Notices by tech.lgbt Moderators (mods@tech.lgbt)

We are currently accessing backup data to get exact information on which follows were severed, from which we can then look for next steps and a path towards full recovery, possibly also in accordance with the admins of the impacted servers.

@faolan we've published our response here; https://tech.lgbt/@mods/111266259720653667

Our policy on defederation has never been reactionary. We do not perform guilt by association moderation nor do we enforce our server rules on others. How other servers wish to operate is up to them. We even allow criticisms of our team to exist short of harassment, but any actions are only taken on an individual level and not on an instance level. Instance admin criticism does not equal instance level action.

Due to the nature of how tech.lgbt moderators conduct investigations on reports and ratifying instance suspensions, these time intensive processes will be slowed as we are now prioritizing replacement moderators to alleviate our short staff. Do continue to file reports to us in the meantime and they will be addressed when possible. All other server operations will continue as normal.

We again are truly sorry this has happened after several weeks of trying to keep operations normal during these abnormal times. You all deserve better and we will not allow this mistake to happen again.

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We are truly sorry to report an incident around 18:00 EDT on 18 Oct in which one of our moderators had taken it upon themselves, without consent or knowledge of the rest of the team, to briefly suspend and unsuspend connections to some instances which were aligned with mastodon.art's fediblock on tech.lgbt. While the connections were immediately restored, follows between servers have been lost. The affected servers are:

blackqueer.life (13 users affected)
strangeobject.space (201 users affected)
sunbeam.city (146 users affected)

The moderator thought that severing these briefly would break the tension and hostility the team had seen between these connections, and told this to strangelove.space when asked. Severing connections is NOT a way to break hostility in threads and DMs. The moderator has had administrative privileges revoked until staff is trained to replace them. Only senior moderators will be handling any future administrative actions and communications.

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@faolan
We're working on it. An announcement will come from this.

@feditips @Nyla_Smokeyface we don't yet have full-text search, it's on the docket for one of the sysadmins, and it'll be added in the future.

@apophis @woof we've since amended that line, it was poorly phrased

https://tech.lgbt/@mods/111232277840411753

@quon

https://tech.lgbt/@mods/111232277840411753

Apologies, this statement was based on a best-guess consideration at the time, together with other sources talking about how this instance got added, we've loosened our statement about this.

@Coherence7521 https://tech.lgbt/@mods/111232277840411753

We made a couple of corrections to the blog post; we removed speculation in the timeline about the initial bug as our information about it had not been verified, and fixed a poorly phrased line in the response segment.

We know it's been a long while coming, but we finally have prepared our response in regards to thebad.space situation from last month. It is a long read, and we'd advise taking your time in going through the details thoroughly. Thank you for your patience with us on this matter.

https://info.tech.lgbt/2023/10/13/thebadspace-situation.html

@taminaminam this may be a limitation of tusky, which then only recognises 4 bio fields

unfortunately we do not have an archive of this, sorry :(

@taminaminam I don't believe that is something that we can change ourselves. I see that you have four fields currently. Did you have more than four fields before?

@nasamuffin yes, we're currently limiting jorts.horse

We've deliberated and drafted a response to the recent moderation concerns about tech.lgbt; here is a blog post that explains our response, together with the moderation changes that - we hope - address them systemically.

https://info.tech.lgbt/2023/09/15/addressing-concerns-rage-love-simcha-lgbt.html

We're currently drafting a response to the points raised about our moderation the last few days, to post to this account.

This will take some time, as we need to synchronise this drafting process across the moderation team.

#InstanceBlock universeodon.com

We are limiting universeodon at this time, and considering a full suspension at a later point.

We have heard concerning messages from universeodon's admin, Byron Miller, about their views on Meta, the Fediverse, and privacy in general.

Mastodon.art has defederated over similar concerns, many of which we share: https://dotart.blog/dotart-blog/defederating-from-universeodon

We do not consider recent actions by the universeodon admin, such as deliberately smearing another fediverse admin for their limit, as acceptable behavior for a fediverse admin, and this is something we do not want to engage with.
https://mastodon.art/@welshpixie/110624074405406421

We, the moderation and administration of tech.lgbt, are signing the Anti-Meta Fedi Pact in fellowship with our peer communities. (https://vantaa.black/pact)

There is over a decade of precedent that Facebook will not have users' best interests as their guiding principle but rather profit margins, if it joins the Fediverse.

We at tech.lgbt have long held the belief that corporation owned instances are a threat to the core of the Fediverse: freedom for users to be themselves and to be a part of their communities. The 2010s saw the loss of online freedom when the majority of the Web was consolidated into a few destinations, and Facebook entering here could lead us back to centralization. Furthermore, NDAs for server admins will constrain our sovereignty online by binding us legally from disrupting their business.

We are not products. We are people, and we do not welcome Facebook in this space.

#meta #FediPact #facebook #project92 #mastodon #fediverse #FediBlockMeta #FediAdmin #p92 #MastoAdmin