Man, I don’t want to be in the middle of server wars, what instance is universally unproblematic? #mastodon

@LALegault
Mine! https://polymaths.social/

…okay, probably not true, if I'm being properly honest, but I couldn't resist a joke. ;)

We're in alpha testing right now, so it's not really a good target to move to at this point in time. But I'm excited about the future and think we've got a promising start!

@LALegault

@LALegault honest answer? Mostly all single-user instances, and very small curated communities. Many of the instances you will be familiar with by name have some contentious moderation decisions, but that is to be expected. You have to know how to research threads of evidence about an issue that occurred years ago involving an instance, and many of the toots are just gone. Ephemeral drama lol.

@LALegault WOW i cannot believe you said that!!!! blocked!!!

jk 😘✨💖

@LALegault no probs for me on ohai.social

@LALegault

Two of the best are:

mstdn.social (stux⚡@stux)

and

infosec.exchange (Jerry Bell @jerry).

@mastodonmigration @LALegault @stux @jerry uh, no ... two weeks ago I noticed infosec.exchange was being blocked/suspended by various servers over ... I forget. Some icky moderation dustup. A search engine will find the deets if you are curious.

@deborahh yes, about a year ago, I permitted the head of the US Cyber and infrastructure security agency, which is one of the most important government agencies in the area of defending IT resources, to create an account. That offended some other instance administrators. If that is a moderation dust up, I guess I’m guilting as charged.
@mastodonmigration @LALegault @stux

@buherator that is the craziest part - Jen (head of CISA) never actually created the account. It was my willingness to permit it that the HOA disagreed with.

@buherator @jerry 🤦

@singe that episode echoes to this day. There are still HOA members periodically bringing it up, trying to get people whipped into a frenzy. Humans are weird.

@buherator

@jerry @buherator I’m sorry that happens, but thank you for sticking around and giving so many hackers a space in the good place.

@jerry lol “HOA members”

@jerry @buherator What / who is the HOA?

@toxy @jerry @buherator You mean, in general? Or in this specific case?

@BenAveling @jerry @buherator In general. I have no idea what the acronym means. I’m old.

@toxy HOA = Home Owners Association. Otherwise known as a group of people who take great pleasure in bullying others into doing whatever they feel is right. @BenAveling @buherator

@jerry @BenAveling @buherator Thank you. I’m weak on American lingo.

May I ask why @stux blocked tooters? I have mutuals there so I can’t go there

@LALegault Tooters? dot? i can check if i have the full instance URL

@stux @LALegault @tooters.org

@stephanie @LALegault Just checked but we do not have any blocks or limits to them 😉

@LALegault This is bothering me as well. I joined and picked an instance that hosted a big name b/c I *had no idea what an instance was* as is the case with most people coming to Masto. I chose the server b/c I took the big name as an implied credibility check.

Then the Threads freakout started. Then several servers blocked Universeodon.

I'm pretty patient and willing to make a bit of extra effort to stay away from the billionnaire platforms, but this is even frustrating *me* at this point - I can't imagine how much of a barrier it'd be to someone less passionate about getting out of the Musk-Zuck-Dorsey mess.

It is NOT reasonable to tell non-tech people to just up-and-switch instances, or, laughably, start their own server, whenever some dustup happens... Until and unless switching is a 1-3 click process.

@_Birdie_ I also post a lot of media and am worried it is cost-prohibitive for smaller servers*…. We need an instance-guide written by a fedi-diplomat lol