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Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

Hug your #FediAdmin today.

There's a lot of shit flying in the #Fediverse lately and a lot of times perspective seems to get lost. Yes, there are things we need to talk about, and yes there are things we will not agree on. And that's okay.

But leave the pitchforks and torches out of this.

Fedi admins put in the hours and effort and emotion into making fedi happen. Sometimes they make decisions we might not agree with. We should criticize, but we should not pile-on.

44 comments
lee :Fire_Trans:

@rysiek and we need to learn that death threats are not appropriate ways to voice criticism, apparently. 🫠

lee :Fire_Trans:

@rysiek saw someone(s) responding to moderation decisions with things like "drink bleach" and like. My dude. None of this rises to that level.

Trebach

@inherentlee @rysiek Holy shit. I can't see anything on Fedi that would warrant such a response

Erin Kissane

@trebach @inherentlee @rysiek I came on last night just in time to see someone suggest that "we should all" send one particular admin images of his cat being tortured.

None of this is tolerable, at all.

Pandka

@rysiek I am out of the loop, what’s happening?

ari :prideified:

@radpanda @rysiek admins of some some of the way too big instances met with facebook people to discuss… probably facebooks new AP-speaking product? Noone outside of them knows really, as it was behind closed doors and behind NDAs

MagicLike | #AfDVerbotJetzt

@ar @radpanda @rysiek also some big instances are defederating from eachother, which caused further disagreement. Also some admins are not signing an agreement to pre-block metas project

MagicLike | #AfDVerbotJetzt

@ar @radpanda @rysiek one example is our instance where stux made a few decisions with a bunch of toxic responds

Pandka

@MagicLike @ar @rysiek I see. It looks to me like a clash between people what the Fediverse is or should be going forward. It saddens me that some people are ready to push others into misery just to prove their point.

Matt5sean3

@radpanda @rysiek There is a group of people who are admins of some of the largest Fediverse instances who took a meeting with Meta under an NDA and people are really frustrated about them appearing to be in cahoots with Meta ahead of the release of P92/Threads.

Pandka

@Matt5sean3 @rysiek Damn, that’s concerning. Thanks for letting me know.

Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

I feel embarrassed and bad about my role in this latest kerfuffle. A question was asked, I responded strongly as I often do, and that got its own life.

I am disappointed in myself (because I should have been more careful with words, with the platform I have around here), but also in fedi (because we all should know to be excellent to each other).

No, nobody is trying to "sell out" fedi. Nobody is being "paid off" by some corpo. There is no need for digging trenches and laying barbed wire.

Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

There is a need for a longer conversation about the stuff that the kerfuffle relates to.

But it has to be a conversation, not a shouting match. People are throwing accusations and making conjectures that have nothing to do with reality!

And we need to be able to have this conversation without pushing out people most engaged in maintaining the infrastructure we use to have this conversation.

There is a way to do all that, but for that we need to take a step back, and take a deep breath.

Matt5sean3

@rysiek Then agree to block Meta for now if it is released in the meantime. We can all have that talk then unblock or not once an open, honest, calm conversation with the wider Fediverse, not just a select few instance runners can be had.

Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

@Matt5sean3 that's the longer conversation we need to have. But I do not want to have it in this thread, as I've been having it, pretty heated, in many other threads over the last few days.

I would appreciate if we could leave this one thread for focusing on calming down a bit and lowering the temperature, please.

Matt5sean3

@rysiek And that was my suggestion for an easily reversible action to allow that calming to happen. If nothing else it will let people know they are not being brushed off. The calming cannot happen without something like that.

Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

@Matt5sean3 no, I think it is reasonable to ask people to stop pulling stuff out of thin air and accusing random people of stuff for which there is not a shred of corroboration.

If you want to discuss blocks, pledges, etc, I would appreciate if you respected my request from before and started your own thread.

Matt5sean3

@rysiek Then enjoy the continued furor. Quite fundamentally, telling people to calm down when you refuse to act to address the concerns is not a practical stance. There are secrets being kept, that we know. It is by design that people are left only with speculation.

Fifi Lamoura

@rysiek Some real transparency would solve a lot of this, most of the kerfuffle seems to be being caused by the lack of clarity and transparency. NDAs aren't going to help that and it sort of starts to create a priest class (with both power and secret knowledge that isn't transmitted) if we're going to talk about the social aspects of this. Communication issues and lack of clarity always give rise to speculation, especially if people are being looked down on by the newly forming priestly class! (To be clear, I'm using priestly class here to illustrate the social dynamics, I don't necessarily think any of whoever was involved in the meta talks was trying to become this at all, it's just what can happen when there's secret knowledge and people feel shut out.) It doesn't help that there's been some sneering at people who voice concerns (on either side of the forming divide).

@rysiek Some real transparency would solve a lot of this, most of the kerfuffle seems to be being caused by the lack of clarity and transparency. NDAs aren't going to help that and it sort of starts to create a priest class (with both power and secret knowledge that isn't transmitted) if we're going to talk about the social aspects of this. Communication issues and lack of clarity always give rise to speculation, especially if people are being looked down on by the newly forming priestly class! (To...

Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

@fifilamoura yes, this is the broader conversation, that I am not necessarily wanting to have in this particular thread. There's plenty of threads about that, I'd like this one to be about calming down, taking a step back, and taking a deep breath.

Fifi Lamoura

@rysiek Fair enough! Sorry, didn't see the earlier comments by someone else!

Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

And to make this abundantly clear… regardless of how much you disagree with a person and how much you feel their decisions might be wrong:
👉 harassment is harassment, and is unacceptable
👉 calling for harm is calling for harm, and is unacceptable
👉 pile-ons are pile-ons, and are unacceptable

People who engage in that sort of thing are like locusts. They join a community, destroy it, and move on.

If you care about fedi, push back against that, even if it targets someone you disagree with.

And to make this abundantly clear… regardless of how much you disagree with a person and how much you feel their decisions might be wrong:
👉 harassment is harassment, and is unacceptable
👉 calling for harm is calling for harm, and is unacceptable
👉 pile-ons are pile-ons, and are unacceptable

People who engage in that sort of thing are like locusts. They join a community, destroy it, and move on.

Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

Oh, and you know what the best way to defend from fedi admins "selling out" — which again, is *not* happening! — would be?

Supporting them financially (if you are in a position to do so).

If you are in fact in a position to do so, go to your instance's about page, and check if there is any way to chip in.

And either way, hug your fedi admin.

Filip 🌱 ❄️ 🦀

@rysiek :flan_beer: to @jerry thanks for being our benevolent dictator! Also kudos to @stux and @calculsoberic for being awesome!

Christo

@rysiek Sigh. Dogpiles in social media seem to be the indication of when you've reached a critical mass of users.

yay, mastodon has made it /said in exhausted deadpan voice

Social media has a way of amplifying the best and worst aspects of the ancient town square.

Len

@hook @luka @fileneed all the open-washing aside

Still not :white_heart: GAFAM

padeluun ⁂

@rysiek @markush Show your love and force your Admin to take your money for his service. If he wants hugs - hug him, too.

Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

@padeluun my wonderful admin already takes my money for the service, and I give it gladly.

@markush

NorCal Lynne

@rysiek The pile-on that has been going on is ugly and thank you for saying something. Admns put in a lot of time, money, and energy. I’ve only been here since October and I really think those who recently joined should think twice before making accusations about people they know nothing about. Hope people cool down.

NeonkAaa

@rysiek

Some fedi admins make fedi happen, others break fedi. Not all of them are good, and not all of them are bad.
If you want to choose your community and who can talk to you then you don't need someone else to do this work. There is no need for fedi admins if you use a single-user instance.

If so many admins put so much effort into making decisions for other people then let's decentralize this case too. Let's get rid of admins at all. And let everyone decide.

Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

@nk as much as I would love fedi to be ever more decentralized, I am also a sysadmin and I understand how much work running an instance, even a single user instance, takes.

So I will continue to appreciate the feid admins, and you do you.

Kitty

@rysiek If #FediAdmins are officially accepting hugs then I am sending one to @thomas coz he's the admin of metalhead.club and he works so hard and he rocks 😊
Also to @stux coz he doesn't know it but he helped me with really useful info on Mastodon with his posts when I needed it and I never got round to saying thank you.
Thank you both 🤩

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