Well, I would agree with most of that.

But, OP wasn't on the list and was fucking with him just out of whatever smug self superiority they have.

But, again, there's a difference between taking an issue up with someone, which you just did with me, here; and harassing someone with shitty little messages.

What you just did here was grown up talk. You had a disagreement, approached the person directly, but with no unnecessary aggro, and said your bit.

Sending someone a shitty DM " add me to your list, dur hur", that's what junior high twits do.

Where I disagree is that he successfully filtered the experience of users. He did it in conjunction with admins that didn't fully audit what they were deploying. But, whether any of us like the way he said it (and holy hell was his "explanation" toddler level tantrum), it was there to be seen.

The problem was one of transparency. Normally, block lists are much easier to find, and the fact of them should be disclosed up front.

But it wasn't some 1337 haxxer shit, it wasn't some deeply hidden code. And, looking back through his account histories he did actually say he was going to be changing things.

Be angry. Actively communicate that anger. Just do it like a fucking adult

As an example:

Fuck you asshole, why the fuck can't you learn to read and think?! Two wrongs don't make a right, get it through your thick skull.

Is that in any way acceptable? Had I said it for real, as an attack to you conflating two radically different things, that would be a shitty thing to say, and would make me an asshole.

But you are still conflating two radically different things. Maybe, if I said instead:

Look my fellow lemmite, what I'm getting at is that doing something nasty to someone just to be nasty doesn't change what they did. It does nothing to correct the wrong done, it doesn't even help the person being nasty, unless one wishes to also conflate being smugly self satisfied with being good for mental health.

This isn't some tin pot despot here. It's just a guy that made some software and doesn't want it used in ways he considers unethical. He did it in the worst way possible. Well, maybe third or fourth way possible.

There are many ways to go about handling that error. But there is no universe in which sending childish messages to harass the person are on that list. It's just an excuse for someone to feel superior by being shitty to someone. Justifying that by pointing to the wrong done is bullshit.

Do you see what I'm getting at? It isn't about what he did or didn't do. It's about what we do and are. Are you the kind of person that dogpiles hate and venom, or are you the kind of person that recognizes human error, finds sympathy and/or empathy to say "there but for the grace of the FSM go I"?

Me? I'm an asshole. It's a fact I've learned to live with. I have little tolerance for bullshit, and my filter broke a long time ago. That I'm the guy saying to chill out and remember that there's a human behind the error should frighten people into looking at what they're doing and why. I should never be the voice of reason in a community because I'm nucking futs.

What we should be doing, instead of sending shitty DMs with infantile virtue signalling is just let it fucking go. Block his accounts, communicate with one's admins to see if a fork is being used on one's instance, then either advocate for a fork to be in place instead of the shitty version or be prepared to move instances. That's it. That's the sane, adult response.

Nah fam.

This isn't an instance banlist. This is an attempt - and for god knows how long an incredibly successful one given the interface's previous popularity- to control who sees what globally in instances that they have no association with or authority over. This is some insanely high level trojan horse shit trying to dictate the entire fediverse, all based on their personal fee fees and they're utterly unrepentant about it