David Sardari

2024-09-09 20:14:33

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So far, I haven't been involved in any way in the discussions about the problems of Digitalcourage e.V. which first came up at the general meeting (Mitgliederversammlung (MV)) in November 2023. I simply don't have the means to make a positive contribution, as I am only a (former) owner of a normal Mastodon account on digitalcourage.social. In the following, I will only try to explain the actions I felt forced to take in this capacity and which I have been unhappy about ever since.

Deletion of personal account

As previously announced, I moved to another Mastodon instance. The reasons for this are the resignation of the administrator who had been working on the old Mastodon instance on a largely voluntary basis, the continuation of his work on the new instance and the good impression I have so far of his administrative work:

• digitalcourage.social/@freihei…
• fedifreu.de/@chpietsch/1130844…
• fedifreu.de/@chpietsch/1131037…

I thought I could leave it at that, move away, but keep my old account. But, I no longer felt comfortable with this. Thus, I deleted my old Mastodon account on September 9th 2024 and asked Digitalcourage e.V. via email to stop charging me for the now non-existent account.

Why this change of mind?

I prefer to have my accounts on well-administered and well-moderated platforms. I don't know what the quality of administration will be now that the former administrator resigned. Only time will tell. But, that uncertainty wasn't reason enough for me to delete the old account. The straw that broke the camel's back was the shutdown of Kiel's location group's account after they announced their intention to work independently due to the problems since November 2023:

• fedifreu.de/@korporal/11309815…
• eupolicy.social/@pneutig/11309…
• tech.lgbt/@fedora/113107227323…

Apparently, the action to deny access to the digital legacy of Kiel's location group was taken by a single moderator, who has been personally involved in the problems since November 2023. According to the board member of Digitalcourage e.V., the decision was made by the moderator without prior consultation with anyone at Digitalcourage e.V.:
digitalcourage.social/@DetlevS…

Fortunately, the moderator was called back and everyone got access to the digital legacy of Kiel's location group:
gruene.social/@norbert/1131073…

This also includes the declaration of and the reasons for the separation of Kiel's location group from Digitalcourage e.V. which is important in order to clarify that neither side will represent the other from that point on:
digitalcourage.social/@dc_og_K…

Although the moderator's actions have been retracted, I see the image of digitalcourage.social as a well-moderated Mastodon instance - one of the two indispensable pillars of a good platform (IMHO) - damaged. And, this has led to the final decision to delete my old Mastodon account.

My personal opinion on this matter

Currently, @DetlevSieber - board member of Digitalcourage e.V. - tries to explain the situation, and I am thankful for that. See posts of September 2024:
digitalcourage.social/@DetlevS…

The reason given by @DetlevSieber for the account's shutdown is:

Die Sperrung sollte vermeiden, dass im Namen von Digitalcourage falsche Informationen über Digitalcourage veröffentlicht werden.

Translation:

The blocking was intended to prevent false information about Digitalcourage being published in the name of Digitalcourage.

In this post, I don't want to judge what is true and what is false. I understand the interest of Digitalcourage e.V. in the prevention of false information spreading. I also understand the interest of Kiel's location group in making it known that Digitalcourage e.V. no longer represents them and vice versa.

But, considering that the account used is bound to Digitalcourage e.V. in some way, Kiel's location group could've done a better job in pointing out that reasons brought forth are their opinion (IMHO), e.g. "Gründe aus unserer Sicht sind u.a.:" instead of "Gründe sind u.a.:". Still, Digitalcourage e.V. could've asked for the announcement to be updated accordingly, rather than shutting down the entire account and denying access to the digital legacy.

However, the reasons in favour of keeping the final post up (even in its current form) outweight any fear Digitalcourage e.V. may have of reputational damage (IMHO). By taking the account down, the moderator has done more damage to Digitalcourage e.V.'s reputation than any post of Kiel's location group could've done (IMHO). Someone who is personally involved in a topic shouldn't be moderating posts about it. In that case, control should be handed over to someone impartial. At the very least, other members of Digitalcourage e.V. should be consulted before taking action.

My wishes

I hope:

• that both sides part on good terms,
• for further damage to the good cause of IT-security, data privacy etc. to be avoided,
• for everybody to get on the right track,
• and we all succeed in bringing the good cause forward.

digitalcourage.social

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