Welcome to this month’s blog post! If you have any ideas for improving this blog, or any questions at all, please let me know in the Community Feedback Forum, or message me on the Fediverse (the link is in my profile). Thank you!
A huge welcome to all the newcomers; do feel free to explore the site and post/comment/reply in any of the forums and groups! The Share Space, and Connect Cafe, are probably good spaces to start; your input helps build the community.
It is with great sadness that IFTAS has come to the decision that, due to a lack of funding, certain services have to be shut down, including FediCheck and the Mastodon Moderator Sandbox, among others. What was ‘Fedicheck’ is now the ‘Cariad Observatory’, as detailed in this update – it’s a read-only app now, but still a valuable resource. You can read all about the other changes in this update from them. Fortunately, IFTAS-Connect is one of the services that will continue to function as a safe space for moderators to share ideas and support one another, both on the forums and in the groups.
Speaking of the forums, it’s been a quiet month as the news of the cutbacks in IFTAS’ services is being adapted to by its users. Hopefully conversations will pick up again, so do post your questions, your support, your worries and doubts, your suggestions, and anything else you feel appropriate.
There was a post about coping with trauma due to CSAM or other traumatic images, which is full of links to helpful support options and coping strategies, one of which mentions playing Tetris nightly as a way to help your brain process the trauma in a safe way. Here’s the link to the post in question, the Tetris information is in this document, coping strategy number 8, if you’re interested in looking into it.
A conversation about transferable skills that develop with moderation practices, but can be useful in everyday life can be found here; if you have any thoughts about that, or wish to share your experiences please do so!
As always, the Library remains an amazing resource, with new articles being added all the time. If you have suggestions for articles, or feedback for existing ones, please let us know here.
I wanted to take this opportunity to thank all the people behind IFTAS; the creators, the coders, the fundraisers, the community users, and a hundred other vital roles I’m not even aware of; everyone has a part to play as we move forward with what we are able to achieve with limited funding, and I for one am hugely grateful for what IFTAS does and what it stands for.
Thank you for your time, and I’ll see you next month!