hey folks, here's a quick update on our decision to defederate from sh.itjust.works! (and here's sh.itjust.works's side of this update)
we got in touch with the head admin over there, The Dude, and we had a pretty good chat about our concerns and reason for defederating. while immediate re-federation is just bluntly off the table with the rudimentary state of Lemmy's moderation tools, we now have a pretty good idea of the roadmap to refederating with them. we think we'll eventually be able to do this, although we don't have a timetable on when yet.
we're also now collaborating with him on how to move forward--and in the weeks and months to come we'll be pushing to expedite the process of developing some of the necessary tools. this decision has really helped us make connections that can hopefully realize those tools both on the desktop side and in apps being developed for Lemmy. we're also hoping to collaborate with other Lemmy administrators who have needs like our own, or just generally want more granular tools at their disposal.
we did also get in touch with the lemmy.world owner prior to defederating to share the concerns that prompted us to defederate[^1]--but we have not received any communication from him since it was levied, so there's no roadmap at all there as of now. we're always open to reconsidering and collaborating to end the defederation with him, but for now the earliest i can give you is "when mod tools are in a better state".
that's all for now folks. if any new significant developments take place we'll announce them as needed.
[^1]: we're only bringing this up now because it was just not useful information in the context of our announcement. it almost certainly would have been interpreted as some sort of callousness and/or brought unnecessary sectarianism and grief to him. at the end of the day he has his reasons and desires for running lemmy.world how he does, and we have ours for running Beehaw as we do. because of social and technological circumstances those are just incompatible right now, and that's fine.
Just a heads up, we have a whole philosophy post about why we aren't going to "accurately define" rules. If you're not nice to other people, you're not welcome here. There are many mods and admins, myself included, who view transphobia as definitively not nice behavior and it represents the safe space we have here, especially for minority individuals like transgender ones.
I don't particular want to engage too much on this but I guess if you think the user was being nice then you have a very inconsistent view.
My take, looking at the reactions, is that it's less so a safe space and more a place to bully dissent if you have a specific righteous attitude.
And we can look at the user's specific interactions in the Reddit link they provided or with me. Calling generic "transphobia" doesn't cut it.
If after looking at that you're 100% in agreement of their actions then revising your rules to be more honest will avoid similar conversations or encounters.
I literally do not have time to be reviewing what another user said on another platform. I'm an admin and I'm far too busy for that level of interaction right now.
Transphobia is not nice and thus not tolerated, full stop.
Debating human rights is not nice and thus not tolerated, full stop.
If you have issue with either of these statements or the fact that we have explicitly designed a system which is interpretable to prevent jerks from skirting the rules and ruining a place, then this probably isn't the place for you.