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1. Embed this notice
   e(Ag)le (silvereagle@furry.engineer)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Oct-2023 11:47:35 JST e(Ag)le

   Let me break this down for you fundamentally:

   One of tech.lgbt's mods made a post telling people to be cautious of TheBadSpace after it wrongly caught tens of thousands of LGBTQ+ people in its blocklist.

   The masto.art admin asserts, absent ANY proof, that this mod both knew that a black man was running the blocklist AND intended to stir up a flurry of racist abuse against this man. This has led her and others to lash out against the whole instance, saying unbelievable things like they're "as bad as KiwiFarms", and defederating from them completely.

   The tech.lgbt admins dug into this, produced a huge write-up explaining every step of what happened, and in the end concluded that no, their mod's post was not the catalyst behind everyone getting upset about TheBadSpace, nor did their mod realize what a fucking minefield they had stepped into.

   The masto.art curator looked at this long post, rejected it outright, and just called them racist some more.

   • Embed this notice
     e(Ag)le (silvereagle@furry.engineer)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Oct-2023 11:48:46 JST e(Ag)le

     in reply to

     If you're on Mastodon.art or tech.lgbt, one day this week you're going to wake up and you may well find yourself missing dozens upon dozens of people off your feed.

     This is not because those people are bad people, or even because the instances they're on are bad instances with a long history of abuse. Neither instance is full of bad people, nor are they abusive in any material way.

     This is because one person controlling one huge instance got red-hot with anger over a single situation and kept escalating it, using her platform and position to amplify her own anger. She long ago gave up trying to de-escalate, and now every post she sees just makes her angrier, but because of the way Mastodon works, she is single-handedly capable of severing countless thousands of interpersonal connections.

     For my money, if this makes you fucking angry then it damn well should, but NOT at tech.lgbt. We're lucky they're even keeping the damn server running after all this.

     novatorine 🏴🏳️‍⚧️ repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     e(Ag)le (silvereagle@furry.engineer)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Oct-2023 11:48:47 JST e(Ag)le

     in reply to

     Masto.art's "curator", WelshPixie, is now flying off the handle yet again, feeling even more justified in severing connections with this entire server.

     Why? It's simple: she's only ever done this kind of tactic against smaller instances that are largely progressive/leftist, and historically, because she's in charge of such a large instance relative to them, they've been understandably hurt and have bent over backwards to placate her. (Notably, she doesn't enforce these same standards against larger instances than hers, like .social, because there's too much money in it.)

     This time, though, the instance bent over backwards for her, and it only made her angrier. She didn't want understanding or reconciliation, she wanted to force another instance to fire its staffers and was willing to use her whole instance as a cudgel to carry that out.

     So now, folks are done with her shit, and I am VERY here for it.

     novatorine 🏴🏳️‍⚧️ repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     e(Ag)le (silvereagle@furry.engineer)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Oct-2023 11:49:31 JST e(Ag)le

     in reply to

     • Amps

     @Amps The person who made that absurd, insensitive and frankly repulsive claim, Ro (also the one running TheBadSpace blocklist) actually doubled down on it this week.

     This rhetoric is just unacceptable in a setting of healthy coexistence in a federated community like this. That it comes from someone who purports (and fundraises) to be building a safer space for people of color online is astonishing.

   • Embed this notice
     Amps (appleamps@moth.zone)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Oct-2023 11:49:32 JST Amps

     in reply to
     @silvereagle
     Honestly saying that .lgbt is "as bad as kiwifarms" is not only wrong and unprofessional, but downright disgusting.
     Like, I feel like it should be said that tech.lgbt doesn't have a confirmed list of people it has killed. Kiwifarms does.
     novatorine 🏴🏳️‍⚧️ repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Hrefna (DHC) (hrefna@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Oct-2023 11:50:47 JST Hrefna (DHC)

     in reply to

     • Aurora Penguin
     • Amps

     @aurorapenguin

     You can make a pretty strong case that there is a _conflict of interest here_ even if he doesn't make any decisions directly due to how m.a responded to criticism of him/the site

     He can hold himself entirely separate from the process—which so far he hasn't, but he could—but so long as that is true there will remain an inherent conflict of interest

     This is true even if you agree with m.a's actions here

     @silvereagle @Amps

   • Embed this notice
     Aurora Penguin (aurorapenguin@furry.engineer)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Oct-2023 11:50:48 JST Aurora Penguin

     in reply to

     • Amps

     @silvereagle @Amps he says he isn't going to have his opinions influence the Blocklist but after all of this I have doubts.

     novatorine 🏴🏳️‍⚧️ repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     e(Ag)le (silvereagle@furry.engineer)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Oct-2023 22:29:38 JST e(Ag)le

     in reply to

     There is NO evidence whatsoever that supports an accusation that tech.lgbt's leadership was in any way involved in a harassment campaign against Ro or TheBadSpace. Further, there is NO reason to suspect that the instance is an unsafe one for any marginalized group.

     Even if there was an interpersonal conflict between one instance's mod and the staff of another, is there any good reason whatsoever to sever tens of thousands of connections as punishment for that? FUCK NO.

     Is there evidence that .art only holds smaller, more vulnerable instances to this standard while excusing far worse things from larger instances, on account of the revenue the larger instances represent? YES, in WelshPixie's own words.

     What is happening is, to put it bluntly, a fucking travesty. It's a slap in the face to solidarity, to community, to the resilience of the Fediverse at large, and a warning sign to countless many to stay away.

   • Embed this notice
     e(Ag)le (silvereagle@furry.engineer)'s status on Tuesday, 17-Oct-2023 22:29:39 JST e(Ag)le

     in reply to

     I've been following this really closely, so let me spell out some assertions I hold to be true here.

     NO, the post by the .lgbt mod was neither the first nor the most popular post calling out TheBadSpace. NO, the criticisms of the list were not rooted in, or in any way informed by, the race of the maintainer (Ro).

     YES, shitty people capitalized on the drama to harass Ro, but NO person on .lgbt's staff condoned, encouraged, prompted, or supported this at any point.

     NO, .lgbt is not "as bad as KiwiFarms"; such a comparison is abhorrent, given the very real lives destroyed by KF. Nobody who makes a claim like this should be taken seriously.

     NO, folks are not "spreading lies" when suggesting that Ro's fediblock posts influence the contents of his own blocklist. Many of his "trusted" sources follow him closely and block on his command, and he revels in the indirect authority this gives him and the pain this causes anyone critical of him.

     novatorine 🏴🏳️‍⚧️ repeated this.