Notices by Ro (are0h@ubiqueros.com), page 2

Pay attention to people who are afraid #TheBadSpace will result in their networks becoming isolated when the fedi becomes safer to navigate for Black and Brown folks.

Pay attention to people who are angry about tools that get us closer to that.

Ok, so after completely borking my setup because I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing (backups for the MF WIN), I pushed a new update to #TheBadSpace staging site that shows precisely how many times a location has been blocked and/or silenced and the total count of actions against a location.

Eventually, I'm going to make a heat meter that shows what percentage of sources have taken action against an instance so there's a clear visual to glance at and get a feel for what's happening.

Exports are making a return this week, and they will be based on that heat meter percentage, i.e., you can download a list of instances that have been blocked by 80% of sources, 70%, 60%, and so on. That should be ready in a couple of days.

It feels really good to be working again.

More soon...

Now, let's make a definitive post to shut all this shit down.

Why is Ro targeting trans instances?
I am not targeting anyone. My personal block list is not a part of the dataset. The blocklist is pulled from a list of diverse, primarily queer sources. I intentionally left out my blocklist so it would not influence the data. I did that from the beginning.

How are the sources chosen??
Sources are picked based on their commitment to moderate bigotry in all forms: sexism, racism, queerphobia, anti-semitism, Islamophobia, etc. If it is revealed that a source has a specific bias, they are removed.

Can my instance become a source?
Short answer: yes. Long answer: the application process is being finalized and will be available soon. But the point is to get as many sources as possible to diversify the dataset.

How does someone get removed from The Bad Space?
As it is a community project, appealing to me won't do anything because I don't control the data sources.

Let me know if it's a one-off because they shouldn't be in the search results.

If you have multiple infractions against your instance, you need to speak to the instance that blocked you. Some don't want their reasons to be known publically because it invites harassment, so we are working out a process where people can get answers while keeping people safe. So that's coming.

Are you open to feedback?
Very. I'm a 20+ year design and dev pro. You don't get very far if you're not open to feedback. But I'm also a person, so I will not react positively to people hurling insults and lies at me and trying to lecture me about what they feel the project does. Keep it peace and respect, and it's all good. Act like a condescending asshole, and you will be treated accordingly.


Boost this far and wide. I will talk more about #TheBadSpace as development ramps up again, but this should address all of the lies people say about the project.

@annika@xoxo.zone Not very. I set up a firewall to block IPs, but the point of origin rotates, so it keeps changing.

Ha, I REALLY made someone mad because they put thought into this.

@annika@xoxo.zone I appreciate that. Yeah, I'm just looking at different options right now because I want a permanent solution, so I'm open to any advice.

@annika@xoxo.zone I've been dealing with a sustained DDOS attack for the last few days.

I have to make some changes to the server, so it's going to take a few days to get everything sorted.

There's a narrative going that there is a rift between Black folks here and trans people, and that is false.

There is a rift between Black people and people who are racist that happen to be trans.

We need to be real about how anti-Blackness and the hate of us advocating for our spaces permeates queer communities.

Because, hands down, the worst cases of harassment and abuse I've experienced here as an admin and user have been at the hands of white queers.

And we need to be honest about that reality.

One last thing I will say about the last couple of days is that it shows how many people say that they want progress and safety, but that changes when it costs them something.

Does #TheBadSpace have false positives? Probably. It's trying to solve a complex problem that no one on the fedi has ever approached. It's bound to have some mistakes. That's just the nature of finding nuanced solutions to complicated challenges.

While some people who got caught in the situation reached out and handled it well because it wasn't a big deal in the end, I did see a lot of panic and rage from alleged 'progressive' people who were UPSET that this transition into a safer fedi affected them in a way they could not ignore. People who said they supported what was trying to be accomplished but got hostile when it required them to have some skin in the game.

The idea of it costing them even a minor inconvenience for a short time to ensure the safety of so many other people was met with such disdain and toxicity. As if the price for making the fedi a better place for people who are not like them should not impede their existence at all.

Fortunately, it wasn't a ton of people who reacted this way, but I've learned a lot about what people say they support and what they are willing to do and sacrifice to make it happen.

And that is a very, very important lesson I will remember.

Whew, ok, I finally had a chance to sit and code, so here is fresh upate to the tweaking version of #TheBadSpace

So, there was a minor bug in location filtering displaying sites that had been tagged for silence for reasons outside of the scope of the bad space, which are centers of harm and hate.

I will use Girlcock as an example because, haha, I just like the name Girlcock.

A member of trusted sources (who has since requested to remove their blocklist from trusted sources) had silenced Girlcock because they did not like their content, which is fine. Individual instance owners can do whatever they want.

However, the bad space should not list results based on personal content preferences because it aims to identify sources of harm.

The threshold for showing sites is two, meaning at least two members of trusted sources have to agree on a site for it to be listed in the results. An entry in the database must be seconded for it to be active.

Girlcock, while it may have content people might find objectionable, is not a source of harm, so it will not be returned as a legitimate result, especially since it has only been tagged once.

Several entries like this are in the bad space db, so the latest patch fixes all those occurrences.

So now, when you search for a site like Girlcock, there will be no results because they need to meet the listing criteria.

Whether you like it or not, #TheBadSpace is here, and it's here to stay because of its utility to marginalized and targeted groups in the fedi.

As I've said a billion times, it's a work in progress and constantly changing, so I'll listen if one has a legitimate concern.

But I am unmoved by people taking hearsay as the truth and engaging me in bad faith attempts to express their latent anti-Blackness because the thought of us defending and protecting ourselves enrages you.

If you cannot engage with me as a sensible and thoughtful person trying to figure out some complicated issues, I will treat you like the bigoted asshole you're presenting yourself as.

I am responsible for making The Bad Space as fair and even-handed as possible.

I am not responsible for assuaging racist fabrications because you don't want to recognize my personhood.

Hey beautiful people. I've been incommunicado this week as I get back into my workflow, and I will most likely continue to be in and out for a bit as I get into my rhythm.

The fund still stands a bit below 20%, which is good considering yesterday was the one-month mark since it started. It has been slow as of late, but I've been greatly encouraged to keep pushing by the response in the first few weeks. I know it will be a long-term effort, but I'm not going anywhere.

Also, #TheBadSpace is about to get a major facelift, so I'll make that repo public today or tomorrow so everyone can check out the direction it's going in.

Ha, is there a lot of stuff going on? Absolutely. But I'm finding my pace amid all of it, and it feels GREAT.

Whew, ok, talk soon.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/a-new-way-to-social-media

Whew, I haven't talked about the fund in a couple of weeks(what is time??), so currently, it stands at a little over 20% as we enter the last week of August.

I will keep pushing with #TheBadSpace and #Fipamo straight into the fall, so it would be great to get the fund to 25% before September hits. I'll even make a vid talking about what's going on when we hit that milestone.

From a work standpoint, everything is progressing well, with the Bad Space being the focus of the next couple of weeks as I roll out a big upgrade to the service. After I get that situated, I'll take a water break and roll right into Fipamo for most of September.

The contributions I've gotten to this point have allowed me to focus my time on planning and building, for which I am extremely grateful.

I want to keep that trend going for the rest of the year to get these projects out of the door and into the hands of the good people of the fedi, so let's keep pushing. Every contribution, large and small, helps to keep the momentum going.

So, let's keep it going, one step at a time.

So, the fund is still creeping ahead slowly, but I feel I need to post about it more because, to be quite honest, I've been off and on here while I work and haven't talked about it much, so I need to get back to making sure it stays visible for the duration of the campaign.

Maintaining a presence here while I work has been a challenge because when I get into my creative mode, my focus becomes laser-sharp to stay in that space when I'm building. But now that a significant part of #TheBadSpace's new foundation is in place, I feel better about discussing it publicly.

The fund so far has enabled me to carve out space mentally to focus on pushing it forward in a significant way, and I'm banking on it to keep progressing so I can bring the same energy to #Fipamo when The Bad Space gets to a solid place.

I plan to keep working through the fall to get these projects where they need to be, so trust me when I say every single cent in the fund goes a long way in helping me maintain a steady space.

A big thank you to everyone who's contributed so far, and I know we'll hit that goal. It will be a challenging climb, but we're in it together, and I can't think of another place I'd rather be right now,

wink

Okay, so there have been some significant updates to #TheBadSpace refresh

The biggest one being is that it now updates using @oliphant@oliphant.social's (big props for helping me to make this happen, homie. i owe you a beer) unified tier three list, which requires at least two instances that are members of Trusted Sources to report an instance to be listed.

This change was made to automate the process from the previously used tier 0 and further normalize how instances make it to the bad space.

It also shows how many times an instance has been blocked or silenced by members of Trusted Sources, which will be the beginning of a rating system to show how poor the behavior of an instance has been. Fucking sweet.

The next round of updates will include a space for archived links that can be added to an instance, in addition to screenshots, to detail behavior.

A logging system is also in the works that will show all the status changes, screens, and links added or taken away to make the history of instances transparent and part of the dataset included.

LOL, and yes, I know, responsive needs work. It's coming soon.

Whew, so yeah, progress is happening, and now that the foundation for the new site is just about in place, updates will be coming a bit more frequently until it's ready for the main domain.

WE'RE GETTING THERE. THE NEW VERSION IS GOING TO BE GREAT. YES, I'M HYPE!

@so_treu@scholar.social Like… all they had to do was just... move.

But… white…

It's been a very eventful week as the weekend closes in, and the fund is a little over 200 bones away from hitting 10%, which has been a fantastic start.

The fedi has me believing we might pull this off.

And I very much appreciate all the lovely people that have hit me up privately to offer their skills to help with the various tasks of building out #Fipamo and #TheBadSpace. Ha, trust me when I say I'm going to need it.

It will take a village to get this done, but I'm looking forward to that part. Because the fun part is going to be the journey.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/a-new-way-to-social-media

What up, beautiful people. I'm not gonna be around much for the next week or two because I have a million things on my to-do list, but I'm very happy to say the fund hit 10% over the weekend and is pushing past it, standing currently at $4504/40k.

Ha, if y'all get it to 20% by this coming weekend, I'm going to LOSE IT LOL! So keep it pushing. It's going to be a process to hit the goal, but every bit counts.

I'll start posting updates as soon as there is stuff to share, so hang tight.

Ok, back to it.

TALK SOON!

https://www.gofundme.com/f/a-new-way-to-social-media

Just stopping in for a quick update on the fund, which is still slowly but surely moving forward at a little over $5k/$40k from 85 lovely people who want to see a sustainable fedi.

Let's see if we can hit 100 contributors by the weekend. Ha, I like nice round numbers.

And as expected, I've been getting a good amount of trolling from people who feel I don't 'deserve' funding for various reasons they want to fabricate, but I've made the decision to not even pay attention to it and focus on the work.

The fact they can't just leave me alone highlights how some people on the fedi simply don't want this to be a better place and will engage in any bad faith, underhanded, and quite frankly racist tactics to keep this place from progressing so it remains a domain that favors bigots.

Every cent that I get in my fund is a declaration that we do not want that kind of environment.

It says we want an independent sustainable, and equitable place for all.

And we're pushing forward. Together.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/a-new-way-to-social-media

Yesterday marked two weeks since the fund started, and it currently sits at a bit over 6k/40k with 104 souls donating to the development of #Fipamo and #TheBadSpace.

It's already been a lot in these first 15 days, but if you told me I'd be sitting at 15% funded, I probably wouldn't have believed you.

And yeah, I've been getting a lot of hate from people who, well, don't like me because I'm not patient and understanding about harassment and abuse. Still, I can honestly say that has been in the minority, and the majority of responses have been enthusiastically positive and supportive.

As many know, I have a complicated history in the fedi, and I wonder if the posture of it has changed in a way where it's more welcoming to folks like me.

But I can say it's fucking trying. And for me, that effort is everything.

And all we really need is a group of steady folks to keep shifting that needle.

I really dig how this is shaping up.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/a-new-way-to-social-media

It's been a slow week for the fund, but that's to be expected because we all got lives, right? Sometimes, the pace is just going to relax a bit.

It currently sits at 6k of 40k after about three weeks, which has been a great start, but we have a long way to go.

I knew coming in, this was going to be a long process of overcoming my self-doubt and people trying to stop the fedi from progressing in a way that makes us safer.

But I'm in this. I'm going to keep working until we have a better option. Because if this week has revealed anything, it's that the fedi desperately needs more options to prioritize our safety and agency as people over features that only impress a handful of people.

So let's keep pushing. We're building something new, brick by brick. It's gonna take time, but we're gonna get there.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/a-new-way-to-social-media