Notices by 🎓 Dr. Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱 (freemo@qoto.org), page 15

@Absinthe

Well keep in mind we arent blocing the instance at all, we are silencing. that means if you wish to follow someone you can and will see their posts once you do. but unless you follow someone you wont know the instance exists.

The reason we cant simply moderate their individual users is because they arent on our server. Moderating our own userbase is a full time job, moderating the millions of people across the whole fediverse individually is impossible. Especially if you have mods that let anything go and wont act themselves.

Consider a similar scenario, a intentional bad-actor instance. No moderation of any kind. So someone who is really upset at you decides to write a bot (or do it manually) and start creating a new account every 15 minutes to send you harassment and spam. Sure you can block them but every 15 minutes they just get a new account and start over, no moderation so nothing you can do. you would be forced to be exposed to that. Thats why we step in. Basically if a person chooses to disengage from a conversation, they have a right to (As you just pointed out). the only time we will react at an instance level is when that right is violated as it has been here.

@arteteco @alex @Surasanji @mk

@GlitchesUnleashed

lol, and hi!

@Surasanji @arteteco @alex @georgia @mk

@arteteco

I am in no particular rush. If alex specifically asks me to hold up judgement on our end while they discuss futher I would be happy to do so.

However the response I got from their admin sounded like it was their final decision, was very abrupt, left no room for discussion (and didnt welcome it), and frankly came across as an BS excuse that even she didnt buy but was using it as a scape goat.

So if that is truly the final decision then I'm not sure what waiting would matter. But if the admins reach out and say the recinde that final decision and would need more time to come up with their final decision, in that case I would have no objection to pushing the deadline for making the silence go live back a a day or two.

Ultimately alex would have to make that request though or someone else from the mod team there.

@alex @Surasanji @mk

@arteteco

Originally it was a dozen users, but at this point it has progressed to dozens who continually, and out of spite have been tagging me *my in box has been flooding all day".

Without moderator intervention or prevention, and they already made their final decision and made it quite clear there would be no action, it continues.

At the beginning of all this I never requested the user be banned at all. I requested that the user be told that their actions were against the rules, warned, and if it continues with other users (even on other servers) that the user be banned for breaking the rules.

That was of course a pretty minimal ask, but that was refused. Now with dozens fromt he server on blast in my in box, and still not moderator intervention, it has become clear that they will not act.

With that said I did give them our contact information and let them know that should they wish to act and get this problem (which appears rampant) under control, then we can always unblock them.

Also keep in mind this is a silence. While no user will see that spinster even exists, anyone you currently follow or who follows you will still be able to interact with you normally, this wont be a hard-ban at this point.

I too had people from spinster I was following and wished the admin team at spinster would have behaved more equitably on this. But after hearing their final decision it would seem there is no where else to go but to issue our final decision.

With that said the silence itself wont take place until the day is over so they have plenty of time to change course if they wish, even after that they can email us should they intend to address more seriously the harassment problem from their user base.

@angelobottone @Surasanji @alex @mk

@angelobottone

I should also point out there "extreme elements" is not the reason for the ban. The ban was due to the fact that those "extreme elements" were being shoved down the throat of users who respectfully asked to disengage and that request was not honored. It was made several times and even after a personal block continued..

@Surasanji @alex @mk @arteteco

@angelobottone

There is a big difference when we talk about someone harassing a user after they are asked to disengage.

No one will ever be silenced for an opinion they hold. But if a user is being spammed by unwanted tagged messages and that continues after they ask not to be, then that is the line.

How would you feel if someone wrote a bot that every 15 seconds created a new account ona server and spammed you, and the mods of such a server would do nothing to stop it? Obviously that isnt the exact case here but it does go to show there needs to be a very basic level of moderation that amounts to "1) if someone asks you not to send them messages or other spam that is repsected 2) if a ban is intentionally evaded"

Without these 2 basic rules then no, a user can not actually choose to disengage someone, they are in fact "forced" to listen even if they dont want to.

@Surasanji @alex @mk @arteteco

@alex

No problem

@Surasanji @mk @arteteco

@Surasanji

As a fellow moderator of QOTO I, of course, agree with this decision.

I would like to add that should a moderator or admin of spinster wish to reach out to me to discuss this issue further I can always be reached here: jeffrey.freeman@qoto.org and a general message to the qoto staff in general can be done by reaching us at our discourse server as well: https://discourse.qoto.org

While we will wait until the day is over to activate the silence after that no QOTO users, including mods, will receive messages from spinster, as such we will need to be reached through one of the side channels above should there be a need.

@alex @mk @arteteco

A really cool programmatic ( #Python ) solution to the 100 pots problem by @Absinthe was posted here, worth checking out:

https://discourse.qoto.org/t/the-100-pots-logic-puzzle/63

#puzzle #riddle #riddles #puzzles #math #mathematics #maths

@johnlitt

Yes its easy click on the 3 dotas and go to "Hide everything from gab.com"

@mngrif

I would do this if I owned a restaurant.

Stolen from @viv and reboosted by @koyu

Too perfect not to reshare.

@Mrkhvoice

I am under no requirement to engage you. Doesnt matter what you said if someone asks to be left alone **you leave them alone** that is the rule of the server your on, and the rule here. You didnt do that.

the fact that at some point in the past you happened to behave respectfully (which is debatable) is completely unrelated to the fact that after you were asked to disengage you continued to harass and engage over the course of several messages.

There will be consequences for that, period.

@alex @Absinthe @Surasanji

@Mrkhvoice

You were blocked after your first message where you refused to be respectful (the one I linked).

As the admin of an instance I did however unblock you after 24 hours as I usually do since I need to monitor users to see if they need to be blocked from federation as a whole or other moderator business. Once unblocked I quickly saw the slew of continued messages.

This is the end result of that.

The fact that the best excuse you have is some accusation that I claimed to block you but didnt really I think demonstrates just how weak (and desperate) your counter argument is.

You literally have no high ground here to claim, none.

But I will not debate this endlessly with you either. I will await to see what Alex decides before I decide what my next action/steps might be as a moderator.

@alex @Absinthe @Surasanji

@Mrkhvoice

Nice try but look **very** carefully at the thread after I asked you to untag me. Despite the fact that you didnt give me the basic level of respect to untag me as i asked, and despite the fact that you did **not** ask to be untagged, I did make it a point to untag you in every post that followed.

The only exception has been this post and my reply to alex due to the need to identify you at his request and so I can respond to this request.

I will not speak with you further however at this point.

@alex @Absinthe @Surasanji

The Mr. Rogers episode following the Kennedy assassination. He tried to help teach the kids to cope with it.

https://youtu.be/_MRC0qu75TU

@schenklklopfer You mean "Gluten Morgen" :)