Notices by Fedi.Tips 🎄 (feditips@mstdn.social), page 18

@thisismissem @firecat

Only report I got was from someone developing their own ne ActivityPub platform, but IIRC they were able to change their code to make it work.

@thisismissem @firecat

I did a thread asking about authorized fetch before switching it on, and no one seemed certain if there would be problems.

So, I did a trial period, and no one reported any problems reaching the accounts (I was asking via FediTips which wasn't on authorized fetch). And my hosting company said there weren't any problems at their end. So I just left it on.

As far as I can tell it does work now? Would like to hear if there are issues though.

@jztusk @TechConnectify @interpipes

It really varies, no typical amount. But especially after the whole Musk buyout happened I was sometimes getting continual pings for hours at a time as people were asking for help directly.

Some of them were pretty nasty as they seemed to think I was a paid employee, and complained to me about features, but there were relatively few I had to block or report.

@mrvirite @TechConnectify @interpipes

"an indivitual may receive a lot of notifications that are not important, and without any kind of filtering as part of the core experiance, this will be a detractor for users who may encounter this issue. "

There IS filtering possible, it's just not algo-based.

Simplest is switching notifications into mentions mode so you only get notified about replies.

You can also filter replies by words:

https://fedi.tips/filtering-your-timeline-to-hide-posts-on-mastodon/

@mrvirite @TechConnectify @interpipes

It's not about asking them to use a specific app?

The idea of this place is that people aren't forced to use a specific app, that all apps have equal access to servers. (Whereas on Twitter, FB etc only official apps have full access.)

It's that if the current apps don't do what they want, the open nature of the platform would allow app developers to create something that suits niche needs.

@thisismissem @firecat

One thing Mastodon servers could do straight away is switch on "authorized fetch" (https://fedi.tips/authorized-fetch/).

It's off by default apparently because it uses more resources and used to break a lot of connections.

However, authorized fetch does seem to work much better nowadays? Maybe more servers need to switch it on?

(For whatever it's worth, been running authorized fetch on my own instance at social.growyourown.services and haven't run into any problems so far...)

@TechConnectify @interpipes

Different people will feel different things when they see unkind stuff, have different things going on in their offline life etc etc so it's difficult to say one way is better.

If you prefer using an automatic filter to make social media work for you, and you think it's a better trade-off for you, that's your decision.

@TechConnectify @interpipes

Speaking personally, it doesn't feel healthy for me to have an automatic filter pre-emptively blocking/muting without asking me first.

Sometimes I've had quite unkind replies which nonetheless raised valid points about what I've posted. It's not fun to see criticism, but it's sometimes stuff I need to see, especially if I'm running an account with a lot of reach.

I'm not judging others if they have a different approach, though.

@TechConnectify @interpipes

It sounds more like this is more to do with personal tastes than general principles?

I run a large account and I'm happier with a human-based system. I don't want an algo stripping away replies that I might want to see. I would prefer to be deciding on mutes/blocks myself.

But you prefer to have such decisions taken by an algorithm, even if there's a risk it blocks stuff you might want to see.

Is this a fair summary?

@TechConnectify @interpipes

This is why I was trying to ask if I can help, because quite often the processes here exist but they work differently.

When I've had problems with abuse I've reported it, and the reports have been acted upon.

If someone was telling me in a nasty way to leave the Fediverse, I'd report that as personal abuse, and the process would go from there.

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@TechConnectify @interpipes

Anyone can make a report, it doesn't have to be the OP. I've often reported posts I've seen in other people's threads.

The reporting is so that the admins know to do something.

The ratio of human moderators to users is much higher on here than on Twitter, so the moderation happens through human processes like reports.

The reason Twitter etc use algo is because they don't have enough humans to do anything else.

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@TechConnectify @interpipes

"I would, in fact, like it to be shadowbanned - they can think their post is there, but nobody will see it"

So, to be absolutely clear, you are asking for a complete ban on people saying they dislike YouTubers? No one else should be able to see such posts?

@interpipes @TechConnectify

"(at least, large accounts not about fedi itself), "

What do you think I am not experiencing?

@interpipes @TechConnectify

What specifically would you like to see happen if someone posts that kind of statement?

(Genuine question, I'm trying to understand the problem.)

@TechConnectify @interpipes

It's not intended to sound like that, sorry.

My account exists to try to help people on here, if there's some way I can help I'd like to?

@interpipes @TechConnectify

To add though, Mastodon and the Fedi are open so there's nothing to stop a third party client implementing such filters.

If someone wanted to build such a filter, they are free to do so if there's enough demand to sustain development.

@interpipes @TechConnectify

" relentless, unimaginative, self-centred, no value gripes about the existence of an account or the things it does that are NOT personal abuse..."

Again, it's sort of difficult to comment on this without seeing an example, even a hypothetical one.

However, with closed source filters you will never know what they are improperly hiding from you. There might be good stuff there which Twitter etc is preventing you seeing.

@mike

Yup, great point Mike 👍

(And for those who don't know, Mike is a long-time admin on here.)

@Nivle

Please don't 😁

If the other server doesn't act upon the report, there are still lots of things your server admin can do, ranging from blocking the specific abuser, to silencing posts from the other server, to blocking the other server completely.

There is always options open to admins even when abuse comes in from other servers. But the beginning of that process is reporting the problem to them, so it's important you let your admin know if rules are being broken.

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