It was probably poorly phrased but I feel like I remember there was a group of various instance admins at the time discussing ways to deal with it, so it was more of a reference to maybe they figured something out.
You’re right that they used tiny instances with no oversight and open registrations to ban evade for a long time even before this debacle when it was just normal Nicole spam.
“The” admins? All that spam was coming from new accounts made at instances with little oversight.
It was probably poorly phrased but I feel like I remember there was a group of various instance admins at the time discussing ways to deal with it, so it was more of a reference to maybe they figured something out.
You’re right that they used tiny instances with no oversight and open registrations to ban evade for a long time even before this debacle when it was just normal Nicole spam.