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futilitycloset_feedWent yesterday to Cambridge and spent most of the day at Mount Auburn; got my luncheon at Fresh Pond, and went back again to the woods. After much wandering and seeing many things, four snakes gliding up and down a hollow for no purpose that I could see — not to eat, not for love, but only gliding.
— Emerson, Journals, April 11, 1834
ongoingtimbray_feedThere was recently a flurry of attention and dismay over Sarah Kendzior having been suspended from Bluesky by its moderation system. Since the state of the art in trust and safety is evolving fast, this is worth a closer look. In particular, Mastodon has a really different approach, so let’s see how the Kendzior drama would have played out there.
I’m a fan of Ms Kendzior, for example check out her recent When I Loved New York; fine writing and incisive politics. I like the Bluesky experience and have warm feelings toward the team there, although my long-term social media bet is on Mastodon.
Back in early October, the Wall Street Journal published It’s Finally Time to Give Johnny Cash His Due, an appreciation for Johnny’s music that I totally agreed with. In particular I liked its praise for American IV: The Man Comes Around which, recorded while he was more or less on his deathbed, is a masterpiece. It also said that, relative to other rockers, Johnny “can seem deeply uncool”.
Ms Kendzior, who is apparently also a Cash fan and furthermore thinks he’s cool, posted to Bluesky “I want to shoot the author of this article just to watch him die.” Which is pretty funny, because one of Johnny’s most famous lyrics, from Folsom Prison Blues, was “I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die.” (Just so you know: In 1968 Johnny performed the song at a benefit concert for the prisoners at Folsom, and on the live record (which is good), there is a burst of applause from the audience after the “shot a man” lyric. It was apparently added in postproduction.)
Subsequently, per the Bluesky Safety account ”The account owner of @sarahkendzior.bsky.social was suspended for 72 hours for expressing a desire to shoot the author of an article.”
There was an outburst of fury on Bluesky about the sudden vanishing of Ms Kendzior’s account, and the explanation quoted above didn’t seem to reduce the heat much. Since I know nothing about the mechanisms used by Bluesky Safety, I’m not going to dive any deeper into the Bluesky story.
I do know quite a bit about Mastodon’s trust-and-safety mechanisms, having been a moderator on CoSocial.ca for a couple of years now. So I’m going to walk through how the same story might have unfolded on Mastodon, assuming Ms Kendzior had made the same post about the WSJ article. There are a bunch of forks in this story’s path, where it might have gone one way or another depending on the humans involved.
The Mastodon process is very much human-driven. Anyone who saw Ms Kendzior’s post could pull up the per-post menu and hit the “Report” button. I’ve put a sample of what that looks like on the right, assuming someone wanted to report yours truly.
By the way, there are many independent Mastodon clients; some of them have “Report” screens that are way cooler than this. I use Phanpy, which has a hilarious little animation with an animated rubber stamp that leaves a red-ink “Spam” or whatever on the post you’re reporting.
We’ll get into what happens with reports, but here’s the first fork in the road: Would the Kendzior post have been reported? I think there are three categories of people that are interesting. First, Kendzior fans who are hip to Johnny Cash, get the reference, snicker, and move on. Second, followers who think “ouch, that could be misinterpreted”; they might throw a comment onto the post or just maybe report it. Third, Reply Guys who’ll jump at any chance to take a vocal woman down; they’d gleefully report her en masse. There’s no way to predict what would have happened, but it wouldn’t be surprising if there were both categories of report, or either, or none.
When you file a report, it goes to the moderators both on your instance and those on the instance where the post was made and the person who posted has an account. I dug up a 2024 report someone filed against me to give a feeling for what the moderator experience is like.
I think it’s reasonably self-explanatory. Note that the account that filed the report is not identified, but that the server it came from is.
A lot of reports are just handled quickly by a single moderator and don’t take much thought: Bitcoin scammer or Bill Gates impersonator or someone with a swastika in their profile? Serious report, treated seriously.
Others require some work. In the moderation screen, just below the part on display above, there’s space for moderators to discuss what to do. (In this particular case they decided that criticism of political leadership wasn’t “antisemitism” and resolved the report with no action.)
In the Kendzior case, what might the moderators have done? The answer, as usual, is “it depends”. If there were just one or two reports and they leaned on terminology like “bitch” and “woke”, quite possibly they would have been dismissed.
If one or more reports were a heartfelt expression of revulsion or trauma at what seemed to be a hideous death threat, the moderators might well have decided to take action. Similarly if the reports were from people who’d got the reference and snickered but then decided that there really should have been a “just kidding” addendum.
Here are the actions a moderator can take.
If you select “Custom”, you get this:
Once again, I think these are self-explanatory. Before taking up the question of what might happen in the Kendzior case, I should grant that moderators are just people, and sometimes they’re the wrong people. There have been servers with a reputation for draconian moderation on posts that are even moderately controversial. They typically haven’t done very well in terms of attracting and retaining members.
OK, what might happen in the Kendzior case? I’m pretty sure there are servers out there where the post would just have been deleted. But my bet is on that “Send a warning” option. Where the warning might go something like “That post of yours really shook up some people who didn’t get the Folsom Prison Blues reference and you should really update it somehow to make it clear you’re not serious.”
Typically, people who get that kind of moderation message take it seriously. If not, the moderator can just delete the post. And if the person makes it clear they’re not going to co-operate, that creates a serious risk that if you let them go on shaking people up, your server could get mass-defederated, which is the death penalty. So (after some discussion) they’d delete the account. Everyone has the right to free speech, but nobody has a right to an audience courtesy of our server.
It is very, very unlikely that in the Mastodon universe, Sarah Kendzior’s account would suddenly have globally vanished. It is quite likely that the shot-a-man post would have been edited appropriately, and possible that it would have just vanished.
I think the possible outcomes I suggested above are, well, OK. I think the process I’ve described is also OK. The question arises as to whether this will hold together as the Fediverse grows by orders of magnitude.
I think so? People are working hard on moderation tools. I think this could be an area where AI would help, by highlighting possible problems for moderators in the same way that it highlights spots-to-look-at today for radiologists. We’ll see.
There are also a couple of a background realities that we should be paying more attention to. First, bad actors tend to cluster on bad servers, simply because non-bad servers take moderation seriously. The defederation scalpel needs to be kept sharp and kept nearby.
Secondly, I’m pretty convinced that the current open-enrollment policy adopted by many servers, where anyone can have an account just by asking for it, will eventually have to be phased out. Even a tiny barrier to entry — a few words on why you want to join or, even better, a small payment — is going to reduce the frequency of troublemakers to an amazing degree.
Well, now you know how moderation works in the Fediverse. You’ll have to make up your own mind about whether you like it.
maru_feedformula1_dot_com_feedfutilitycloset_feedIn 1977 Jay Ames found he could approximate nursery rhymes using the names in the Toronto telephone directory:
Barr Barre Black Shipp
Haff Yew Anney Wool
Yetts Herr, Yetts Herr
Three Baggs Voll
Wan Farr Durr Master
Won Forder Dame
An Wun Varder Littleboys
Watt Lief Sinne Allain.
In 1963 the TV show I’ve Got A Secret searched the phone books of New York City to find residents whose names, in order, approximated the lyrics to “In the Good Old Summertime”:
formula1_dot_com_feedbbc_f1_feedbbc_f1_feedbbc_f1_feedformula1_dot_com_feedbbc_f1_feedbbc_f1_feedbbc_f1_feedformula1_dot_com_feedformula1_dot_com_feedformula1_dot_com_feedthe_daily_wtf_feedWolferitza sends us a large chunk of a C# class. We'll take it in chunks because there's a lot here, but let's start with the obvious problem:
private int iID0;
private int iID1;
private int iID2;
private int iID3;
private int iID4;
private int iID5;
private int iID6;
private int iID7;
private int iID8;
private int iID9;
private int iID10;
private int iID11;
private int iID12;
private int iID13;
If you say, "Maybe they should use an array," you're missing the real problem here: Hungarian notation. But sure, yes, they should probably use arrays. And you might think, "Hey, they should use arrays," would be an easy fix. Not for this developer, who used an ArrayList.
private void Basculer(DataTable dtFrom, DataTable dtTo)
{
ArrayList arrRows = new ArrayList();
int index;
DataRow drNew1 = dtTo.NewRow();
DataRow drNew2 = dtTo.NewRow();
DataRow drNew3 = dtTo.NewRow();
DataRow drNew4 = dtTo.NewRow();
DataRow drNew5 = dtTo.NewRow();
DataRow drNew6 = dtTo.NewRow();
DataRow drNew7 = dtTo.NewRow();
DataRow drNew8 = dtTo.NewRow();
DataRow drNew9 = dtTo.NewRow();
DataRow drNew10 = dtTo.NewRow();
DataRow drNew11 = dtTo.NewRow();
DataRow drNew12 = dtTo.NewRow();
DataRow drNew13 = dtTo.NewRow();
DataRow drNew14 = dtTo.NewRow();
DataRow drNew15 = dtTo.NewRow();
arrRows.Add(drNew1);
arrRows.Add(drNew2);
arrRows.Add(drNew3);
arrRows.Add(drNew4);
arrRows.Add(drNew5);
arrRows.Add(drNew6);
arrRows.Add(drNew7);
arrRows.Add(drNew8);
arrRows.Add(drNew9);
arrRows.Add(drNew10);
arrRows.Add(drNew11);
arrRows.Add(drNew12);
arrRows.Add(drNew13);
arrRows.Add(drNew14);
arrRows.Add(drNew15);
// more to come…
Someone clearly told them, "Hey, you should use an array or an array list", and they said, "Sure." There's just one problem: arrRows is never used again. So they used an ArrayList, but also, they didn't use an ArrayList.
But don't worry, they do use some arrays in just a moment. Don't say I didn't warn you.
if (m_MTTC)
{
if (m_dtAAfficher.Columns.Contains("MTTCRUB" + dr[0].ToString()))
{
arrMappingNames.Add("MTTCRUB" + dr[0].ToString());
arrHeadersTexte.Add(dr[4]);
arrColumnsFormat.Add("");
arrColumnsAlign.Add("1");
Ah, they're splitting up the values in their data table across multiple arrays; the "we have object oriented programming at home" style of building objects.
And that's all the setup. Now we can get into the real WTF here.
if (iCompt == Convert.ToInt16(0))
{
iID0 = Convert.ToInt32(dr[0]);
iCompt = iCompt + 1;
}
else if (iCompt == Convert.ToInt16(1))
{
iID1 = Convert.ToInt32(dr[0]);
iCompt = iCompt + 1;
}
else if (iCompt == Convert.ToInt16(2))
{
iID2 = Convert.ToInt32(dr[0]);
iCompt = iCompt + 1;
}
else if (iCompt == Convert.ToInt16(3))
{
iID3 = Convert.ToInt32(dr[0]);
iCompt = iCompt + 1;
}
else if (iCompt == Convert.ToInt16(4))
{
iID4 = Convert.ToInt32(dr[0]);
iCompt = iCompt + 1;
}
else if (iCompt == Convert.ToInt16(5))
{
iID5 = Convert.ToInt32(dr[0]);
iCompt = iCompt + 1;
}
else if (iCompt == Convert.ToInt16(6))
{
iID6 = Convert.ToInt32(dr[0]);
iCompt = iCompt + 1;
}
else if (iCompt == Convert.ToInt16(7))
{
iID7 = Convert.ToInt32(dr[0]);
iCompt = iCompt + 1;
}
else if (iCompt == Convert.ToInt16(8))
{
iID8 = Convert.ToInt32(dr[0]);
iCompt = iCompt + 1;
}
else if (iCompt == Convert.ToInt16(9))
{
iID9 = Convert.ToInt32(dr[0]);
iCompt = iCompt + 1;
}
else if (iCompt == Convert.ToInt16(10))
{
iID10 = Convert.ToInt32(dr[0]);
iCompt = iCompt + 1;
}
else if (iCompt == Convert.ToInt16(11))
{
iID11 = Convert.ToInt32(dr[0]);
iCompt = iCompt + 1;
}
else if (iCompt == Convert.ToInt16(12))
{
iID12 = Convert.ToInt32(dr[0]);
iCompt = iCompt + 1;
}
else if (iCompt == Convert.ToInt16(13))
{
iID13 = Convert.ToInt32(dr[0]);
iCompt = iCompt + 1;
}
}
}
Remember those private iID* values? Here's how they get populated. We check a member variable called iCompt and pull the first value out of a dr variable (a data reader, also a member variable). You may have looked at the method signature and assumed dtFrom and dtTo would be used, but no- they have to purpose in this method at all.
And if you liked what happened in this branch of the if, you'll love the else:
else
{
if (m_dtAAfficher.Columns.Contains("MTTHRUB" + dr[0].ToString()))
{
arrMappingNames.Add("MTTHRUB" + dr[0].ToString());
arrHeadersTexte.Add(dr[4]);
arrColumnsFormat.Add("");
arrColumnsAlign.Add("1");
if (iCompt == Convert.ToInt16(0))
{
iID0 = Convert.ToInt32(dr[0]);
iCompt = iCompt + 1;
}
else if (iCompt == Convert.ToInt16(1))
{
iID1 = Convert.ToInt32(dr[0]);
iCompt = iCompt + 1;
}
else if (iCompt == Convert.ToInt16(2))
{
iID2 = Convert.ToInt32(dr[0]);
iCompt = iCompt + 1;
}
else if (iCompt == Convert.ToInt16(3))
{
iID3 = Convert.ToInt32(dr[0]);
iCompt = iCompt + 1;
}
else if (iCompt == Convert.ToInt16(4))
{
iID4 = Convert.ToInt32(dr[0]);
iCompt = iCompt + 1;
}
else if (iCompt == Convert.ToInt16(5))
{
iID5 = Convert.ToInt32(dr[0]);
iCompt = iCompt + 1;
}
else if (iCompt == Convert.ToInt16(6))
{
iID6 = Convert.ToInt32(dr[0]);
iCompt = iCompt + 1;
}
else if (iCompt == Convert.ToInt16(7))
{
iID7 = Convert.ToInt32(dr[0]);
iCompt = iCompt + 1;
}
else if (iCompt == Convert.ToInt16(8))
{
iID8 = Convert.ToInt32(dr[0]);
iCompt = iCompt + 1;
}
else if (iCompt == Convert.ToInt16(9))
{
iID9 = Convert.ToInt32(dr[0]);
iCompt = iCompt + 1;
}
else if (iCompt == Convert.ToInt16(10))
{
iID10 = Convert.ToInt32(dr[0]);
iCompt = iCompt + 1;
}
else if (iCompt == Convert.ToInt16(11))
{
iID11 = Convert.ToInt32(dr[0]);
iCompt = iCompt + 1;
}
else if (iCompt == Convert.ToInt16(12))
{
iID12 = Convert.ToInt32(dr[0]);
iCompt = iCompt + 1;
}
else if (iCompt == Convert.ToInt16(13))
{
iID13 = Convert.ToInt32(dr[0]);
iCompt = iCompt + 1;
}
}
}
}
I can only assume that this function is called inside of a loop, though I have to wonder about how that loop exits? Maybe I'm being too generous, this might not be called inside of a loop, and the whole class gets to read 13 IDs out before it's populated. Does iCompt maybe get reset somewhere? No idea.
Honestly, does this even work? Wolferitza didn't tell us what it's actually supposed to do, but found this code because there's a bug in there somewhere that needed to be fixed. To my mind, "basically working" is the worst case scenario- if the code were fundamentally broken, it could just be thrown away. If it mostly works except for some bugs (and terrible maintainability) no boss is going to be willing to throw it away. It'll just fester in there forever.
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