As I speak, mastodon.nz is up to 7.5k active accounts. That's bananas, crazy numbers, for a server that a few weeks ago had an order of magnitude fewer folks. I tender my heartfelt congratulations to the admins and moderators of the server; what a wild ride!
It does mean that mastodon.nz is now easily the single biggest host of the NZTwit community, and this confers hefty moderation responsibilities on a team that has expanded quickly to meet its needs. A volunteer team, mind you, motivated not by money or glory but by an interest in growing and supporting a community. Unpaid, and during their free time.
At the best of times, moderation isn't easy. Actually, mostly it sucks. Besides the day-to-day noise of defederating from openly fascistic servers, and dealing with the crappy flotsam that drifts in from the fediverse, there's the community itself. Everyone's always stepping on each others' toes, and often there's not a way to adjudicate it that won't leave both parties mad at you. Someone is always mad at you. It's not quite thankless, but the thanks can feel slight compared with the drama.
And this isn't the best of times. We've got a whole bunch of folks new to the platform with conflicting - and often broken - expectations. Many of them don't want to be here, but here is all that's on offer. There's a major clash of multiple overlapping cultures, and some really important difficult conversations taking place. The mastodon.nz team have expanded quickly and may have varying levels of experience at this from past lives, probably have different values from each other and the people on the server, and are certainly newly composed as a team.
Difficulties were, and are, inevitable. What is important is to learn from them. And not burnout.
I bring all of that context up because I want to assure the team that I do, in fact, have the community's best interests at heart with this critique. I think last Friday you made a bunch of mistakes, and I would like us all to learn from it, if at all possible.
Last Friday, @smollestbunny found their account had been Limited twice on mastodon.nz. Fearing full Suspension, and therefore exclusion from a large part of the NZ community, who they rely on for support, they migrated to kolektiva.social, a server with a more sympathetic code of conduct. They posted angrily on their new account and this new account was promptly and silently blocked from the view of the entirety of mastodon.nz. After several people noticed and asked what was happening, @theadmin replied with a couple of troubling posts, and later, quietly, reduced the block to some kind of limit.
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Within the team, hold a post-incident retrospective that establishes all the factors involved in what happened. Use blame-aware techniques - if the term isn't familiar to the team then maybe ask around for a facilitator for the session.
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Share a public report on what you've learned and how you will change things in the future. Commit to a process for contentious calls, and adjust it as you figure things out.
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You have thousands of people, the majority of the NZ Twitter community that have migrated here. You have a huge responsibility to get this right. You are going to make line calls, and bad calls, and you are going to need to be able to un-fuck-up when you realise that you have fucked up.
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If you’re not explicit about your structure, relationships, responsibilities, expectations... you still get those things, they just don’t end up how you want them to be. And the de-facto responsibilities/relationships/structure that develops when you leave it to happen organically often reflects existing injustices, stereotypes, power imbalances etc. So work with the community to establish them.
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Hold your admin team to account. Expect and demand transparency and equity in the decisions they make. The community that mastodon.nz belongs to is your community, and if it stops feeling like it is, then speak up.
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Is mastodon.nz a democracy? No. Could it be? Sure. Would that be desirable? Not my call to make. You need to understand your relationship to the owners of the hardware and holders of the root passwords and privileged roles. What expectations are being set, and who is committing to what? You are a part of this whole thing, too.
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Ask yourself if politeness and respectability are more important than equity and safety. Don't treat mods like cops, and try not to ask them to stomp on poor, disabled people who are upset.
The mastodon.nz server, a donation-funded mastodon server set up by @Idanoo@mastodon.nz, is in the process of an order of magnitude growth in accounts, driven by the #NZTwits #TwitterMigration. The majority of NZ accounts that create Mastodon accounts create them on mastodon.nz. They have recently grown their moderator team, and have created a shared admin account, @theadmin, for official communication.
Wellington Twitter user, and friend of mine, @smollestbunny, sets up two accounts on mastodon.nz: @smollestbunny, and @System_error. They are not very comfortable with computers, disabled, Iranian, and struggling.
There is a LOT of ongoing Mastodon-wide discourse - by both OG Mastodon users and new - about when the CW tool is, and isn't appropriate.
I'm going to limit these to my 100% biased point of view, and I'll be focusing on the constructive. I don't have an account on mastodon.nz but a WHOLE HEAP of my mates are on there now so I have some interest in how this pans out.
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Don't rush to respond if you are upset. You'll end up making hasty statements that are difficult to walk back. Maybe just state the undisputed facts of the situation and note that you will be conferring internally.
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Don't make a statement justifying an action and then quietly change your mind, hoping people won't notice. That's the opposite of transparency.
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When moderating, clearly identify that you are a mod, in your name or handle. Otherwise you look like anyone else, and can be blocked by anyone else. Not everyone is going to go to
@theadmin's blurb and taking notes. On that note - clearly identify the mods on the about page. OR if you have safety reasons not to, consider having distinct mod accounts so it's clear when someone is operating in an official capacity. -
It's tempting to use the technical tools available to you, but moderating is primarily a people thing. If someone is upset and blocks you, maybe ask one of their friends to intervene. Likewise, don't just hit "Limit" on a brand-new user who may not know what that means.
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In a similar vein, consider adding a "warning" process before you apply the heavyweight tools. The context means that your tools have an outsized impact on those affected.
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Start or maintain a knowledge base that includes guidance for new mods, a record of previous incidents and their outcomes, warning boilerplate etc. Notion has a free plan, if you are stuck on a tool to pick.
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Prefer to stay silent than lie or dissemble in any public statement. It's not "pushback" if you make a call and someone uses the official tool supplied to appeal the call. Someone saying grumpy things about you isn't "abuse". Claiming to not "publicly discuss moderation decisions" is a) very silly and b) not true, given the rest of the posts.
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The number of reports you receive isn't actually a metric for whether something has breached your Code of Conduct. In fact, you'll probably be facing a bunch of vexatious reporting over the next wee while as everyone works things out. You are allowed to warn and ban people for over-reporting (assuming you put that in your Code of Conduct)!
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Differentiate between bad-faith dickheads and genuine people who are upset at you. The most vulnerable in the community may be spikier than average, and that may be for good reasons.
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There is always an internal and external boundary between the mod team and the server inhabitants, and it is important. Be clear with everyone on what this boundary consists of, what are inside conversations and wider conversations. The details are up to you, but think about them and communicate them.
Caveat - this timeline is not complete because a) I don't know what I don't know and b) I'm not copying and annotating every moment. I've tried to be honest, and fair, and capture the essential details as I understand them.
Where possible, I've linked to the posts in question in the timestamp header.
Nov 09, 2022, 18:57 - smollest speaks out.
Things I will never CW:
- Pandemic information
- Iran and the current revolution
- The problems in iran and how they relate to what the west did
- history
- colonization
- planetary death
- capitalism
- abuse from winz
- abuse from doctors especially as someone not white who is constantly being let down by doctors
- my critique of white people
- politics and how they hurt those of us at the bottom because of people's bad choices
Sorry but these are things people in privileged positions need to see & hear
Nov 10, 2022, 08:12 - Smollest asks for help once
Shakes cup alms for the poor
Nov 10, 2022, 09:25 - Smollest asks for help a SECOND time
Please boost and maybe share to other socials. This human is struggling
Smollest is Limited for "Spamming" - the two ko-fi posts are referenced.
Smollest asks
Stop CWing important things people
A second Limit is placed on the account:
You can still use your account but only people who are already following you will see your posts on this server, and you may be excluded from various discovery features. However, others may still manually follow you.
Hi there, we are reaching out as we have received several reports for content you have recently posted.
Unfortunately we have decided to limit your account. You will still be able to login and export your followers or migrate to a new instance. Several of the reports include; Pushing people to remove CWs for topics that others may not want to see, arguing with a moderators decision and instigating argumentative discussions.
These all fall under Rule 3 - No harassment, as well as Rule 4 - Be kind to each other.
You can find details on how to move accounts here - https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/moving/
Reason: Content violates the following community guidelines
Be kind to each other"
My thoughts
Should probably make it explicit if "Discussing or critiquing the Code of Conduct", or "disagreeing with moderators" are Limitable offences.
Why link to "how to move accounts" if you aren't suggesting they move? Why say "You will still be able to login and export your followers or migrate to a new instance". If this is boilerplate text, maybe consider changing it if you don't want it to be read as "you should go elsewhere, and soon".
smollest notices that @System_error no longer works and that something is wrong with their main, @smollestbunny.
Asks me for help.
Nov 11, 2022, 17:02 - Pls no ban
Whoever manages this instance please don't ban me I'm trying to find a way to move
Reviewing account, I see that two Limits have been applied, first on the 10th for "spamming" by posting their ko-fi account several times, the second on the 11th for violating "Rule 3 - No harassment, as well as Rule 4 - Be kind to each other".
We decide to move to a server where they are less vulnerable to silencing, and don't appear on the Local feed which seems to be why they are being reported. We choose kolektiva.social specifically because of its clear code of conduct:
We explicitly do not, and never will, require users to tag political content and news-related posts.
Their new account is set up.
Smollestbunny uses the appeal text box to send the following to the moderators regarding the 'spam' Limit that was applied:
this is not spam, I am literally a poor, disabled person trying to survive with very little, this is straight up discrimination and unfair
Smollestbunny appeals the "Be kind" violation with the following:
I asked that CWs be not used for the ongoing pandemic bcause the pandemic is literally harming people and hiding pandemic information behind CWs is a dangerous hiding of public health safety information. Respectability politics is killing and disabling people. I am moving to a different instance but not only is this discriminating against poor disabled people like myself, but u r saying tht covid is not an open discussion that should be had, think abut that for the next disabled person u silence
Nov 11, 2022 at 18:54 - Smollestbunny speaks up from their new account
Hello #NZtwits I've changed instance because admins of the NZ one are too liberal to handle covid information out in the open. I'm big angry. Being kind does not include putting pandemic information behind a CW. The pandemic is still going and pretending it's over by putting it behind a CW is not "kindness"
Dicks
Putting pandemic information behind a CW allows people to keep pretending it's over as per government misinformation. This is not "kindness" respectibility politics is not and never will be "kindness" nzs sense of "kindness" seems to somehow include that genocide is fine. NZ somehow lives with the white supremacist mentality that simply not talking about a thing or hiding the information about a thing especially if it's killing both healthy and marginalized alike is "kindness"
Let me tell you now that this is literally white supremacist Nazi mentality.
Nazis don't always look like Hugo boss dressed up in high fashion and concentration camp looking motherfuckers, Nazism and white supremacy can also look like telling non white and marginalized people, like disabled people like myself to simply shut the fuck up so you can pretend that things are not as fucked as they are. How do you think the Nazis got in? They didn't get in because of being well dressed, people simply just agreed that some things should not be spoken of and some people deserve to die.
And that is most of NZ in a fucking nutshell.
Fuck you
Nov 11, 2022, 20:37 - Someone notices smollest has been blocked
Mark Harris notices he can't see @smollestbunny anymore and asks:
Seriously, Admin peeps, did you just block smollestbunny because she moved servers???
Nov 11, 2022, 22:19 - Admin responds
After a number of people raise their concerns about the moderation action and lack of transparency, @theadmin responds to Mark's thread:
We do not publicly discuss moderation decisions. Our only comment on this matter is that we did not ask her to leave nor did we advise her content must be behind CW. She was limited here due to rule breaking, after warnings, and it is not appropriate to discuss private matters publicly. Her account on another instance was suspended because of abuse, as we would with any other remote account doing the same.
My thoughts
"Our only comment on this matter" - don't be like this.
Also, "not appropriate to discuss private matters publicly". This isn't a medical examination, it's a disputed moderation action where the vulnerable person is speaking publicly about it.
"any other remote account" is doing a lot of work here, isn't it?
Nov 11, 2022, 22:42 - Admin clarifies
There were over 5 unique reports for said user. Each one was investigated, we received push back when trying to discuss. Several mods were directly blocked.
To further this, abusing us and comparing us to Nazis on a new server is just disrespectful. This is all we will be saying on this topic.
My thoughts
- Your mods weren't and aren't identified as mods.
- If being "disrespectful" is a suspendable offence, that needs to be in the Code of Conduct.
Nov 11, 2022, 22:44 - No saint
I make a particularly unhelpful, but satisfying reply:
it isn’t all you will be saying and I hope you understand that.
My thoughts
- Not my finest moment
- I'll be disappointed if they double down on "all we will be saying". After I wrote you this nice critique and all?
Nov 12, 2022, 00:25 - Another mod gets involved
@_intothevoid advises that a second (?) person is looking into it:
There's another admin looking into it now, we'll see what transpires anyway.
Nov 12, 2022, 2:00 - Smollest can't follow NZ accounts
smollest can't follow nz accounts
Nov 12, 2022 11:53 - Check for visibility
I ask who from mastodon.nz is able to see @smollestbunny, and confirm that .nz accounts can now see them.
"Be kind to each other" is vital, but don't mistake civility for kindness. Be kind robustly, and be on the side of the vulnerable and the powerless.
And if you've got a dollar to spare, maybe help my friend out?