My question is not about defederating from Exploding Heads. I support that well-documented decision by the admins.
However I have noticed the Blocked Instances list at https://lemmy.world/instances growing, and I was wondering if and where the admins are announcing new blocks. (I thought https://lemmy.world/c/lemmyworld but there doesn’t appear to be consistency there.)
Specifically I was curious about Lemmit.Online which is now blocked. I searched c/lemmyworld and c/general for announcements or discussions about that instance being blocked, but found nothing.
I think I understand the admins’ justification (though I don’t agree with it) but would like to know why the “nuclear option” of defederation was chosen.
I believe (but don’t know since there was no announcement) that it was a reaction to Lemmit.Online communities appearing too frequently at the top of “All” + “Hot.”
Lemmit.Online exists solely to copy posts from requested subreddits. I’ve found it really helpful to monitor all my small population subreddits, where there is not yet a viable Lemmy community (not just where someone started a community but a useful one with active members and equivalent posts.) In most cases I’m happy with the links being shared, and don’t need to click through to Reddit for the discussions.
Since Lemmit.Online communities are just copies of subreddit posts, though, I do understand folks not wanting to see them at the top of “All.” But doesn’t almost everyone move to “Subscribed” pretty quickly? Or can’t it be a teaching moment to understand how to block a community as an individual user if you don’t want to see a Lemmit.Online community in “All?” I also think the admins have the ability to block individual communities, so if it’s a matter of specific noisy Lemmit.Online communities with established Lemmy equivalents then why not block only those communities rather than the entire instance?
I mean, I don’t like meme posts. I ignore them if browsing “All” and I don’t subscribe to those communities. If I really, really dislike seeing them in “All” then I have the choice to block those communities. Problem solved for me without removing the ability for anyone in the instance who does like them to see them.
But Lemmy.World defederating Lemmit.Online removes the ability for those of us who found those communities useful to make our own choice. I’d like to better understand the admins’ decision to defederate the entire instance, and if we users have the option to appeal (or at least discuss) the decision.
tl;dr
- Do admins post announcements explaining defederations, and where?
- Is there an appeal process? If not, should there be?
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I wouldn’t mind a more transparent method of seeing when and why instances were defederated-- sort of like the modlog-- but the instance you bring up in particular is essentially a spambot.
Make the communities you want to see?
It’s spam because it’s software indiscriminately making posts.
It could be that the instance in question was seen to have a lot of bot users being created on it. Those instances are being defederated to stem a possible explosion of spam later (that isn’t reddit reposts).
tl;dr it will always vary per different instances and admins, I don’t think there is an uniform answer.
I think that’s why admin posts to
lemmyworldwould make sense.“This week we blocked these 5 instances for these reasons and these 2 external communities for these other reasons. Discussions are open here until we lock the thread.”
