How the suspensions are made

Federater has published a redacted/simplifed version of the database I have access to (no, I can't share, it's invite-only) so now I can explain a little better how it works.

I do a little more massaging of the data than the basic query on that page, and I have three very small lists of sites no admin should ever interact with. Three strikes on a list, and that admin's site gets suspended.

The list of interactions that goes in a report includes all interactions with suspended sites, not just those on the trigger list. For instance, if there's a free-speech site and a Nazi site, and the free-speech admin openly chats with the Nazi admin, the free-speech site is getting suspended. If a third site's admin openly chats with the free-speech site, they won't get suspended, but if they later chat with the Nazi site they will. And when they do, both the free-speech and Nazi sites will get listed in their report. Why? Because once you start talking to Nazis the likelihood that your interactions with the free-speech site were also problematic goes way up.

You may notice that none of this addresses any of the content of the sites. That's right! The whole point of the database is just finding the connections. If you make a network map of all the servers you realize that alt fedi is, literally, an alternate fediverse, and that there are very few connections between it and fedi-main. Suspensions now are less “your content is unacceptable” and more “you can choose fedi-main or alt-fedi, which is it gonna be?” The ones that try both find themselves in alt-fedi only. Maybe you're not a poison-spewer yourself, but if you want to play in the sewer where it runs you don't also get to come sit at the crafting table.