{"id":4228,"date":"2023-06-10T20:57:06","date_gmt":"2023-06-10T20:57:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/2024.thenexus.today\/index.php\/2023\/06\/10\/kbin-lemmy-fediverse-learnings-from-mastodon\/"},"modified":"2023-06-10T20:57:06","modified_gmt":"2023-06-10T20:57:06","slug":"kbin-lemmy-fediverse-learnings-from-mastodon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/2024.thenexus.today\/index.php\/2023\/06\/10\/kbin-lemmy-fediverse-learnings-from-mastodon\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t tell people “it’s easy”, and seven more things Kbin, Lemmy, and the fediverse can learn from Mastodon (UPDATED)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally published June 10; last updated June 20, with several new sections. See the Update history<\/a> at the end for details. \u00a0Thanks everybody for the great feedback on earlier versions! \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Join the discussion on <\/a>

Screenshot from lemmy.world, June 2023<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The front page of fedia.io is also all poop. \u00a0I hate it when that happens.<\/p>\n

Update, August 10<\/strong>: lemmy.world notes that there’s an obstacle to closing open registrations<\/a>: the message on the signup page telling people about joinlemmy.world, where they can find other instances, is only shown on lemmy.ml. Meanwhile, \u00a0 lemmy.world has been under a DDOS attack<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“So who is attacking us?<\/em> One thing that is clear is that those responsible of these attacks know the ins and outs of Lemmy. They know which database requests are the most taxing and they are always quick to find another as soon as we close one off. That\u2019s one of the only things we know for sure about our attackers. Being the biggest instance and having defederated with a couple of instances has made us a target.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Update, August 29<\/strong>: attackers spammed lemmy.world’s lemmyshitpost community with CSAM (child sexual abuse material)<\/a>, which then got federated out to other instances. \u00a0In response, lemmy.world turned off open registration<\/a>, but it didn’t help: attackers continued to post from other instances. \u00a0So they wound up closing lemmyshitpost<\/a> … although it would be easy enough for attackers to switch to another community, so we’ll see how effective that is. \u00a0<\/p>\n

It’s a difficult situation for other instances as well as lemmy.world. \u00a0“Purging” the federated posts didn’t delete the images, there’s no way to disable image caching, and limitations of the moderation tools mean that admins have to view unblurred images to decide what to delete. \u00a0Disabling image uploads leads to some unexpected error messages. \u00a0There isn’t any equivalent of Mastodon’s “reject-media” option. \u00a0The list goes on….<\/p>\n

lemm.ee’s short-term mitigation plan<\/a> includes disabling image uploads, deleting all images that have been downloaded from other sites, and applying a patch to prevent future downloads of images from other sites. \u00a0db0 (lead developer of AI Horde<\/a>) contributed a script that uses attempts to identify problematic images and delete them<\/a>, although it has a lot of false positives (and it’s not clear how this interacts with mandatory reporting requirements in the US). \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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6. Invest in moderation tools<\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

“Reddit admins have had 8 years to build a stronger infrastructure to support moderators but have not. “<\/p>\n

\u2013 Sarah Gilbert, AskHistorians and uncertainty surrounding the future of API access<\/a> <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As Gilbert’s outstanding description of the situation discusses, Reddit’s underinvested in moderation tools for years. \u00a0Alas, ever since 2017 , so has Mastodon. \u00a0And so has every other fediverse software platform I can think of.<\/p>\n

Now’s a great opportunity to change that.<\/p>\n

In the short term, there could be a lot of leverage porting the moderation tools that have been developed for reddit \u2013 or finding ways to replicate their functionality in a federated environment. \u00a0Moderator time is often the scarcest resource during a high-growth surge, and if moderators can’t keep up with the load there will be more spam, disinformation, racism, harassment, and people having bad experiences. Tools can amplify their efforts, and potentially let people who don’t have as much moderation experience help more effectively. \u00a0 And done right, these tools evolve to work on other fediverse software, where there’s certainly room for improvement.<\/p>\n

But why stop there? \u00a0<\/p>\n

In this study, I perform a collaborative ethnography with moderators of r\/AskHistorians, a community that uses an alternative moderation model, highlighting the importance of accounting for power in moderation.
Drawing from Black feminist theory, I call this \u201cintersectional moderation.\u201d… To ensure the successful implementation of intersectional moderation, I argue that designers should support decision-making processes and policy makers should account for the impact of the sociotechnical systems in which moderators work.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Towards Intersectional Moderation: An Alternative Model of
Moderation Built on Care and Power<\/a>, Sarah Gilbert, J . ACM, Vol. 37, No. 4, Article 111. Publication date: August 2023.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

New tools designed to center the voices of those who are directly impacted by the outcomes \u2013 designed from the beginning to prioritize accessibility, consent, safety, privacy and other community needs that current fediverse software doesn’t handle well \u2013 could be truly transformational. Sure, easier said than done, but this is a good opportunity to make progress.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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7. Experiment to find what approaches are a good fit for the current state of the software<\/h2>\n

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Mastodon instances run the gamut from single-person instances, relatively-small communities, and big general purpose sites. \u00a0Over time, techniques have been refined for the different approaches \u2013 Darius Kazemi’s How to run a small social network site for your friends<\/a>, for example, is an invaluable resource. \u00a0But unsurprisingly, the software itself is a better match for some approaches than others; mainline Mastodon, for example, has consistently de-emphasized functionality that’s very useful for smaller community-focused instances (in contrast to forks like Hometown and Glitch) <\/p>\n

KBin and Lemmy are similarly flexible enough that that they’re getting deployed in a lot of different ways. \u00a0For example:<\/p>\n