Gina

Hi all,

I’ve been wanting to start a blog since forever, and here we finally are! In this post I’ll lay out some thoughts about recent developments on our Mastodon server, Fosstodon. Since these are personal views that are too long for a Mastodon post, I thought it’d be more fitting to post them here.

About But first: I’m Gina, a 35-year old nerd from Amsterdam. Project manager and staff to 2 spoiled tuxedo cats. I’m currently one of the admins at Fosstodon – a Mastodon server within the Fediverse. FOSS stands for ‘Free and Opensource Software’, so a tech focused server. I joined Fosstodon 6 years ago when I worked as an IT manager for a feminist, fully FOSS non-profit, and I’ve been enjoying our little corner on the internet ever since.

I’m a cis-gender, left wing, feminist, bisexual woman. I have years of activism under my belt. Marching in climate change protests, marching in slut walks, starting a diversity platform at the University of Amsterdam, participating in student politics, starting a food bank in Amsterdam, assisting on asylum cases for undocumented immigrants, being on the boards of several social causes. I’ve been a member of the Dutch labour party for years, although I usually vote for the Socialist party or the Party for the Animals. I’m proudly woke.

The thing is, I’m Dutch. Living in a cosmopolitan, educated, progressive expat bubble in Amsterdam. And recent developments have made me realize that this might be relevant. As Dutchies, we’re brought up with a ‘live and let live’ philosophy. It’s a laissez-faire type tolerance that has made for a mostly progressive society where plurality of thought is considered normal. Where opinions sometimes hurt, but we’ll fight for each other's right to have that opinion.

In my circles we also don't necessarily state that we're LGBTQ+ allies because... duh, we all are. That's like randomly stating you're against racism – I should hope so?? I realize the enormous privilege of this, and I realize that the internet is a bigger place, which is why I include being an ally on my profile.

Fosstodon Moving on to Fosstodon. First some background info: in April 2025 Fosstodon had a moderator (Carrotcypher) who had done and said some disparaging things on Reddit. The mod left, the previous admins Kev and Mike, who had steered Fosstodon for the past 7 years and were understandably burned-out, could have responded more thoughtfully. They left as well, and with them, Fosstodon could have disappeared. I wanted my happy nerd corner to live on, so I offered to pick up the admin baton and have been building the Fosstodon team since.

I started with posting an apology on our Hub about how things had gone. I reiterated Fosstodon’s goal: to be a welcoming, safe and inclusive place for tech and FOSS enthusiasts. I thought about and discussed ways to improve our server, to ensure this wouldn’t happen again. Ideas such as a moderator covenant, a user upvote tool, and more transparency are being worked on. And I gathered a new moderator team, now 20 people strong (plus a few back-ups). These people were selected by their years of good behavior on the Fediverse, answers in our survey, and by declaring to uphold our Code of Conduct, both on Fosstodon and outside. They went through training and started as mods 4 days ago.

Mod down We recently had to say goodbye to Anachron, a mod on our brand new moderator team. Anachron had written a blog post before his admittance into the mod team, that, after announcing his spot on the mod team, was not well-received by some on the Fediverse. The blog is available here.

I want to be open and transparent about this; I read his blog before accepting him into the mod group. To me his thoughts felt like the other end of the spectrum of what we find acceptable for our community; the first end being strict modding to keep everyone safe, with the risk of hurting plurality of thought (side a), the other end protecting freedom of speech with the risk of hurting marginalized people (side b). This is a tension that mods constantly have to balance.

I read Anachron’s blog as a poorly worded attempt to discuss the tension between freedom of expression and the need for community standards. In his blog post, Anachron argues that things are becoming too polarized, that there should never be an excuse to advocate for the harm of others. I’ll admit that the language wasn’t great. He could have read up on the paradox of tolerance, and it was too naive of the harm done by the previous mod Carrotcypher. However, I don’t believe his intent was malicious. Moreover, in his survey answers and participation in the training he showed alignment with our core mission of keeping the Fediverse safe and inclusive.

Naturally not everyone agreed with his views. We noticed some people were upset. Anachron himself sensed that his blog had missed the mark, and he offered to step away to protect the rest of the mod team from further distrust. I think this was the right decision, and I think that I should have better calculated the impact of his blog over its intent. Sorry about that. The safety and trust of our community comes first.

Other concerns That said folks, we need to have a broader discussion. Believe me when I say that I think everyone should feel safe and welcome on the Fediverse. That’s my priority as an admin. Especially for marginalized communities who already have enough shit to deal with in the real world. Fascism is on the rise worldwide and people are facing very real threats. I also understand that what might feel like a discussion about ideas to some feels like a threat to safety and dignity to others. Language matters. We don’t all get to live in comfortable, privileged bubbles.

There are people who occasionally criticize us. We listen, we respectfully engage, we take action on reports, we implement changes if necessary (such as further clarifying our CoC). Sometimes we’ll disagree (no politics without a CW, sorry yall), and that’s it. And that’s great. It’s respectful discussion and mutual interest. We’ll always welcome constructive feedback. None of us are infallible.

But yall, there have been a lot of bad faith arguments lately. Accusing us of ‘running cover for nazi’s.’ Calling people extreme terms such as white supremacists, nazi’s, fascists, etc. for having a different opinion. Riling up other users, dog piling, and starting flame wars. Some do it out of concern for their community or from a place of trauma, which I can understand. Even when getting hurled insults, we’ll still respectfully engage. But I see a few users spreading hate in a way they ironically accuse others of. It's deeply unpleasant. I worry about this undercurrent on the Fediverse. I worry about the vitriol. And I worry about the erosion of words such as ‘nazi’ and ‘fascist’ – we need these words to describe actual threats, of which there are still many.

It's not my intention to both-side this. But if everyone’s a nazi then no one is. If you disagree with this premise, that’s okay.

Conclusion The point I'd like to make with this post is simple: Most of us are here with the best intentions. We’re not out to harm anyone. Maybe people see Fosstodon as some sort of Goliath, but I assure you, our users have feelings too. We just want to talk about tech with fellow nerds.

On Fosstodon we welcome anyone who’s interested in FOSS and technology from any intersectioning background. We try hard to keep our little corner pleasant for everyone. Part of that is staying alert to bad intentions, wherever that comes from. Protecting users while also protecting freedom of expression is an ongoing balancing act. If you disagree with our words or our actions, let us know. We'll continue to listen.

Thanks for reading <3