🎓 Doc Freemo 🇳🇱 @freemo@qoto.org

I mentioned this in a private message to someone recently about why a small handful of servers block qoto. I wanted to reiterate it here for the new comers on QOTO who dont know the history:

So there are some servers out there that demand every server int he network block every instance they do, and if a server doesnt block an instance they block then they block you in rettatliation.

Their reason for this is quite flawed but it goes like this.. If we federate with a bad actor instance and we boost one of their posts then their users will see it and defeat the purpose of the block. The problem is, this isnt how it actually works. If they block a server and we boost it, they wont see the boost, thats how blocks work.

The issue becomes even more complicated when you consider the fact that these servers, by virtue of their policy, have huge block lists where they block tons of major servers. So in order to satisfy them we too would have to block a huge number of servers.

This means you have a choice, you either join a server that isnt blocked, but has a huge block list themselves, or, you join a server that doesnt block and be blocked by a small handful of servers. Obviously that means on QOTO you will have bigger view of the world than you would on any of these others servers. In fact QOTO has onne of the largest federation footprints of any server in the network.

I want to also explain why we choose the decision we did. Years ago when this controversy started and servers across the fediverse started blocking there was a divide of people taking sides. WOTO was one of the few servers that didnt take sides and allowed people read content from any server (but with strict hate speech rules). This caused a huge influx of people,s pecifically from the LGBTQ community, onto our server. It turns out many people relied on us not-blocking for their physical safety. There were big name biggots (like milo yanappolus) who were on the network. They used their accounts here to watch his account for doxing so they could warn themselves and their community and protect themselves accordingly. In fact we added a feature just for them called subscriptions which allowed them to monitor accounts without following them so they could do so anonymously.

In tthe end for the safety of the LGBTQ community here we refused to engage in mass server blocking and instead encouraged our users to block servers on an individual basis and provided access to block lists for them to do so. But some really misguided servers blocked us anyway.

Thankfully the servers blocking us are few and far between and are limited to only the most excessive and aggressive block lists. As I said, QOTO has one of the largest federation footprints on the fediverse,

#mastoadmin

Weird... where did the QOTO tickers disappear to all of a sudden....

Sadly the twitter exodus seems to be coming to an end. From the peak of 1,333 users per day we are now back down to 322. Before the exodus we were seeing about 100 to 200 new users a day.

If you want to join us on the QOTO matrix server (A chat room server that is federated like here) then check out this post. IT has some spaces you can join to find some interesting rooms to be a part of, all active rooms.

Just FYI, with the number of followers I have, compared with the huge influx of new users, my feed is EXTREMELY busy.

I am trying very hard to answer every single one of you who message me to chat or ask questions, and please, keep it coming because I love hearing from everyone. But with how fast my feed moves sometimes a few messages slip past me without me seeing or responding.

Please everyone, if I dont respond to you please feel free to give me a gentle reminder and I will, it isnt intention, just hard to keep track of nearly 30K followers.

For anyone interested, we have a chat room and matrix server for QOTO. Its usually not very active from now until about 10 hours from now, but the rest of the day me and a few people are active there.

Anyway, if anyone wants to join us and get a free account on our matrix server (it federates too so you can talk to and join rooms on other servers) then please do so, you are all welcome.

Here is the room, just register then follow this link:

https://element.qoto.org/#/room/#QOTO:qoto.org