This morning while checking if Quokk.au's new instance logo was federated out, I discovered that overnight we had been shadowbanned from the PieFed.Social Instance Chooser (This is a tool to help spread out users across the platform and help avoid funnelling users into the largest.)
Knowing that Rimu was happy to explain, I just asked for some clarification as we were visible on every other PieFed instance except his.
Apparently for ' obvious reasons ', of which I can only assume is our left leaning anarchist/pro-trans stance we were chosen not be advertised on the PieFed flagship instance and first point of contact for many potential new users. Seeing as a large portion of our new users found us via this method, it will have a tangible effect on a small instance such as ours.
This was a pretty sad sight to see, and reflects the sort of petty drama that is emanating from the PieFed project lately. It's now the third such move to discredit and harm left leaning instances by PieFed's lead developer. This also shows a trend towards autocratic unilateral decision-making on Piefed.social, of which is starting to be run as a personal fiefdom without consulting the team or users.
I must commend Lemmy.ml for remaining neutral and not letting its own political leanings influence join-lemmy.org, while simultaneously condemn PieFed.social for this immature move that is harmful to the health of the Fediverse.
Following this exchange, Rimu announced a new update to PieFed allowing for some rather concerning things.
- Modlog: Reason for the action is only shown from trusted instances, so abusive mods won't have an audience. Admins can still see the reason though. Which instances are trusted is set in the admin UI.
This feature means problematic users can now go undetected, and will harm moderators ability to view their past moderation history. For example PieFed.social runs a 'trusted' list of only 34 instances, meaning any mod action taken by any of the hundreds of instances outside of this will not show up. So for example if Quokk.au was to ban a user for transphobia (our most common ban), this will not be reflected for piefed.social users potentially leading towards more hate speech on the Fediverse.
- Instance silencing similar to Mastodon. A silenced instance is not defederated from but their posts do not show in the Popular or All feeds and their communities are not shown in Starter packs aka Topics. Their communities can still be found in the communities list and joined in the normal way. Once joined, posts in there show up in the subscribed feed as usual.
This is another way to shadowban instances and not 'advertise' them. Surely if an instance is problematic enough that a defederation would be in order rather than this reddit-like move.
Evidence? Source? You act like theory is fact, and it’s not. Do you ever read something and think, I like a lot of this but not everything. Or do you just force yourself to accept everything you hear without considering your own personal feelings on the matter or other theories and opinions you heard?
Theory isn't a "fact," it's a guide to action. Action affirms or denies theory and helps us write new theory. Theory isn't just something in the political world, but in all manner of fields. Physics, for example, is the theory used as the basis for engineering. This doesn't mean what we commonly understand to be true in physics isn't subject to change, just that by applying physics in real life we better understand it and this can inform future decisions. Political theory is the same way.
Wait. Are you against empirical reasoning? Against the idea that ideas should be tested against evidence for or against their validity?
I'd say that dialectical materialism is a "theory" in the same vein as gravity or other scientific theories rather than the colloquial usage of the term. I'm still studying it myself and don't feel I've read enough to explicate in detail - others are more learned than I am on the subject. That said, my personal feelings on the subject are just that - feelings, not facts, and can no more impact dialectical materialism than my feelings on gravity can allow me to fly.
That said, certainly people can disagree on how best to apply the theory to a given time or place. But if you're unwilling to provide details and engage in the conversation, you come across as being either dismissive or defensive.
Iirc, scientific theory is the "how" of an observed phenomenon, and is updated as more information is accumulated?
I think that's more or less correct. A law is the what, something that can be directly observed and calculated, while a theory is the why. I honestly think if it weren't so counter to the interests of capital, that we'd hold Marx up there with Newton or Darwin.
I daresay you are correct.
For whatever it's worth, I have no alts and have been trying to engage in good faith. But no harm, no foul - you go your way and I'll go mine.