27/03/21 - On Snow and FSE
The actual timeliness has passed and with my usual tardiness, i have managed to miss the moment, however I still have a little to say. Since this is all based on what i’ve seen and skimmed through over the past couple months, I dont have any direct screenshots, so you could take anything I claim with a grain of salt. However the events that I have seen have tilted my opinion of p to the point where I cant in good conscionce recommend his instance ‘FSE’ to people without needing to add ‘ifs and buts’ to it.
a little backstory, Snow is a user of Chinese origin and speaks with very poor english, this by itself is fine, however they are very opinionated to say the least, and they started a list called #pedoblock, a list where supposed pedophile instances would be listed and blocked, in a similar vain to #fediblock. Many instances are on said list, including my own. The standards for being added to the list are very strict and its a ‘one strike and you’re out’ type deal. This is fine on its own I suppose, and the list and Snow himself has recieved a reputation of being a bit of a dunce. Nothing wrong so far.
Supposedly Snow had made multiple accounts on FSE and was spamming the service and other instances. I have no reason to doubt that this happened, however actions following are ones I cannot endorse. After banning the accounts, and I believe Snow made another account on FSE which was swiftly banned. Snow moved onto his own instance, which is fine and a natural conclusion of any sort of fediverse drama.
The Snow account on FSE has since become a joke account by FSE’s admin, p, this may be me being too strict, however I dont think that action is justifyable and risks damaging the integrity of the fediverse. p has said that he’s made it painfully obvious that its not Snows account anymore, however to the average viewer that isnt necessarily the case and even if that is so, I do not think it sets a good precedant and makes me not trust p as an admin. An admin simply should not zombie an account, that is a line that should not be crossed.
This Snow account also replies with copypasta tier replies, which as far as I or even p himself is concerned, is spam. However it seems as its p’s account now, he doesnt care, just as he doesnt care about self titled “HellThreads”, threads where many people are @’d adn the same few pictures are spammed to said people. There has since been another case of p getting into some controversy over the banning of a user of his, which he claims is for spam. However the screenshot given just makes it seem like p just didnt like what he was replying with rather than spam by most definitions.
This may be little more than moralfagging, but for an instance supposedly entirely about the concept of free expression, p should be more aware of the ramifications of such an action and the poor taste it, and actions like it, will leave in more casual users.
Whilst I still like p and his instance, I cannot in good faith recommend FSE without several caveats at this point, and will be more likely to recommend other instances instead.