Hey y'all! I have some news- idk if you have seen any discussions recently about issues with the Black Mastodon groups we have, but one of them is being shut down and the other one has been targeted repeatedly by spammers and white supremacists, since due to its design it is not really able to be moderated.
Thanks to a helpful suggestion, though, I was able to request a new group bot that has actual safety features- and they approved it!
A couple of disclaimers: unlike the gup.pe bots, this one will only boost mentions from people actually following the account. Furthermore, the follows have to be manually approved. This will hopefully allow for Black folks to be using it more safely than the unregulated bots already in existence.
Hopefully we can strike a balance between ease of use and protection. We'll see!
Also, if you want to mention the account without it boosting your post, simply put ! at the beginning. For example: !@blackfedi