Notices by Mx Amber Alex (she/it) (amberage@eldritch.cafe)

Why is Firefox addon storage such a mess… I just want to pull some userscripts off the SSD from my dead laptop, but instead of having a folder like "tampermonkey/scripts", there are a gazillon "moz-extension++hdsjdhskjdhskjks" in the Firefox profile, each of which has an sqlite database instead of plain files.

Ugh.

I hate how much everyone romanticised the "we're all stuck in quarantine baking sourdough bread" vibe. No. No we weren't. You were, maybe. I was at work, five days, fourty hours a week.

This idea that "we" were "all" just ✨ vibing ✨ at home doing whimsical little hobbies is such a slap in the face of working class people.

@nileane what'd I miss?

@sophieschmieg actually, what you're referring to as critising Linux on Mastodon is, in fact, Mastodon/Linux criticism, or as I've taken to calling it, Mastodon plus Linux criticism. Mastodon is simply the medium, the Linux criticism is just one component of the larger social media universe.

@owl @schratze

food: $3000
rent: $0
taxes: -$10,000
utilities: $20,000
gas & kerosene: $50,000
bribing politicians: $5,000,000

please my three ex-wives and twenty estranged children are making fun of me

@JellyTBeagle where's the "I sleep with a shotgun in case my printer makes a noise" post when you need it

Every time a queer edgelord uses 4chan speak casually, I want to shake them and scream WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?

For all I care, give me a tree diagram of all posts related to the offending post, upthread and downthread, up to two degrees of separation. Scrollable/clickable further up and down the tree. Make it colour-coded so I can quickly at a glance tell apart which one of the combatants is which.

Anything, anything to elevate these moderation tools above the level of a simplex printout with two paragraphs on it.

#MastoMod

And while I'm going at it (once again 🙄): A "these moderators are also viewing this ticket" indicator, and a "another moderator has already assigned this report to themself" warning would be real goddamn neat. It happens so often that we get a report, two mods click on it at the same time, both click "assign to myself" a minute apart, and suddenly they're overwriting each other's actions.

#MastoMod

Just, please, remember we are working with digital media here. We aren't limited by what can be put to paper. This doesn't have to mimic an analogue filing system. Be creative, I beg of you, and give me moderation tools that offer a comprehensive overview, quickly, allow me to dig into the case without having to open fifty new tabs, and let me deal with everything – investigating, sanctioning, notifying the reporting user, and documenting the case – all without ever leaving the mod backend.

Please.

#MastoMod

Because, right hand to god, I tell you what – half the time it takes to deal with the average ticket is spent on pointlessly inefficient procedures that could be avoided.

Like opening all ten reported posts in new tabs, on the original instance, and hoping you can see the context there, only to find out the instance is some *oma or *key derivative that won't show you fuck shit without logging in, followed by trying to open the surrounding replies on their authors' instances to get a complete picture.

Like opening the user's profile in the mod backend in a new tab to take a look at their bio, and then pressing "refresh" to fetch the profile anew because it hasn't been refetched since it was an empty profile two minutes after account creation, because for *some* godforsaken reason, profiles and posts aren't automatically re-fetched when they're reported (please, *please* do that. *Please.*)

I'm expected to drive a big rig here, but each time I clock in, I have to run horse reins from the cockpit to the front wheels because the company forgot to give me a steering wheel.

#MastoMod

And I've been crying about this for two years or something. Look at my past posts on the subject – I've proposed a ton of improvements.

Retaining local, mod-eyes-only copies of posts that have been reported and since deleted, for documentation purposes, that's another one.

Every company in the world is required to archive receipts for a decade, but if I delete a post as a moderator, it's gone in 30 days and impossible to reconstruct the circumstances of the original ticket.

I've suggested semi-automatic moderation aids both passive and active, like automatically either silencing or just flagging for manual review every new instance the first time it's encountered.

And every time, I get a half dozen fellow mods across the 'verse agree and say, yeah, moderation tools really suck around here.

What's happened since?

The content warning field has hazard bars now. There's a mandatory, disruptive "read more" feature nobody likes. Unlisted has been renamed "quiet public" and global timelines "live feeds". We got quote posts half the userbase doesn't want.

I don't think the mod tools have changed in the entire time I've been a moderator, with one small exception:

The button that used to show posts on the original instance now shows them in the mod backend.

Providing no advantages and breaking continuity with previous behaviour for no apparent reason.

Great job, everyone. Pack it up, a job well done, clap yourself on the back.

Fuck all of this.

#MastoMod

Because at the end of the day?

We built this fucking place. Us, moderators.

You've written the software. You've popularised the protocol. You got the fancy logos and the legally different Discord purple and the EU grants or whatever.

But we built the fucking atmosphere. You may have sent up the rocket, but we terraformed the planet. We water the seeds you so carelessly toss at us. Without us, the people who volunteer and sacrifice their free time, and at times, their mental health; who sign up to wade through interpersonal feuds, who read racist tirades, who swallow down swastikas and genocide fantasies, who do this job knowing any day it may be their turn to be hit in the face with CSAM that will haunt their nightmares… without us, this entire goddamn network would be uninhabitable.

And you take us for fucking granted.

You don't consult us when you introduce new "features". You shut your doors when we ask you to make our job easier. You don't waste a single thought about us when you chase endless growth.

Oh, the moderators, yeah, I guess those exist. I never noticed them, idk, I don't see any problems around here. I'm cozy on my flagship instance, I act like the weekly spam waves are just a bout of bad weather.

We, we fucking made this place one that you are welcome in. We are investing our time, our energy, our nerves, to maintain something we love, to nurse an atmosphere in which you can be at peace.

This is our fucking network. If we all quit at once, you would be so busy blocking spam and harassment, you couldn't even post your bullshit inspo stock photos.

Toss some good tools to your moderator, because at some point, when people burn out faster than new volunteers can sign up, you will learn the value of good moderation the hard way.

Fucking. LISTEN.

#MastoMod

And take your FUCKING "read more and be forcibly yanked out of your timeline" shit off my fucking post.

But hey, let's take this one at a time. Let's start with something simple. like "refetch user profile and posts at report time" and a button to do the same inside the mod report UI, how does that sound?

I would tag Eugen, but mastodon.social blocked me after I criticised their BDFL, so 🤷♀️

#MastoMod

Oh and P.S., here's another feature I believe would really improve Mastodon moderation a lot, that I've previously proposed:

Instance A has blocked instance B, so all posts B sends towards A are rejected.

I would like a tally of how many those are.

Instance A has not blocked instance C. Users at instance C boost posts from B, which C attempts to send to B's followers at A. These, too, are rejected.

I would like a tally of that too. Which instances try to send how many boosts from defederated instances to us.

Identify which instances are gateways into the nasty parts of the network. Close gaps in the blocklist. Identify un- or undermoderated instances.

That would be really valuable.

#MastoMod

And lastly, I've said it before:

The fediverse, right now, is where e-mail was 30 years ago. Federated, meaning, impossible to govern centrally. Node-to-node connections not run through a third party in between (1). Anyone can spin up a new node at will.

And just like e-mail, we are experiencing the same issues: spam, harassment, unenforceable rules.

Look at e-mail today. Virtually all moderation is automated. Entire IP blocks are being blocked based on algorithmic judgements. Self-hosting is nigh-impossible. Appeal is effectively impossible. There are no human decisions involved.

Is that where we want to be headed? Or, on the other hand, do we want to head for chaotic free-for-all PvP?

We have to make that choice now. When I started on the fediverse, back in '18 I believe, spam was a non-issue. But as the 'verse has grown in popularity, in numbers, in profile, it's become a target. We have hit a milestone, we are now relevant enough for spam and scam.

We are at a crossroads.

I would like more passive assistance. I don't want automatic moderation; we've all seen where that leads with Twitter. I want assistive systems that provide insights, that inform my decisions, rather than take them from me. Because at the current size of the network, purely manual moderation is simply not feasible any more.

I would like a software that gives me all the info I would otherwise have had to go digging for right away, so I can focus on the decisionmaking part.

I implore you, Eugen and the rest of the team, think about moderation while you still can, because at the rate spam etc. is ramping up at the moment, your human moderators are being outpaced rapidly.

Look at e-mail and learn. Please.

(1) internet infra notwithstanding, I mean no AP-specific facilitator is required between two instances (relays are optional)

#MastoMod

Another feature I would like to see: some sort of relationship graph in reports.

Smack dab in the middle, the reported user. Above, everyone they're replying to. To the left, the user or instance who reported them. To the right, if it's a local user, the person who invited them, if applicable. Below, users who replied to them.

Just some visualisation to quickly get an idea of what the situation is. With links or buttons to expand those avatars and show the respective posts.

And while I'm at it: show me the user's bio! In full, not just a few lines.

The mod UI is severely hampered by the fact basically every useful piece of information is 1–n clicks away on different pages that take me out of the report.

#MastoMod

Things I need to know if I'm dealing with a report that's more complicated than "hello this is mastodon team pls click phishing link to verify":

• who's involved?
• how many others are involved?
• isolated incident or pattern?
• mano a mano or big brawl?
• how did we get into this mess? aka, who said what, to whom, in what order?

Information I get from Masto UI:

• the person's user name and only their posts

That is simply unacceptable. Masto mod UI is like trying to put out a forest fire with a gardening spritz bottle.

#MastoMod

Things I want for Mastodon moderation:

A feature to automatically notify the reporting user with a standard message that their report has been dealt with, to be filled into a textfield that the moderator can edit before hitting the button. Preferably customisable with some sort of easy syntax to match different actions.

So:

Would automatically be transformed into:

@ exampleuser @ example . com,

thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. We have suspended the account in question. Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any further questions or to bring future concerns to us.

Best regards,
@ janedoe @ example.com

That would be neat.

#MastoMod