on us and now support us, there have been dozens of emails to eugen asking him to reconsider his stance. We remain one of the most connected and largest instances in the fediverse.
Most likely it wont die, but hopefully thrive.
Doing nothing would have more than likely caused it to die.
That said, if things do start going south and that trend reverses you always have the option to move at any time and take your followers with you.
@rbe_expert @freemo @Gargron @trinsec @khird very reasonable and we'll backed up article.
I still very much dislike the title, though. It makes it look personal to you (whereas the article explains very well that it has nothing to do with your personal opinions). As if you have a score to settle, a grudge held.
There is a bit of a score to settle I suppose... He knew about the misinformation campaign and capitulated to it out of popularity rather than doing what is right. In the process hurting the reputation and standing of the serrver.
@freemo @berkes @rbe_expert @Gargron @trinsec @khird
Putt's Law of Insubordination applies here:
Rejection of management objectives is undesirable when you are wrong,
and unforgivable when you are right.
Gagron will double down on his mistaken decision precisely BECAUSE you PROVE him wrong, and you justifiedly put him on the spot for his wrong decision.
In addition, social media excommunication is based on the principle that any attempt at defending yourself is seen as admission of guilt.
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition, but here we go again.
I wish I could say Eugen was better than that... his recent actions suggest he isnt :(
@freemo @berkes @rbe_expert @Gargron @trinsec @khird
Eugen Rochko is CEO of Mastodon.
He explicitly writes that
โI will take a listing down if it risks endangering the reputation of Mastodonโ
A lot of the problems in our world is attributable to the typical CEO attitude.
In the case of mastodon, Eugen Rochko's attitude is:
"Mastodon, c'est moi."
So by PROVING him wrong with IRREFUTABLE EVIDENCE,
you destroy Eugen Rochko's reputation, and because in his mind, he IS mastodon, you endanger not only his reputation, but the reputation of mastodon, and you and your instance MUST be delisted.
@tatzelbrumm @freemo @berkes @rbe_expert @Gargron @trinsec @khird Wars have been started over less!
there should be Fediverse listings instead of Mastodon listings
Mastodon โ Fediverse
let people choose for themselves
So, it really is click bait because it's not true that he supports a nazi's agenda. I read the whole blog post and can't see how that's true.
Did he handle a situation badly? Maybe. Does he support nazis? Not from anything I can see in your post. Did he support you and your community? No. Sorry about that.
Also, it's not clear how delisting from the join site harmed your users. Could you expand on that?
I'm really sorry for what you and your community have been through.
@Elephantidae The Nazi's agenda was to get us defederated and delisted, he knew this was his agenda. He then delisted us as a direct result of that Nazi's campaign, therefore,he satisfied the Nazi and appeased his agenda.
I'd say that makes it quite literally true.
@Elephantidae AS for how it hurt hte community... three ways I can think of.
1) It lends credibility to the Nazi's claims, giving the impression to others QOTO was delisted because the claims against it were true.
2) It significantly reduces our influx of new users. As a specialty instance it is not easy to find new users as a generalist instance might
3) it no longer shows up when trying to connect using the official mastodon app which relies on that list, causing people to have a hard time connecting even if they are already here.
@freemo Thanks. You might want to put that in the article.
@Elephantidae I will thanks.
@freemo OK, that's probably not something we are going to agree on. I think there is a big difference between "supporting an agenda" and "not standing up to nazis."
When I read your article I was expecting him to be secretly promoting nazi groups or something.
@Elephantidae Well it isnt that he was "not standing up to a nazi".. This isnt a case of inaction... It took a specific action, directly in line with the agenda of a nazi...
@freemo Right. But he wasn't doing it because he likes nazis or supports the hatred that they spew and the violence that they promote.
Again, I'm not saying what he did was right.
But the way you are framing it I don't think is helpful for improving the situation, but that's your business. It actually makes me skeptical of your side of the story.
I 100% support you speaking up about the matter. And I'm sorry that the nazis have succeeded in sowing disharmony among their enemy.
> Right. But he wasn't doing it because he likes nazis or supports the hatred that they spew and the violence that they promote.
Never said or implied he did. I said he supported their agenda, I also made clear he did so out of popularity and not out of support for the ideology. In fact I even point out int he past he opposed the ideology when it was popular for him to do so.
@freemo Yeah, I just don't think we are going to agree on that. But I do hope that after being publicly accused like this he is still willing to work with you. Maybe something good will come from it.
@Elephantidae fair, yes if he was willing to have a conversation im sure much of this could have been avoided.
@freemo I re-read the headline and the first paragraph.
I think the thing that rubs me the wrong way is that the world knows *very well* what the Nazi agenda is. Killing Jews, gays, trans people, socialists, etc. Anyone can tell you that.
So when you say he supports "Nazi's agenda" this is clearly what the readers are going to take the meaning to be.
You even go out of your way in the first paragraph to clarify that you mean real live Nazis.
@Elephantidae @freemo But isn't this the way that the Nazi's dominated in Germany historically? It wasn't "really" that most petty government officials saw themselves as doing terrible things. But by collective small actions and inaction they did serve the Nazi's goals. So effectively they were part of the Nazi machine. The danger they posed to others was that of real live Nazis.
Now, the fascists see the demolition of Twitter as a forum as a step forward for them. Thwarting Mastodon would be a next step. Not actively standing up to that would be a huge mistake.
@Gaythia @Elephantidae @freemo I would add that the Nazis explicitly worked on enforcement of conformity of media. Silencing any media they cannot control would be the most accurate description that shows the parallels for the bad actors, while your comment hightlights parallels in how "officials" react.
@Elephantidae @freemo I am an example of someone who recently found Qoto from the join site. I think that the issue seems to speak to a serious question as to whether or not Mastodon is a decentralized federation or if from a practical standpoint, it has access determined by one person. And of course, I joined this instance because I felt it best met my interests, but also so I could interact with others in different instances.
Succumbing to the strategy of an attack by nefarious agents doesn't make Mastodon a safe or a welcoming place. All instances ought to see that as a vulnerability that needs to be combated.
@freemo thanks for the history lesson. I hope it leads to a safer mastodon experience for all.
As a side note. That blog was tough to read on a phone. If itโs easy to make it phone optimized, that might be worth it.
@cooplogic ill have to look into that, thanks.
@freemo @cooplogic Yup... I'll have to wait until I jump on the PC. Simply not possible to read on my phone at the moment.
@freemo also, is there information on how to use the feature to put someone on your feed without following them?
@cooplogic its next to the follow button, its called subscribe.
@freemo ah, the bell. It doesnโt show up on the iOS mastodon app.
Feel free to offer any specific objections that are inaccurate or confusing and ill be happy to help clean up the article.
One sided, absolutely.. no way to really not make it one sided if I'm the author and Eugen refuses to comment despite tons of requests of him from many people for comments.
That said, thats also why I provided links and photo evidence where possible.
three, assuming we count screenshots of dead links (wince most of the ancient history is now dead). 2 for snow, one for his attempt to get us on fediblock... I am happy to add a few more if you feel that would be helpful. Im sure I could dig up some more links if i search through history enough.
Sure it does, it is part of a long chain of events.. Snow created a campaign of misinformation, Eugen knew about it and despite this caved to said campaign because it worked and was popular.. they are directly related.
Im not sure i follow... The links seem clear to me, please let me know how i might carify
snow engaged in disinformation to get us delisted/defederated -> instances bought the ruse -> Eugen knew of Snows agenda -> since the agenda was working eugen caved to the intended agenda to remain popular.
what am I missing?
The chain metaphor is apt because you are showing me one link but only telling me about the others.
@freemo @oligneisti@social.linux.pizza @Gargron @trinsec @khird
Not sure what you mean by that.. which link am I showing you vs ones I'm telling you?
The "link" you are showing me is composed of the screenshots. You are not showing me anything else. The missing links are actual hyperlinks to the rest of your claims.
Can you give a specific example of something I said that could be linked to but wasnt? I'll be happy to try to dig up relevant links to any points where such a link exists.
@oligneisti Perhaps it would help if i quote the text of Eugen's email to me, which is the only response he ever made on the matter and refused to discuss further... but it would still require you to "trust" i am quoting faithfully.
I am also not sure if that is legal.
@oligneisti I have taken your suggestion into considerationa nd updated the title to something more appropriate.
freemo-s_a_glowie.png
The screenshots he used to talk about Snow are screenshots I made, actually. Snow's also not a programmer of any sort.
freemo_orb.png
@freemo @Gargron @trinsec @khird Will qoto be around in the future die to this back and forth? Should members move to another instance?