Antoine Aflalo is a user on freeradical.zone. You can follow them or interact with them if you have an account anywhere in the fediverse. If you don't, you can sign up here.

github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/

"I propose to remove this blocking feature which is not in keeping with the spirit of Mastodon"

It's the story if one fucking idiot that comes on github to decide what "the spirit of Mastodon" is.

Privileged man sees free software made to help a group of people ;

Privileged man owns software, shits on the group it was helping, decides it's all about him and removes features that are not strictly made for his issues ;

Group tells him to go fuck himself instead, privileged man writes a 67 pages blog post about how he's being censored and we're breaking the federation ;

We've all​ left or died, privileged man wonders why and says we should speak up in public.

Antoine Aflalo @Balor

@CobaltVelvet nice story.

I agree a little bit with the "privileged man", there is a problem with the feature. Not the feature itself, but how it is used. It should be a last resort, not a first one.

Other than that, removing it is only going to make things worse and asking to do that while saying "not in the spirit of Mastodon" deserve your sarcasm.

· SubwayTooter · 0 · 1

@Balor @CobaltVelvet
not sure about your point, some idiot opened this feature request and it was declined ("wontfix") by Gargron on the same day, so why exactly are we all going to die or leave ?

@Balor @CobaltVelvet as an instance admin this line of argument annoys me

"should be a last resort"

according to whom?!

it's between me and my users how i run this place, and ultimately the decision is mine.

i'll block whomever i want for whatever reason i want! i don't owe them a place in my life or on my instance.

i don't owe them shit, and nobody else does either!

association in this network is voluntary, and that's extremely important.

@CobaltVelvet @bea

(Genuine argument, not troll, I want an open discussion and I understand you're pissed)

According to fairness. As a Moderator, you moderate the discussion, the discourse. When you silence/ban an instance because you don't agree with on of it's user, it's like saying, there is a bad apple in this tree better cut it down.

I understand your view, all of you always talk about protecting your users, but they have to tool to do it.

(1/?)

@bea @CobaltVelvet

As the admin you have to take the big picture into account, removed yourself as much as possible and not take issue personally. It's not easy, really not, but that how I see it right.

You also have to trust other admins to manage their users. Saying something like you better do it my way or I block you, is threatening. You might think it's to the benefit of your users, but that still a punishment to the other instance.

(2/?)

@Balor @CobaltVelvet

see this is what i have a problem with

telling me what i have to do

nobody gets to do this except MAYBE my users

@CobaltVelvet @bea please read the whole post, what I want is transparency.

@CobaltVelvet @bea

And as any punishment, it shouldn't be taken lightly. That why we have laws, attorneys, judges.

As the admin you're all of it. Each decision you take has an impact.

Now, it depends how you see the federation, is it a place where people comprise to live together or is it about creating different island where bridges get burned when issue arise?

(3/4)

@bea @CobaltVelvet

If you decide your instance is more important than the federation, that's your choice, and I respect it. Only, please say it clearly in your about page.

May it be clear what you stand for and how you're managing your instance and it's relationship with the others.

Because ultimately, yes it's your choice.

(4/4)

@Balor @CobaltVelvet i'm pretty sure everyone around here knows how i run things and that's why they're on my instance

@CobaltVelvet @bea then put it written somewhere, may it be clear to how you police your instance.

No surprise then when you take a decision. People would then now what it mean to interact with your instance and be on it.

@Balor @bea indeed my instance is about my users first, and then the federation. That's how a federated network works, it has always been the way. My about page describes it that way too.

@bea @CobaltVelvet

I see that I beg to differ, but I'm not running an instance. I guess I should. I would put the federation first, to avoid centralisation.

Anyway, I'm glad to have this discussion, it's clear to me, I have a different view than some of the admins.

And god, that's interesting!

@Balor @CobaltVelvet so, not to worry, i've read it now

i'm quite sure that my users all understand what to expect from me and that that's why they're on my instance

my about page is already mostly a disclaimer, but you know what

i will go add a little bit there just to make it EXTRA clear

@CobaltVelvet @bea thanks for taking the time to hear me out :)

With all these discussions I start to have a better view on how admins see their instance, their policies.

It's quite informative.

@Balor @CobaltVelvet no problem

i updated my about page if you're interested in taking a look

@Balor @bea @CobaltVelvet As an admin you have to exactly nothing except the things you decide need to be done.

#Mastodon provides technical tools, not a global policy of how Mastodon instances should be run. If instance admin want to run islands, it's their decision. You are in no right to impose anything else on them.

@bea @CobaltVelvet @galaxis I put numbers in the end for a reason. 500 chars isn't enough, please read till the end.

@Balor @bea @CobaltVelvet Oh, some agreement on transparency rules for "good citizen" instances that users are encouraged to look out for when signing up might be useful (not entirely convinced on that), but if those did exists, it still wouldn't mean that everyone has to implement them.

Also, the federation doesn't only consist of Mastodon instances, and others don't care in the least about these discussions.