I saw a lot of similar kinds of arguments during the height of devops-as-a-movement.
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I saw a lot of similar kinds of arguments during the height of devops-as-a-movement. What I'd really like to know is what mastodon gates people value and why. That is, if someone thinks the search for the right instance is deeply important, I'd like to hear what their reasons are.
Yvonne Lam (@[email protected])
@[email protected] Getting started with mastodon felt to me a lot like setting up a programming environment for a programming language I am trying to learn, in that I had to make a bunch of decisions about basic things where I didn't know enough yet to have an opinion, or whether it mattered.
Mastodon (mastodon.social)
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@yvonnezlam
Moderation, uptime, and governance matter. The first two are largely a product of the third.Moderation matters a •lot•, and it’s not easy to do well. I think that’s the one where people’s instance choice can end up biting them badly: there’s a small pool of worst actors who are scanning Fedi for harassment opportunities. If an instance admin isn’t managing the “worst actors” denylist, things can go straight to DEFCON NAZI really suddenly.
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@yvonnezlam
The usual notions about instance being tied to community are, I think, about 90% red herring. If choosing an instance is like choosing a neighborhood (a metaphor I’ve heard a lot), then it’s because you’re choosing your infrastructure provider, not choosing your neighbors. -
@inthehands I agree with that, and I also think it's asking a lot of some cohorts of users to have to figure out "do I agree with the moderation practices for this instance?" I (not inclined to argue/fight/shitpost) picked a normal-person instance, which has been fine, but I could see it not being so for someone else.
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@yvonnezlam @inthehands i think that's actually not a big thing to ask. People make those determinations all the time. Every time you've ever skipped going to an event because you didn't like the vibe, you were making decisions about group norms and practices.
What makes it too much on mastodon et al is that there's so little information to judge by, and often that information is actively withheld.
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@jenniferplusplus @inthehands That is true. Are there things that would make it easier for people to pop into instances and see what they think of the vibe?
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Paul Cantrellreplied to Jenniferplusplus last edited by
@jenniferplusplus @yvonnezlam
Yup, that last part. And to be fair, it’s actually really hard for people who are new to apartment searching to suss out a bad landlord or a bad neighborhood. But I do think the ask would be reasonable given proper transparency and support. -
@yvonnezlam @inthehands my one half formed idea is to replace the server rules, with moderation policy. Rules are about what is expected of the member. Policy is about what members can expect from the group. Paul's point about governance is also critical, and surfacing how an instance is governed wild help a lot, too