I reported a Mastodon bug that exposes private DMs (now called private mentions) as public posts (aka "toots"). The ENTIRE Mastodon team REJECTS this bug as NOT REAL because this bug exists only in the UI layer and not deeper in the application code layer. Mastodon engineers INSIST that this exposure of user's PRIVATE DMs to the general public is WORKING AS DESIGNED. Mastodon further BLAMES THE USER FOR EXPECTING ANY LEVEL OF PRIVACY IN THE FIRST PLACE and says that if I want to send private DMs then I should USE A DIFFERENT PLATFORM INSTEAD!!!!!
Yes that's right, the warning/disclaimer attached to the DM User Interface implies basic privacy but not encryption, but then when pressed on an intermittent failure to deliver even the basic privacy implied by this disclaimer, the Mastodon team blames the user for expecting even basic privacy!!! This level of CONTEMPT FOR USER SAFETY & PRIVACY is utterly astounding.
This type of obtuse catch-22 abusive gaslighting mental gymnastic tap dancing and dishonest parsing of the meaning of the word "is", is something that we have all come to know and loathe in the corporate environment, but here it is now got in our house like a pigeon from hell, infecting FOSS like the disease that it is.
We all want salvation from the corporatization and enshittification of the internet. Crowd-funding of slick marketing campaigns won't save us. There needs to be substance under the hood, there needs to be vision, there needs to be some coherent ethical framework. Being okay with the leaking of user's private communications is not it!
Yes Mastodon is better than a nazi genealogical project hosted on IBM servers, but then again so is being trapped in an elevator for 24 hours with your most annoying co-worker. That's not exactly a very high standard, is it? Unfortunately when I look under the hood at Mastodon's vision, I find this team to be capable of building nothing more than a Roomba to Nowhere. Cute, but certainly not revolutionary, and for some unlucky users, downright dangerous.
[update] To thank me for reporting this bug on Github, the Mastodon team has now blocked me on Github.
@renchap@Claire@marcus@grishka@mellifluousbox@dopatwo [this list of mentioned has been edited to remove blocking users, so as to avoid having this privacy/security complaint cause any further unwanted disruption of their tranquility.]