IMPORTANT
Be aware: mastodon.lol is shutting down.
If you're on that instance, migrate your account RIGHT NOW!
The admin of mastodon.lol is @nathan
He's having a meltdown right now.
Whatever the hell is going on -- and I don't know exactly what's going on -- this isn't a worthwhile response to anything.
So @nathan's decision to shut down mastodon.lol stems from an argument in this thread.
Things escalated.
And now 18K Mastodon users will need to migrate their accounts.
This isn't fun -- but at least you can migrate 
Hey instance admins, now is the time to tell people that your community is open for migration!
Please give mastodon.lol users a new home!
@atomicpoet @nathan them shutting down the server seems like a good idea, considering their mental health. But as a very nice fedi member suggested:
the noble option would rather be handing over the server and its responsibilities to someone else given that a lot of people depend on it for their fediverse communication and this breaks their trust, to some degree.
@edendestroyer @atomicpoet @nathan he doesn’t want to because he sees it as his duty to protect the users. He stated they are minorities and it doesn’t feel safe to hand the data to someone else.
@gpowerf @edendestroyer @atomicpoet @nathan that does not comport with this behavior.
a previous post complained about people asking him to ban people for buying a video game. having had a related conversation, I get it. I can't imagine dealing with that, especially when you're sympathetic to their concerns. and then they can organize a bunch of other servers to block yours, which fucks your users. I don't see a technical solution for this. It has to be cultural.
@wjmaggos @atomicpoet @nathan also, seems users in that instance where in a campaign to tell people (even outside of that instance) spoilers of the game. Which would probably also get the instance banned.
Seems some other users were also telling people (on other instances) to kill themselves because they bought the game.
So yeah, the instance was going to end up being blocked by many others at some point
) @falcon @wjmaggos @atomicpoet @nathan@mastodon.lol okay but "Snape kills Dumbledore" was a classic 15 years ago. Banning for spoilers seems a bit much too.
@thebeehammer @wjmaggos @atomicpoet it ruined the day for many people. And some instances do have this rule. I’m totally in support of banning for purposely spoiling
@thebeehammer @falcon @wjmaggos @atomicpoet is that what happened in the books? I read all seven as a kid and couldn't tell you.
This is really bad timing as many refugees are finally leaving Twitter for the fediverse.
Is it not possible to transfer the instance/server to another admin?
@chargrille That's entirely up to @nathan.
Of course! I understand completely why he would not want to continue. I'm just wondering if someone else could step in. Follower/follows are pretty unproblematic to transport, but losing all one's content due to server shutdown is a big concern for me personally.
(My understanding is that, although you can download your own archive, your content is no longer visible to others after the transfer to the new instance. If there's some way to port your toots/replies etc. I would love to know!)
@chargrille @atomicpoet @nathan you dont lose a lot of content when migrating. while i dont know this from first hand experience i have seen others say its rather easy to migrate
@chargrille @atomicpoet @nathan mastodon.lol had registrations closed for a while though, since the surge started
@naught101 @atomicpoet @nathan
Thank you. I appreciate it. I'm so sorry Nathan is going through this, it sounds awful.
@chargrille @atomicpoet @nathan Yeah, nothing worse than being ganged up on by your own side.
@chargrille @atomicpoet @nathan it’s easy to migrate. I did 5 times before choosing a server
@atomicpoet @nathan yeah not great way to handle confrontation but also seems from that little bit people were being shitty and posting spoilers just in spite of Rowling and those who would be playing the game? That’s BS too and real immature.
@atomicpoet @nathan @jeffjarvis come over to SMUGglers!
@atomicpoet …just shows that larger instances should really seek better models of governance than an enlightened despot, because that one almost always fails in the end.
@atomicpoet our doors are open to anyone who can accept our very short list of rules 
@dbb Do i dare go read them?
@atomicpoet my instance just got a major backend tune-up a few hours ago, if anyone on mastodon.lol wants to move on over here, I should be able to handle large account imports in quick succession! I'm more concerned about all the media and content that is going to go down the drain though...
@atomicpoet also, instance admins, now is the time to talk to someone if you're having a bad day or bad week or a bad month and you need help, or a hug, or some cash for the server, or someone to pick up moderation, etc.
@rysiek @atomicpoet
honestly I think moderation is a problem on Mastodon
Some mods take it too far, and some users ask mods of too much.
I must admit though it's ridiculous what's being asked of Nathan here.
There is no uniform expectations of what the rules mean, each mod can interpret the rules differently.
We need federated code of conduct, and mods can pick which one applies to their instance.
@rysiek @Samir @atomicpoet dude how long have u been on fedi. It works. What you’re describing is stupid, and serves no purpose lol. Ask any fedi veteran.
@arcade oh man, I checked out the profile, and take a load of the company:
"Optimize with AI: Visualize and listen with smarter scheduling, management & analytics, all-in-one."
Blocking, don't need this anywhere near my tl.
@rysiek @atomicpoet yeahhhhhh it's tools for corporations to monetize fedi, it sucks.
@arcade @atomicpoet yup, combined with complete lack of understanding of consent:
https://mstdn.social/@Samir@m.tweepsmap.com/109861256363251351
@arcade
I am sure I have been building for it longer than you have been on it!
I used to be on an instance that when I posted a news article about a cure for cancer they considered it spam
and they disallowed posting in non-English language, talk about self entitlement
If you call this "it works", then I really have no words
@Samir it works, because I would defed the hell out of that instance
@atomicpoet https://opalstack.social we have a good moderation policy and are happy to help. I feel for the admin, I have worked with them on issues in the past.
@atomicpoet I launched circle.lt on Monday, all* are welcome.
Long read launch announcement: https://circle.lt/post/20230206-launching-circle-of-light-mastodon-server/
* Server rules:
1. Don't use it to break law.
2. No fascists, no tankies.
3. No racism and other prejudice.
4. No intentionally harming other people on the server.
5. CWs for NSFW content.
@atomicpoet Thank you! Just migrated from mastodon.lol, and feeling a little shaky. Thank you for being so welcoming!
@atomicpoet @seb @cd24 @Moritz @jeffkibuule @neuralgraffiti
We are welcoming, safe, and nice in the SF Bay Area! Come on over to sfba.social! #findaserver that is neither huge nor tiny… just right.
@atomicpoet we’ve got room at atx.pub for anybody who would like to be on an austin-centric server. i do review signups to filter out bots but i’ve yet to turn anyone down
@atomicpoet @nathan I glanced through the thread.
Wow, it was ugly. As ugly or more so than anything I've seen on Twitter. I actually ended up blocking _domains_ because of that thread.
@atomicpoet For all the discussion about how (corporate) social media operates on the backs of underpaid moderators reviewing an unending firehose of vile content, it certainly seems like the federated version just moves that firehose to goodwilled people who (without profit motive) decide to run an instance.
@nathan
@atomicpoet It's almost like we're discovering that all those problems we thought were problems with Twitter and Facebook are really just problems with humans.
@nathan
@atomicpoet I mean, some people definitely have, but one should treat them as one treats all utopians. 
@nathan
Garden I've never had a major content problem on twitter: the worst is usually people I follow bringing bad stuff as examples to my timeline; if it gets too bad or trashy, I turn off their retweets, or unfollow. The objection to twtr that bought me here was being on a platform owned by a rightwinger: same reason as I don't use FB, not because it isnt useful.
If there's a fight in the street, some will go out to watch, provoke, others will close the shutters. Humans, as you say. But if you get up close to the fight, dont complain about the bad manners.
@atomicpoet @nathan Drama is going to happen, and migration is obviously a thing here, but to me this emphasises the value in making migrations as easy as possible, ideally more complete than they are now (with all of your history etc), and ideally, IMO, if possible, making an account a more portable and less instance-bound entity on the #Fediverse.
In any true real-world federation, freedom of movement is fundamental. Being instance bound is closer to feudalism.