Please vet your blocklist creators before you implement a mute-list or blocklist. MAGA, foreign troll farms and other bad actors are working day and night to silence our voices.
Comments
Log in with your Bluesky account to leave a comment
At this point it's better not to join any blocklist. It's hard to curate which ones are authentic, and you could invest all that effort into something more productive.
It’s their psychology. They don’t have the capacity to be happy in any way other than being bullies. Even winning an election isn’t a victory for them in itself. They only see a win as an excuse for further bullying. If the people they want to bully cut them off, there’s nothing for them.
I watched their board for a while—it’s just a bunch of losers crying about how they can’t get laid, acting like it’s some secret club. If they put as much effort into self-improvement as they do making blocklists, we’d all be better off. It’s Losertown, USA, over there.
Should be a thing where like you subscribe to a number of blocklists by someone you consider a trusted actor (or, say, your mutuals) but you actually only do an automatic block when many of them have the same user in their blocklist.
It’s wild how we keep trying to get away from them, but they keep following. Their entire identity is around harassment and trolling. They NEED us. We don’t need them.
Yup. I grew up in a very far right and non-diverse setting. These people need to harass, and put in isolation, they will start doing it to each other, and they know it.
I've been saying this for months. Block lists are a bad idea. Aside of the potential for abuse, they also make it so bad actors get a free pass because people who'd otherwise report them, have pre-blocked them. https://bsky.app/profile/sjoneswastaken.bsky.social/post/3lazme6xnys27
if you subscribe to a blocklist that means you're trusting someone else to decide who you block
I don't have that level of trust in anyone, honestly; I can block neo-nazis and the like myself
Anyone following the follow and block lists of others like mindless drones have lost the will to think for themselves. Additional instructions will in all likelihood fall on deaf ears.
This is absolutely heinous. It makes the work of legit moderation list maintainers complete hell. I'll probably have to add a line or two about this in my own list's official text
I understand their mechanism. It's sad that they have to focus on this to make their lives and beliefs relevant.
We all know that blocks in Bluesky are auditable and work as intended, but not many are willing to actually go and check how it works, so it's an uphill battle to teach them properly
I've written my anti AI NFT Crypto text with accessible language and I still get requests from people wanting me to remove major AI image posters. At this point I highly doubt they understand what they read, they only want to be correct all the time.
I'm glad I saw this post earlier. Just now I think I was put on a list and then the user followed me and then either unfollowed or changed usernames or another account hoping I wouldn't notice. Tsk.
Tim, if I don't see screencaps from the site planning this kind of activity I'm more likely to believe one or more of their lolcows is doing this for revenge. KF's weens are more interested in gathering and sharing embarrassing material and acting outside the site is considered gauche.
KF attempting psyops is the saddest thing since they invented weens. I'd say that's /b/'s job but that board functionally died 15 years ago and no longer has merry pranksters of any kind.
Thank you for posting this. I found a Block List for MAGA. When I dug into it, I found they were satire (and liberal) accounts that were hated by MAGA.
How is this not an aha moment for them that they're in a cult? That they need to try and "trick" people into seeing their propaganda or block reliable sources 🤦
Their goal isn't to persuade, it is to incite. If they can goad someone into lashing out, they can clip it and show it to a bunch of people that will only see the retaliation and be swayed by that. They want to discourage good faith arguments and critical thinking.
This is exactly why I just block and move on - I am no longer willing to engage and no longer feel the onus to educate them. I'm too busy building a community to make these next 4 years survivable.
This is why I don't bother with block lists. It seems foolish to have someone else decide who I do or don't block - I have no idea of their true intentions.
a few days ago a list full of Brazilian trans people (politicians, artists, and public figures in general) accusing them of being pedophiles was circulating around here (obviously, all false accusations)
it was reported and afaik it's not up anymore but it took a long while for it to be taken down
it's been a problem for a bit, i myself ended up in some lists accusing me of horrible stuff and none of them were taken down, even if lots of ppl reported it
bluesky's team really has to take a look into these lists policies or how to make the verification of the reports faster/more effectively :(
I tried for the first year to get an invite but didn't get in because I wasn't another artist or fursuiter. So yes, my number is 1.3M but that's was over a year ago.
Confronting seeing a label on my profile and it turns out the description is "bluesky elder, this is not a badge of honour" like I don't want or expect a badge of honour, but also are people lumping me with some troublemakers because I signed up early then didn't even use the platform until later?
It feels like some sort of gatekeeping. I don't know the history, maybe it's in response to some BS elder gatekeeping of their own, but I certainly wasn't involved
Should I assume kiwifarms is a brigadier network / not as simple as bsky just banning a kiwifarms account?
Looks like my maga list is legit; ty for raising awareness.
It would be helpful if anyone said which blocklists these were, and gave examples, or how we're supposed to "vet" the people making them, who are some "bad" list-makers, etc.
I only use two, and they're made by a famous Twoman and I totally trust her. I reviewed each account on the list and everyone there made me puke. I lost 4.5 kg doing so. Best diet ever
I was added to a block list by someone who was caught telling people wildly false allegations about me that were instantly debunked. This person claimed I harassed them IRL at an event. I was not at the event and dozens of peopel verified this.
Saw even well meaning people get lazy with lists and add people too easily on loose criteria. Very important to vet every list! We need a tool for this. Thankfully with bsky API it might be possible to make a good tool. Something that alerts you if people you follow appear on a list for example.
People are using these lists to grind personal axes, they're blocking every single person who follows someone they blocked, they're shifting the blocklist mission after people subscribe. As others pointed out, these lists have been weaponized 1/ https://bsky.app/profile/sjoneswastaken.bsky.social/post/3lawmtefrvk27
I mean, don't use ableist slurs like that in general tbh (the second half. Lib is not a slur, before someone tries to get cute about it). Sarcastically or not, it's still gross.
That word the r-slur and it's variations are almost always an instant block for me. As a disabled person I don't want to associate with people who are comfortable using it.
They're creating blocklists that claim to block anti-trans harassment, waiting for a bunch of presumably trans/trans-friendly people to subscribe, then later adding prominent trans activists/creators to it, whereupon they immediately & permanently disappear from the feeds of people subscribed to it.
I don't know who specifically they're after. Likely anyone prominent they don't like.
But the idea is basically a trojan blocklist. It looks like it does one thing, and for a while that is true, but it's maintained by a bad actor who later can add any name for any reason without you knowing.
i totally forgot Parler's existence guess that thing was a flop along with truth social and rumble
thinking about it... there are some networks right wing centered along with twitter being their most recent one and with bluesky appealing mostly for leftists this suddenly becomes a "bubble" problem
I heard about the shutdown on reddit, & they had a mini celebration over there.
had no idea it was ever back up again.
I also remember some people who watched keffals saying she got it shut down by getting them kicked off their server, although I don't remember a lot of details at this point.
That was mostly just Keffals coping, honestly. Keffals didn't even really have any direct impact on it anyway, just acted as a figurehead for the movement that didn't even manage to do what it set out to do in the first place.
For a while they had no DDoS protection and had to jump from provider to provider. If I'm not mistaken, their current DDoS protection is a bit sketchy.
Or, maybe, I dunno, just block accounts that post content you don't like when you see them and don't take any stranger's word about who you ought to preemptively block.
Interesting. I posted something yesterday that got a bunch of wackos on kiwi farms following me. I reported & blocked immediately (& now they’re gone—thanks, moderators!) but they found me quickly.
I use 4 separate ones and I vetted all 4 and regularly go back to vet their new add-ons. There's been very few that didn't belong and all 4 are open to being shown that. It's all about vetting the lists and up keeping that vetting now and then. It's easier than constantly blocking individuals.
It seems like the blocklist is following a script where it blocks any user who has specific words, names and dogwhistles in their handle, including the numbers fourteen eighty-eight, which seems to make a lot of random accounts added to the list (its common to add random numbers to your handle)
I swear some of these block list designers have never had to design spam filters. Like going back to the old days when a customer would say to me why don't I get email from John Cockburn anymore? and they have "cock" in their junk folder rules. (for example)
Comments
They must see a lot of threat in troll-free, propaganda-free thinking and discussions.
https://bsky.app/profile/sjoneswastaken.bsky.social/post/3lazme6xnys27
I don't have that level of trust in anyone, honestly; I can block neo-nazis and the like myself
These losers want definitive proof that "blocking doesn't work, so you have to pay attention to me!". This is narcissistic behavior, fight here.
We all know that blocks in Bluesky are auditable and work as intended, but not many are willing to actually go and check how it works, so it's an uphill battle to teach them properly
I have no idea why I'm on a list about authoritarian lefties.
https://clearsky.app should have a tab with the lists you're on.
Would someone inside the CIA really create Bitcoin using an author name MEANING "Central Intelligence" when the NSA could frame the spooks for lulz?
Your warning makes sense as to why, thanks again.
So far I have not found a way of doing so which I think is a big oversight
it was reported and afaik it's not up anymore but it took a long while for it to be taken down
bluesky's team really has to take a look into these lists policies or how to make the verification of the reports faster/more effectively :(
What happened to the movement a while back to take them down? Did they really outlast it?
If you didn't need an invite code, you need to demonstrate a decent level of good faith before I'll block swathes of people on your say so.
There was at least a scandal a week on here before this place was open.
Doesn't even need to be a troll just someone who decides arguing with them is sufficient to label them.
I
I do it when im bored at work
Looks like my maga list is legit; ty for raising awareness.
admittedly not the fastest or easiest, but it's the only way i've found to be sure
plus then if you put the blocks in place yourself, if the person deletes the list in the future you still have them
Please vet your block list. For the love of God.
Don’t use their vocabulary in your bio ever.
https://bsky.app/profile/sjoneswastaken.bsky.social/post/3lawmtefrvk27
People do have word based flag-lists and block-lists.
Are they adding trans people to some sort of block lists?
But the idea is basically a trojan blocklist. It looks like it does one thing, and for a while that is true, but it's maintained by a bad actor who later can add any name for any reason without you knowing.
They talked about it on Twitter, but they went IN on it on Parler.
thinking about it... there are some networks right wing centered along with twitter being their most recent one and with bluesky appealing mostly for leftists this suddenly becomes a "bubble" problem
how the hell did they come back from the dead?
had no idea it was ever back up again.
I also remember some people who watched keffals saying she got it shut down by getting them kicked off their server, although I don't remember a lot of details at this point.
https://bsky.app/profile/demokirby.bsky.social/post/3lbamfda47c22
There you can check it
When I posted about the experience, a 3rd KF acct liked THAT one, lol
I'm not even sure how/why they were following me. I just block 'em & move on 🤷♀️
I have had a half dozen Kiwi Farms accounts try to follow me. Insta-block.