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1. Embed this notice
   Eugen Rochko (gargron@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 06:36:35 JST Eugen Rochko

   • かき@GNUsocialJP

   There were two notable moderation incidents on mastodon.social and mastodon.online in the past 24 hours that I would like to address. In the first, a post was wrongfully removed due to a report claiming it contained a dogwhistle, and in the second, a person was wrongfully suspended due to a report claiming it's an impersonator. Both were undone and apologies issued.

   • Embed this notice
     Eugen Rochko (gargron@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 06:36:56 JST Eugen Rochko

     in reply to

     • かき@GNUsocialJP

     The moderation team is bigger than ever and so is the amount of reports we have to process. We're dealing with unprecedented growth despite having closed registrations on these servers weeks ago. Some false positives are unavoidable, but we understand these mistakes are upsetting and unacceptable, and we are trying to do better. Luckily all moderator actions can be appealed and reversed.

   • Embed this notice
     Rich (rmbles@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 06:38:30 JST Rich

     in reply to

     @Gargron How many mods are there here?

   • Embed this notice
     Theodora Lau (psb_dc@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 06:38:55 JST Theodora Lau

     in reply to

     @Gargron thank you for all that you do!

   • Embed this notice
     bhalomanush (anirbanm@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 06:39:12 JST bhalomanush

     in reply to

     @Gargron I appreciate this response which conveys humility and accountability. Thank you!

   • Embed this notice
     Randahl Fink (randahl@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 06:39:45 JST Randahl Fink

     in reply to

     @Gargron will further registrations on this server be closed forever, or is there a known time frame?

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     Galactico (galactico@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 06:40:44 JST Galactico

     in reply to

     @Gargron keep up the superb work!

   • Embed this notice
     Grant 🇺🇦ArmUkraine🇺🇦 (grant_m@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 06:41:22 JST Grant 🇺🇦ArmUkraine🇺🇦

     in reply to

     @Gargron Thank you!

   • Embed this notice
     Aaron Y. Zelin (azelin@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 06:42:42 JST Aaron Y. Zelin

     in reply to

     @Gargron your moderation teams should also get people that know the extremist research landscape before calling for posts to be taken down or forced to have some warning that are not inciting nor show violence, but are shared to show trends and research.

   • Embed this notice
     Harry Keller (harryfk@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 06:43:35 JST Harry Keller

     in reply to

     @Gargron Thank you for all the work you’re doing! Must be hard, suddenly being in this situation under the spotlight, with all the attention and expectations. Hope you also get some rest! ?

   • Embed this notice
     Romanovich ?? (cherepin@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 06:44:05 JST Romanovich ??

     in reply to

     @Gargron Thank you very much. I really like this social network. It is really easy and comfortable to create content here. Once again, thank you very much for Mastodon, have a nice day and prosperity.

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     ~~~~~~ (drayenim@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 06:45:33 JST ~~~~~~

     in reply to

     @Gargron as opposed to twitter where you could easily get suspended and ignored for weeks, sending appeals into the void without knowing if any real person would ever read it

   • Embed this notice
     Matt (imwiththecats@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 06:48:19 JST Matt

     in reply to

     Thanks, @Gargron -- for the transparency and the hard work.

   • Embed this notice
     Izzy Jayasinghe (i_jayas@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 06:49:11 JST Izzy Jayasinghe

     in reply to

     @Gargron You haven’t reversed the massive dent in the trust and trauma for those on the receiving end however. Apologies are important, but they wash over quickly. Where is the evidence that they will learn, and that similar mistakes won’t be made. “Moderator actions can be appealed & reversed” is hardly a guarantee of safety.

   • Embed this notice
     John Francis (johnefrancis@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 06:49:19 JST John Francis

     in reply to

     • Erica Ifill

     this might be an update about @wickdchiq

   • Embed this notice
     sirsquid@mastodon.social's status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 06:52:44 JST Sirsquid

     in reply to

     @Gargron perhaps these kinds of instant suspensions should need another to sign off on them?

   • Embed this notice
     Cody (cgcody@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 06:53:44 JST Cody

     in reply to

     @Gargron I know you have a lot on your plate right now, and if anything this would be way down on the list, but have you considered something like Polis for community driven moderation? It seems to *possibly* have the potential of being a real benefit to society.

     https://compdemocracy.org/Polis/

     I should note this is what the bird apps "Community Notes" is based on, but there's no affiliation.

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     Joe Hall ☮️ ❤️ ? (joehall@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 06:54:56 JST Joe Hall ☮️ ❤️ ?

     in reply to

     @Gargron kep up the good work my dudes!

   • Embed this notice
     Andrea R.-L. (kircheheide@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 06:57:47 JST Andrea R.-L.

     in reply to

     @Gargron Thank you!

   • Embed this notice
     PositivDenken 🤯 (zeank@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 07:00:52 JST PositivDenken 🤯

     in reply to

     @Gargron you’re doing a tremendous job!

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Taylor (ampersarnie@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 07:02:25 JST Paul Taylor

     in reply to

     @Gargron While I appreciate the honesty behind this and the work the moderators are doing, I do find it surprising that the moderation team read that post as a dogwhistle. I actually doubt they read it and have just gone straight to believing the report and removed it.
     More care needs to be taken.

   • Embed this notice
     Sooraj Sathyanarayanan (ianonymous3000@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 07:03:06 JST Sooraj Sathyanarayanan

     in reply to

     @Gargron Appreciate the transparency! Thanks for your contribution ?

   • Embed this notice
     TheLargeGlass (thelargeglass@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 07:05:24 JST TheLargeGlass

     in reply to

     @Gargron …And this is why so many people want to be on your instance!

   • Embed this notice
     Nicolay Doytchev (lightrush@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 07:07:57 JST Nicolay Doytchev

     in reply to

     @Gargron the Reddit moderation model seems to scale. In Mastodon there doesn't seem to be as rigid topical structure to content, but I guess some similar topical division could be achieved by divvying up moderation by hashtags or groups of hashtags. Then you could have something like { * } for moderating any content, or any other combination. E.g. { science, astrophysics, aww, caturday }, { feminism, toxicmasculinity }. Good luck to whomever would be moderating the latter. ?

   • Embed this notice
     Molotov Cockatiel Games (Bill) (molotovcockatiel@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 07:18:31 JST Molotov Cockatiel Games (Bill)

     in reply to

     @Gargron Way to go, Eugen. Love the transparency and immediate response even during intense growth.

   • Embed this notice
     thiago (thmosqueiro@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 07:20:39 JST thiago

     in reply to

     @Gargron Thanks for the updates! Is the information on how to appeal publicly available? Hopefully only for those very few false positive cases, of course :)

   • Embed this notice
     Eugen Rochko (gargron@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 07:21:32 JST Eugen Rochko

     in reply to

     • かき@GNUsocialJP
     • Erica Ifill
     • David Megginson

     @david_megginson I am talking about @wickdchiq's account being suspended because of a report alleging it's a fake account, and a tweet being misread to support it. It's an unfortunate mistake. Nobody is banned for posting about racism.

   • Embed this notice
     David Megginson (david_megginson@mstdn.ca)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 07:21:35 JST David Megginson

     in reply to

     • Erica Ifill

     @Gargron If you're talking about @wickdchiq being banned for posting about #racism, please come out and say it. Please also tell us what action you've taken with the moderator.

     Racism won't go away if we pretend it's not there, and it flourishes when we're too scared to talk about it.

   • Embed this notice
     ForeverAndaDay (foreverandaday@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 07:26:49 JST ForeverAndaDay

     in reply to

     @Gargron appreciate the transparency! keep it up!

   • Embed this notice
     Chris Trottier (atomicpoet@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 07:31:31 JST Chris Trottier

     in reply to

     @Gargron Glad to hear it! Hopefully more budget is allocated for moderation now that funding for Mastodon has increased ?

   • Embed this notice
     Atoz ? (msatoz@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 07:34:11 JST Atoz ?

     in reply to

     @Gargron Thank you to you and everyone keeping the place ticking along. I think when people understand the size of the challenges, most are understanding.

     Keep up the good work!

   • Embed this notice
     Bert Latamore (bertl@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 07:34:20 JST Bert Latamore

     in reply to

     @Gargron Great work at a very difficult moment in our history. One problem for this instance specifically is that it is a natural attractant for nubies. It is mastodon.social, after all, so it looks like it is Mastodon for people used to the monolithic services. Another issue is finding the right instance to join. I try to go through the list sometimes, and it is overwhelming. A curated list organized by subject would be very helpful.

   • Embed this notice
     Änn Euing 📜 (chickamora@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 07:35:13 JST Änn Euing 📜

     in reply to

     @Gargron How are moderators trained to do this work? What is the diversity of the moderation team like? If it is mostly white, please hire more BIPOC people onto the team.

   • Embed this notice
     Bert Latamore (bertl@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 07:35:27 JST Bert Latamore

     in reply to

     @Gargron You and your team are doing a terrific job dealing with the flood of new people.

   • Embed this notice
     William Gunn (williamgunn@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 07:48:27 JST William Gunn

     in reply to

     @Gargron Now's the time, if you haven't already, to hire a moderation firm and keep the identity of the moderation staff private. Otherwise it's just pressure campaign after pressure campaign on the poor folks. I can recommend some good firms.

   • Embed this notice
     LA Sunshine (lasunshine@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 07:54:06 JST LA Sunshine

     in reply to

     @Gargron you’re doing great work, hopefully we can create and maintain an environment where our own behaviors will help you and the moderators not get snowed under by an avalanche of reports. I know that’s really naive, but hope springs eternal.

   • Embed this notice
     Amr Ghazy (3mr@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 08:01:32 JST Amr Ghazy

     in reply to

     @Gargron as long as transparency continues to be a part of how things evolve, it will be great

   • Embed this notice
     Chris Godwin (chrisgodwin@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 08:09:22 JST Chris Godwin

     in reply to

     @Gargron moderation can be very difficult, there will be mistakes but it's fixing them that counts! All the mods are doing a great job under an unprecedented flood of toots. You've all put in incredible effort and it shows ?

   • Embed this notice
     Eugen Rochko (gargron@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 08:26:58 JST Eugen Rochko

     in reply to

     • かき@GNUsocialJP
     • Alex, the Hearth Fire

     @WizardOfDocs Our moderators are paid.

   • Embed this notice
     Alex, the Hearth Fire (wizardofdocs@wandering.shop)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 08:27:00 JST Alex, the Hearth Fire

     in reply to

     @Gargron if you pay your moderators, this will happen a lot less

   • Embed this notice
     Janis (janiskay@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 09:06:32 JST Janis

     in reply to

     @Gargron for at least 24 hours I couldn’t follow anyone. Is there something that may have triggered that or just a hiccup?

   • Embed this notice
     Theo Schlossnagle (postwait@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 09:33:47 JST Theo Schlossnagle

     in reply to

     @Gargron thanks for all the hard work. Thanks to you and thanks to the moderation team.

   • Embed this notice
     Victoria De Capua (victoriadecapua@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 09:52:44 JST Victoria De Capua

     in reply to

     @Gargron I don’t envy you. But I think as long as everyone is staying precious about not having a central mechanism (at least a centralized UI) you’re going to see these issues skyrocket exponentially. Things simply will not remain stable without some adaptation.

   • Embed this notice
     Alon (alon@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 10:13:37 JST Alon

     in reply to

     @Gargron How many mods are American vs. European? Asking because US norms of anti-racism (~nobody calls it anti-fascism there) differ from ours a bit, and the case I saw of the Asian woman who complained of having to read books by white men would be an obvious no-violation-of-TOS case to an American anti-racist, but a white European may be unfamiliar with nonwhite anti-racist norms (and let's face it, Berlin Antifa spaces are very white - I don't remember seeing POC at B-Lage, Lovelite, etc.).

   • Embed this notice
     Ms. Penny ? Oaken (pennyoaken@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 10:21:54 JST Ms. Penny ? Oaken

     in reply to

     @Gargron Constructive criticism of moderation process (to help improve):

     Any moderation action that will result in the suspension of a user account should be subject to a “two-person” approval - that two people with mod privileges approve a suspension.
     The second person should be encouraged to be adversarial to the motion to suspend the user - “devil’s advocate” - and have the ability to escalate to a third person (one with executive agency) to tiebreak / document / improve the process.

   • Embed this notice
     Da Gummit Elaine! (newsthyme@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 10:44:15 JST Da Gummit Elaine!

     in reply to

     @Gargron sometimes it's not how you mess up, it's how you fix it. ?

   • Embed this notice
     ask330 ?‍☠️? (ask330@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 10:48:58 JST ask330 ?‍☠️?

     in reply to

     @Gargron TY for your hard work!

   • Embed this notice
     Don the Dreamer (snabulus@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 11:39:36 JST Don the Dreamer

     in reply to

     @Gargron We know you all are experiencing what "going viral" feels like. I am going to cut you a great deal of slack and I suggest others do the same.

   • Embed this notice
     Chris Squire (themagicwoodbus@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 12:44:07 JST Chris Squire

     in reply to

     @Gargron I’m sure It’s a learning experience.

   • Embed this notice
     ocdtrekkie (ocdtrekkie@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 12:45:50 JST ocdtrekkie

     in reply to

     @Gargron Are you still growing the moderation team at this time?

   • Embed this notice
     kurtseifried (he/him) (kurtseifried@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 13:21:59 JST kurtseifried (he/him)

     in reply to

     @Gargron Transparency and appeals being possible is a huge step forwards compared to say Twitter. Plus, worst-case scenario, you can join another server if the process goes sideways somehow. I feel like federated services will be much like democracy, terrible, but far less terrible than the other things we tried.

   • Embed this notice
     Heidi Li Feldman (heidilifeldman@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 14:04:51 JST Heidi Li Feldman

     in reply to

     @Gargron No system is perfect, nobody is infallible. Your team has had a lot to absorb. I have been assuming that you and they are operating in good faith and I will continue to assume that. Appreciate hearing from you on the challenges and efforts to address them.

   • Embed this notice
     cozyGalvinism :gnomed: (cozygalvinism@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 17:13:10 JST cozyGalvinism :gnomed:

     in reply to

     @Gargron Thank you for your hard work! Really appreciate it!

   • Embed this notice
     DaWoDerPfeffer (dawoderpfeffer@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 19:12:58 JST DaWoDerPfeffer

     in reply to

     @Gargron
     Thank you for the prompt and fast adaptation to all the changes your Mastodon Instances are facing right now!

     I do have an important request though:
     Please make sure, that the team of moderators has a majority of BIPoC, LGBTQIA+, female, religious and political "minorities", so that the moderation will not end up to be according to the severely restricted Endo CIS straight white male's ideas of the world and what is "normal"! ?

   • Embed this notice
     Tim J ? (tim_in_mpls@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 22-Nov-2022 23:46:27 JST Tim J ?

     in reply to

     • Nathan ?️‍?

     @Gargron: Know @nathan by chance? He’s wrongfully suspended @CODEPINK@mastodon.lol - Which makes me question why I should even want to be here.

   • Embed this notice
     Peer Locher (peerlo@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 23-Nov-2022 00:15:03 JST Peer Locher

     in reply to

     @Gargron thank you for letting us now and thank you for all that youre doing.

   • Embed this notice
     Irving's Zoo (irvings_zoo@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 23-Nov-2022 00:31:13 JST Irving's Zoo

     in reply to

     @Gargron It seems to me the way to do this is investigate first, BEFORE suspending. Doing it this way seems bass-ackwards.

   • Embed this notice
     Carol Hedges (riotgrandma72@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 23-Nov-2022 01:34:03 JST Carol Hedges

     in reply to

     @Gargron thank you for letting us know

   • Embed this notice
     Ricardo Malagon (rjmalagon@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 23-Nov-2022 02:08:12 JST Ricardo Malagon

     in reply to

     @Gargron A human approach to undone mistakes is always welcome.

   • Embed this notice
     Tristan Louis (tnlnyc@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 23-Nov-2022 11:38:25 JST Tristan Louis

     in reply to

     @Gargron I know you've resisted calls for distributed mod tools (eg. Blocklists going from instance to instance) in the past. In light of the new volume problem, would you consider being more open to such approaches and building/merging code into the main branch that would allow:
     a. an instance to get admin decisions from another instance to help inform/drive their decision
     b. A model where instances could publish or subscribe (via ActivityPub) to a list of mod activities.
     These would help.

   • Embed this notice
     Pete_Needham (pete_needham@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 24-Nov-2022 00:14:28 JST Pete_Needham

     in reply to

     @Gargron The problem is that you HAVE a moderation team. Moderators distort and ruin everything that they touch.

   • Embed this notice
     William (dxgl@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 25-Nov-2022 18:51:45 JST William

     in reply to

     @Gargron A question regarding your site, do you plan on adding TLS 1.3 support? Also, your ciphersuites seem to be triggering a grade cap of B on SSL Labs due to one of the reference browsers not using a Perfect Forward Secrecy ciphersuite.