Derek Caelin is writing a book
Watching the decentralized content moderation process play out, I am struck by the social pressures between admins.
People don't want their content showing up on an unwelcome instance, and they don't want to see content from that instance.
Because we exist in a distributed network, simply blocking another interest isn't enough to prevent this issue; mods want their distributed network to follow suit, as well.
So, decisions to federate are social. Admins put pressure on each other.
Derek Caelin is writing a book
My impression is that this results in *some* shaping of policies between instances, and some breaking of connections. Every time a new notable instance comes along (Threads, Bluesky, etc) there's a debate, lines are drawn, and people sort themselves into one side or the other.
A byproduct of all this is there is a lot of anger when the admins of larger instances make a decision that puts them on one side or the other of that line.
Derek Caelin is writing a book
MY question is, where does this social pressure happen the most?
My hypothesis (no clue how to test this) is that the pressure is actually strongest between instances with similar interests and codes of conduct.
I'd expect a far right instance to have no influence on a far left instance, and that the default behavior is simply to block and move on.
I'd expect HIGH social pressure between similar instances, because there is an expectation to conform. "OMG, we hate Z, why don't you block Z?"
Derek Caelin is writing a book
I know that it's a oversimplification to look just at instance admins.
For one thing, instances are not monolithic, and there are social contests *within* networks when people disagree on federation decisions.
Social.coop has had a *lengthy* debate on how to deal with Threads, which revealed the differences between members and what they wanted from their social network. Ultimately a decision was made, but for a while I thought it was possible that there'd be a division. There still may be.
Derek Caelin is writing a book
Anyway - my big takeaway is that federation decisions continue to be contentious, and possibly always will be.
Derek Caelin is writing a book
@jrashf The thing that triggered this was the dialog around the #blueskybridge.
James Ashford
@derek this is a really interesting thread. Thanks for sharing. I’ve never really given much thought about what goes on behind the scenes with these matters. Would you mind providing (ideally links) a few examples of discourse taking place? Just out of curiosity 🙂
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