expect this to be spelled out in more detail later, but genuine #FediTips for #NewHere users:
moderation on Mastodon isn’t about what content we can see, but about who gets to see us. our goal is not to shield our users from objectionable content, but to protect them from objectionable individuals.
“objectionable” means: • nazis • cops • replyguys • scrapers • people who cite posts without asking permission first • people who want us dead • people who damage the integrity of our communities • people who want to make money off of us
these people get the boot. if we want to read what they have to say, we can always create an account somewhere else. they don’t get to read us.
previous post is obviously an oversimplification, but if i found out that someone here had another account and was actively following someone we had blocked, my response would be “okay, well that’s your risk to take, just don’t bring that shit on our doorstep”
it’s really obvious from like a few seconds which moderators actually care about the safety of the people here, and which moderators care about cultivating a certain kind of liberal space or discussion platform with no considerations made for the fundamental vulnerabilities of being human, or not Enough for them to sacrifice their perfect vision of Liberalism in favour of actual measures to protect users
hint: the ones who care about safety are the ones who say things like “you’re a cop? goodbye”
what this means for YOU, new fedi instance owner, is that your priority should be not on ensuring your users have produced Appropriately Formatted Content™, but rather on ensuring that you can keep US safe
if you are, say, an instance dedicated to journalism, and you don’t have specific policy guidelines for ensuring that your users won’t do things to put our users in jeopardy, bye