Inform our users on how to block Threads if they want to. We’ll post a how-to guide including the servers they’ll need to block, and give them plenty of time to do this.
Enable Authorized Fetch on the server. This has a performance impact, but effectively reinforces these user-level blocks.
Reduce Threads from suspend to limit. This will allow users to interact with Threads, while preventing Threads from flooding our timelines.
@jm3 It just means that instead of being completely blocked, posts from users on Threads would be hidden from our public timelines. In order to see Threads content you would have to actively follow users there.
Hopefully this approach will allow the majority of our users to either interact with Threads, or robustly protect them (and their accounts) from federating with them.
Will it please everyone? Sadly not. But it’s important to us to find a good workable compromise that will work for as many of our users as possible.
@trumpet I'm liking this. I have no desire to either appear on Threads or to see Threads content, so having a solid opt-out that affects no-one else is perfect, thankyou :dragnthinkhappy:
@trumpet I like it. The only account I want to interact with is potus though. I've heard that it's a one way pipe and threads users don't see responses from Fedi and I'm not sure if that's true.
Personally I've always been pro-federation but can understand why others wouldn't be.
As it's clearly not been disastrous on other Masto servers it makes sense to allow people who want to interact with Threads to do so, and for those who don't to be able to block it.
@DuncanMSussex I've always thought it's better to start from a position of strength and ease off from there, than to have to react to something bad in a rush!
@trumpet I’m a bit disappointed that you refuse to federate with Threads.
I’m trying to read into this “authorised fetch” feature but uncertain what it means for me as a user: most documentation is very technical and written from an admin point of view.
I understand you cannot please everyone, so looking forward to the next update on this before I decide to switch servers.
@trumpet Thank you Trumpet for caring mas.to users regarding this topic. Personally it is an opportunity for me having Threads users let in this channel but I'm sure not every mas.to users thinking the same. Making a good decision is important for everybody. 🍀
@trumpet Thank you for the info. I appreciate the sincere attempt to please as many users as you can.
FWIW, I'm personally less concerned about my own interactions being reachable by Threads than I am about mastodon being "enclosed" by Meta/Facebook. I hope there are conversations going on about that, too, some kind of coordinated hardening against the tactics they will surely use to eat us.
I take a similar approach here. The only other thing that I do is that, while I have threads.net limited, I do remove the limit individually on some accounts, like Potus, well-known journalists, and Obama, for example.
@trumpet I think you could possibly add me to those leaving. I follow the autism community on TikTok and social media has become less important to me since leaving Twitter (which will never be X to me).
I appreciate that you have more than one person to please and some want to be federated with Facebook. I’m very definitely not one of them. (Likewise Meta will never be anything but Facebook to me)
If I wanted to join any form of Facebook, I would have done already.
@trumpet This is really disappointing. I left Twitter when Musk bought it, never joined Facebook, left WhatsApp when FB bought it, & left Instagram for the same reason. I have a tiny following and don’t post all that often, but I was so happy to find a place unconnected to platforms that endanger vulnerable communities & threaten democracy by allowing misinformation & hate speech. Yet once again, here they come & the burden is on me to either block them or move.
@terrigarland It’s just a proposal at the moment. Another option is to set everyone to block at user level, so it’s effectively opt-in if they want to access content from Threads.
@trumpet I’m a fan of opt-in systems in general. Thanks for all the thought you’re putting into this and all the work you do to keep the instance running so smoothly.
@trumpet I hadn’t made my mind up yet because you clearly know a lot more things than me that need to be considered for this decision-making process. Proposal sounds fine to me, although knowing it’s Meta the question about un-moderated harassment/hate speech and choosing consequences will probably come up pretty soon.
Either way I am happy my instance admin is putting a lot of thought into this ;)
@trumpet
Did you consider the option to add threads to everyone's block list and tell people how to remove them via a forced UI on the web where you have to choose whether to unblock or not and the same forced UI for new users
@trumpet I will absolutely leave in this case and I think many others might too, I know I can personally block them but it's a principal thing, they are an organisation with a horrendous record on many issues and any other server would be defederated if they did the same.
@pidgeon_pete I understand this will be a red line for some people but we do have a huge number of users who will feel cut off from Threads. We will however moderate content on Threads in exactly the same way as any other server. If we see content on there that warrants it then we wouldn’t hesitate to suspend again.
@trumpet Glad to hear. It is not just the instance I would leave, but the whole system. Unfortunately there’s really no other place for people like me who are fed up with the Corporate ownership of everything.
@trumpet that content is front and center if you just look and is deliberately unmoderated. That's why it's a line I won't cross. But if that's what your users want.
@trumpet It’s Meta, their track record on moderation is pretty well established at this point. I’ve personally reported things on Facebook on multiple occasions that clearly went against their policies as written (and would go against policies here, e.g. threats of violence, racism, etc) and gotten an “all is well, no issues here” response each time. I don’t want to go on Threads to find examples there, but I can’t see how they’d be different.
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