I think their biggest issue was suddenly being viral, while also dealing with server incursion/tons of new accounts, which meant that lots and lots of people are suddenly clamoring specifically for their attention/making requests for said lists/asking what the rules are/responding directly to the post that went viral but without being vetted beforehand or understanding the previous implicit social rules.

While they started with a small discussion with people informed about the differences and server stress became instead a tornado of a much larger discussion while also dumping more stress on the servers, as well as emotional stress of having to deal with all the incoming attention.

So. They are overwhelmed, and everything seems like it needs to be solved with the highest priority, but they aren't set up with enough help desk/sub-admin people to filter/protect themselves.

Basically all mastodon server admins have a need, at least temporarily, for some business style structure. They need a Janine Melnitz (Ghostbusters Secretary) to prioritize server is burning down messages, organize non-server is burning down contact requests, and direct help/press requests to appropriate people. And perhaps someone else available to work on social onboarding.

All personal blog/toot/tweets posted by said overwhelmed server admins should also be taken with a grain (or more) of salt. They may feel differently when things are calmer, or might be able to be more diplomatic in general.

Overall though, it was good to hear about how the Author is feeling, and how self-aware they are about how it was similar to when their cohort joined and had to adapt and how the previous fediverse admins might have dealt with similar things.

"..there are names for the sort of person who makes lists of people so others can monitor their communications. They’re not nice names.”