Context: Admiral Patrick replied and included this gem:
And might I add that not one person complained until db0 went internet Karen with his hissy fit because I took his toy away from him.
“Not one person complained about my explicitly obfuscated blacklists! Damn internet Karens making a big deal!”
*In such a way that it made it slightly harder to review it or know of its existence.
Any thorough look at the source code would notice it loading that list at runtime. And also notice it getting called and referred to in other parts of the code when it checks whether or not to block something. And that’s not hypothetical, of course – we’re only talking about it because somebody did check, and it was found.
If it was closed source no one would’ve know, common open source W
You can still decompile things in closed source, which is what basically had to be done to identify this was happening.
Its about as scummy and antithetical to fediverse culture as could possibly be.
It’s harder to look in to it though, especially with obfuscation techniques and you need asm knowledge