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So I reached out to admins of the few instances that block us with a polite email explaining some of the misinformation spread about us in the pastt and describing the situation in some detail in the hopes it will be resolved.
Luckily nearly all the instances are very small and its not a big deal since our federation footprint remains one of the largest int he fediverse, but I felt it was an effort worth making.
Anyway, seems the drama is already begining and even more flat out lies are getting thrown around be a few:
https://cloudisland.nz/@aurynn/109361052656757061
https://cloudisland.nz/@aurynn/109361011483467968
Luckily despite a few bad actors most of the people I contacted reached out to me in good faith and several seem to be willing to reverse the ban. Lets hope the people who actually bother to fact-check win out on this one.
@freemo Thank you for being willing to take this on. I know how dispiriting it can be.
@radehi I dont mind instances that might suspend us just because they dont like our "style" or anything else that is based on reality... whats so frustrating is the outright lies and misinformation that leads to many people blocking without bothering to fact check.
@freemo Yeah. On the other hand, even defederating based on lies is a kind of de-escalation; will tend to result in less interactions, but the interactions avoided will be disproportionately harmful interactions.
@freemo I don't care what everybody says about you, I think you're alright
@lurker Thanks <3
@freemo
I saw this and a few other conversations like it, and frankly it made me feel okay that these folks are not federated with us - if this kind of toxicity and personal insults are what they jump to when they see a polite attempt to communicate, it's unlikely they bring much of value anyway.
@digital_carver I tend to agree, a large portion of tthe instances that block us have a few things in common between them (not all)
- They tend to be very toxic
- They tend to lie or at least dont fact-check gossip they hear (in factt when you ask for sources they will block you for daring to question them)
- They have massive block lists that block the majority of the fediverse.
@freemo @digital_carver well, at least one academic I follow blocked qoto because of this nonsense. So it is a bit annoying. but I support qoto's position!
Can't win-em-all .... frankly anyone who would block us either doesnt fact-check or is likely to be just plain toxic.. i dont mind addressing the former as best I cann.
@jerlich @freemo @digital_carver So how would you know it was blocked?
The follow button becomes inactive if you are blocked or if you click it it says pending and never goes through.
@freemo @digital_carver Horseshoe theory would suggest that these instances represent the opposite extreme of the fascist servers they seek to block... good chance these are the Stalinist/Maoist/tankie instances and they're actually helping you out here.
@freemo Why would instances block us? What's there reasoning?
@ner Most of them just lie and make up reasons. A few bad actors spread a few lies about us and they buy it without fact checking in most cases. There really isnt any good reason to block us that I can think of.
@freemo Everyone seems quite friendly as far as what I'm finding. Only the uncool fear science, questions, and good conversation right?
@ner What-a-ya gonna do.
@freemo Smile, and tell them to have a good day. Everybody's got stuff going on.
@freemo seems like the potential downside is some Streisand effect where these people take your reaching out as a cue to try to get even more instances to block...
Where does she get the "one of the mods thinks that women don't deserve the right to vote?" claim from?
@gooseus I honenstly have no clue where that came from... I know the mods well enough to say none of our mods would dare think or say such a thing... if they did I wouldnt let them be mods.
Hey @khird and @trinsec (our two active mods) any idea where that came from? Im sure its a misrepresentation but I'd be curious where they spun that shit off from.
@freemo @gooseus @khird
No clue. Maybe because they associate that stuff with nazis and simply can't get out of their system that our inclusive free speech == nazi?
I mean, I see in some servers' block reasons that we spread misinformation and conspiracy theories while we always ban those kind of users. So, who knows. 
@freemo @gooseus not a clue. We've had a few other mods over the years, but I can't think of anyone who that could be. Best guess is Sphinx used to post in Chinese, and someone ran it through an online translator and came up with something like that? Having had to translate Chinese posts when resolving reports I can attest Google doesn't do a great job on it.
@freemo "Right toxic", "Left toxic", "toxic" is freakin' toxic. Sweet baby Jesus! Sometimes it's good to just let the trash freakin' take itself out.
I'm glad for your kind response when I reached out to you in email asking if QOTO.ORG would be a good fit, and I'm very glad to report it is. I never really encouraged her to be involved in the Bird place. It's just too... whatever Aurynn Shaw is. I'm happy we have a home here.
@Romaq It has been a pleasure having you here as well!
@freemo
Yeah, science fans are always really scary and fascist, amiright? All that stuff about facts and whatnot.