this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2023
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Technology
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Because both those instances have open signups, so trolls troll Beehaw, get their accounts blocked, immediately create new accounts, then continue to troll Beehaw (and by troll I mean post unsavoury stuff that explicitly goes against Beehaws Safe Space goal)
Still, de-federating is a big hammer that's usually reserved for the extremist instances like you've found, so de-federating 2 mainstream general instances is an extreme move.
It's a very bad user experience for users on lemmy.world and sh.itjust.works, especially since Beehaw has hosted many of popular Communities. So I can't help but think it's bad for the Lemmy migration as a whole to splinter users from Communities, even if it's good for Beehaw to protect their own users (which is explicitly what they set out to do, and well within their right)
Hopefully this is a one-time hiccup due to rapid expansion and lacking moderation tools, and not a sign of things to come. Beehaw did state in the announcement what it's a temporary measure until better mod tools come along, I just hope more technical reasons to de-federate don't keep coming up.
I also can't help but wonder if enabling downvotes on the instance would reduce the modding requirements drastically. Isn't downvoting undesirable posts to oblivion essentially crowdsourcing moderation?
This is really what I worry about now. One of the top complaints from redditors was that "I'm afraid to choose an instance and then have them defederate from other ones I care about" I don't think defederating whole instances is the right choice, personally. I do agree we need better mod tools to mod away groups of bad actors, but I don't see anything wrong with perma bans either.
As a new user, I really appreciate all the work the Beehaw admins do too keep this a safe space.
I think other big instances should consider adopting a similar registration process. At least until better mod tools are available. I feel like having to answer some questions and then wait for approval would deter many trolls.
I, personally, don't feel that adding friction is the answer. I also opted not to apply to join Beehaw because I think having arbitrary criteria to join is problematic. I like the idea that the mods care so much, but it's simply unsustainable. That and I don't believe that creating a bubble of like-minded people is healthy. Having terms of service and a code of conduct is one thing. Having an interview process is unappealing to me, and leads me to wonder how that community has gotten as big as it has. The answer is likely "slow growth".;
Take that for what you will. I would love to join Beehaw, but refuse to jump through hoops. Frankly, you need me more than I need you. Either you play a part in Lemmy's growth, or you add so much friction that people choose to walk away. Lemmy's hard enough already with all the bugs and the half-baked features. Adding more friction will defer newcomers further. Is it a win to deter a potential Lemmy user from adopting the platform?
I honestly don't see it as an interview process. You just need to answer three questions. It takes less time than writing a post. I assume the intention is simply for the admins to make sure that at least you have read the server rules and understand what kind of community they're trying to build here.
I also think it's fine if most people can't be bothered to do that. There are other instances who will have them. And those instances will have to figure out how to deal with that. But it's fair for the admins of Beehaw to limit registrations, since they're the ones putting in the (free) work to keep all this running. I would argue they don't "need you more" or need anyone in particular, for that matter. It's not like they're a platform trying to turn a profit from their user numbers - unlike what we're accustomed to, sadly. They're just trying to make this a nice space - for everyone - to share stuff without the caveats of conventional social media.
Unfortunately there really are only hammers at the moment. You can't just defederate a community, but even if you could that wouldn't help here.
It's not that the two instances were hosting objectionable content, it was that they had a slew of users come to Beehaw to try and disrupt the community, and continue to do things like ban evasion.