 Some words about Mastodon moderation: 1. It’s hard. No decision is easy and there’s lots of gray area even with explicit rules. 1/5 #Mastodon #Moderation #Admin #Kindness #Empathy #Hate #Safety #MastoAdmin 14 comments
Consider what’s happening in Palestine. We’ve received hundreds of reports about posts on this topic. Someone’s critical of Israel and gets reported for being anti-semitic. If we leave the post, we’re nazis. If we remove it, we’re imperialists. Someone’s supportive of Israel and gets reported for promoting genocide. The opposite becomes our reality. We don’t moderate opinions; we moderate explicit hate, harassment, disinformation, and violence. But people make assumptions and attack. 3/5 Our team has spent hours debating where we draw the line on Palestine/Israel. We consider the context and language in each post reported. And we make a decision based on our rules, ethics, and context. We study other activity by the reported account. We take many things into consideration. Most of the time we get it right. Most of the time we’re spat upon and called out for being this or that. 4/5 The truth is, we care about people and we care about Mastodon. We believe in equality and kindness. And we believe in doing this with integrity. We volunteer our time to do this. We’re not monsters or fascists or terrorists. We don’t deserve the vile treatment we receive. Just don’t be an asshole, and you won’t get moderated. And if you disagree with our rules/decisions, there are myriad other Mastodon instances. Even if they’re poorly moderated or not moderated at all. 5/5  @markwyner Hey, this is my instance! Thanks for doing whatever it is that keeps all the bullshit out of my field of view. I love it here. @markwyner   @markwyner 100% the stuff in this thread, thank you for bringing to words what was only in the back of my head for a long while |
Gregory's Server
Publicly shaming or calling for uprisings against admins/moderators isn’t helpful or kind. We’re volunteers trying to keep everyone safe, not monsters. And, yet, we get targeted. Sometimes personally. That’s not okay.
Many of our moderation decisions are cut and dry. But many are also complicated. Often we receive reports that don’t violate our rules and are simply a matter of a difference of opinion. We aren’t argument referees. Unless that argument becomes harassment or discrimination.
2/5