I also just checked and this seems to have monumentally damaged the use count on the server.
I dont know exactly when this was enacted but in recent months the user count for the server plummeted from 80K to 20K and has month by month been continually decreasing since then as people flock away from the server. I suspect the use of this extremely abusive block list, and perhaps similar decisions are a large part of the reason.
In the past they were actually kinda responsible about it. They used to do due dilligance and made responsible decisions. Seems around the time they got a new moderator on board everything went down hill and due dilligrance went out the window. No surprise that was when their use based went running to the hills and has decreased every day since then.
This is just the last step they needed to take to kill the server.
I was only speaking to their policy regarding federation. I cant speak to if they were responsible with their own user base (which i am less critical of because you can always migrate).
...not really.
I had an account on there. I asked one question which, I suppose, someone took offense to. Next thing I know, I'm suspended - cant see anyone. I questioned/appealed the decision and never heard back. 30 days later that account is toast and can't even talk to people who'd friended it in the first place.
This was late 2021 early 2022.
Then I made an account on infosec.exchange.. Jerry was very cool. Then I got the idea to spin my own instance up.. and here I am.
No, these bad decisions at universodon have been going on for at least two years.. It's only becoming APPARENT now.
@admin@freemo FWIW - Universeodon didn't exist until November 2022 and I didn't take over the running of it until the summer of 2023.
Unfortunately I suspect the previous ownership and staff didn't really review appeals given the quantity of them that were outstanding when I took over ownership.
@admin I get that, I can't speak for why you were suspended or why you didn't get a response. The most I can do is apologise, it's not how we do things now, if someone has been banned and they appeal, we make sure to review and either approve it if we fucked up and got it wrong, or reject it if we see it as being a valid sanction.
@wild1145
And yet you're embracing an automatic "banlist" based on nothing except the say-so of people who, for the most part, shouldn't be deciding what to eat for supper on any given day, much less the suitability of a particular server (mine included...) for federation?
@admin There's nothing automatic about it, it's a list that I import and then review as part of the import. My choice to use the list was based off months of reviewing the list and the way it was curated, and the fact it can't be swayed by one or even two of the instances's ban lists that contribute towards it.
I haven't got the time, capacity or funding to hire the people to review the quantity of instances that we federate with in order to make decisions in the proactice way we should be.
@admin The list won't be perfect, but I've had no complaints in the months of using it here on MastodonApp.UK or even queries about why instances aren't connecting, and on Universeodon there was one person that questioned why their friends were on an instance that we'd blocked which was quickly discussed and resolved.
As far as I can see the list works for everything I need and want for the type of instance I am running here.
My choice to use the list was based off months of reviewing the list and the way it was curated, and the fact it can’t be swayed by one or even two of the instances’s ban lists that contribute towards it.
Factually wrong. Each list contributes a vote to the final list, meaning every block list sways the final output.
The fact that the list of servers which constitute the list are themselves highly abusive and noted for such in some cases (such as mastodon.art being one of a small number of master lists) is exactly why it is abusive and negligent of you to support it. Any block list where mastodon.art doesnt just get a vote but is part of a hand selected small list of master lists which literally define the list… no sorry but that is absolute negligence on your part.
Have you considered instead of being lazy and trying to avoid moderating your server properly and literally admitting to refusing to do due diligence… maybe you should consider I dont know, moderating your server and if need be promoting enough moderators to do so? Crazy idea huh.
If you dont have time capacity or money to hire moderators then do a good enough job people are willing to volunteer their time because they believe in the community.
I am a horrible moderator because I dont have the time is pretty much your excuse here, and its a bad one.
@freemo We should all go back to Usenet, at least there no one could do massive blocking, just individual users. I miss those days, when newsgroups were the social media of the day.
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