I just had my first experience blocking an instance, and it made my realize now nice the lemmy content curation experience is vs the centralized model.

Recently I started noticing a lot of posts from that I just found annoying. There was nothing inherently wrong with them, they just came from a culture I don’t understand and so I found them cringey. Since they all came from one community, realized most of them come from the same instance. I just added that instance to my blocklist and the problem is solved!

Now think about in the centralized model. I would be forced to either just accept that these posts are in my timeline, or block each community and user individually. The instance gave me an easy way to manage my content.

I also appreciate that instances can manage the blocking for their users. So the most horrible stuff I don’t even see. But it also preserves free speech, as those users who want to say horrible things can do so in their own instance, and most people will just block it.

Anyway, just impressed again by the fediverse!

    • Fitik
      link
      fedilink
      294 months ago

      The least obvious Hexbear’s user alt:

        • @NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          334 months ago

          I trust in the power of people to self-organize, self-regulate, and self-police.

          Isn’t someone deciding they don’t like an instance’s content and blocking it themselves exactly what you’re describing?

        • atomicpoet
          link
          fedilink
          164 months ago

          What if I told you anyone can run their own server and consequently have the freedom to federate with who they wish?

          The value of the Fediverse isn’t just freedom of speech. It’s freedom of association.

            • atomicpoet
              link
              fedilink
              154 months ago

              Well, you seem to be upset that people are able to block entire instances. That’s just a weird stance for an anarchist to have.

                • atomicpoet
                  link
                  fedilink
                  114 months ago

                  On the Fediverse, no admin decides anything a user does. If you don’t like your server, you can just walk over to another one. Most software even makes account migration between servers super easy.

                  Or if you don’t trust admins at all—and I don’t—you can run your own server and federate with who you please.

                  This is not Reddit. Admins don’t hold ultimate power of what does or does not get seen. However, you do—and you can mute, block, or defederate as you see fit.

                • @wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  44 months ago

                  because it shuts out everyone on that instance.

                  But it doesn’t. Unless they’ve changed the functionality in the last 3 major revisions or so, a user blocking an instance blocks all posts from that instance. Not the users or their comments on other posts.

                  It’s an easier way than blocking each community from that instance individually.

        • @underscores@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          104 months ago

          I generally prefer to federate with as many communities as possible, but federating with fascists is a terrible idea. You’re just making people in your community vulnerable to harassment.

          People are self organizing onto these instances, and if they don’t like their current one it’s not hard to move. Most people won’t move to one that allows nazis in.

            • @underscores@lemmy.dbzer0.com
              link
              fedilink
              English
              84 months ago

              Fascist ideas don’t spread because they make good points. They spread because they get repeated so much. People who don’t know any better believe it because they’ve heard it so many times, or from someone they trust. Federating with fascists gives them more people to spread their ideas to.

              Talking to conservatives can definitely help, but it really depends on the context. Just having people who they disagree with in their lives can can be helpful. If you’re someone they trust you might get them to work through some things. Or if you know a topic really well and know what talking points they’re likely to bring up. But it’s nearly impossible to get though to people who already hate you.

              Everyone is at a different place with what they want to handle. Some people just want a small friendly community where they have a chance to relax. Others want a more open communities that only keep out the worst. And some are okay with putting up with harassment to reach more people. But generally we shouldn’t force others to put up with that harassment along with us.

        • Ada
          link
          fedilink
          English
          84 months ago

          You see, I’m an anarchist. I trust in the power of people to self-organize, self-regulate, and self-police. I am philosophically opposed to whole instances making the call to defederate from another no matter how Nazi or capitalist that instance is.

          That’s great, but it’s not for everyone. What you’re saying here is that when bigots appear, every member of the minorities they target needs to individually block the troll, which they can only do after they’ve been exposed to the bigotry, and which doesn’t help them at all in the future when the troll moves to a new throw away account.

          Counter intuitively, what you’re asking for is exactly how you create spaces that actively discourage diversity.

          • xigoi
            link
            fedilink
            English
            2
            edit-2
            4 months ago

            Why not just have shared block lists that anyone can apply at their will?

        • Fitik
          link
          fedilink
          64 months ago

          That’s interesting, I assumed so because:

          1. It’s known, that some Hexbear users create alt accounts on other Lemmy instances, because they’re mostly defederated to “spread their message”
          2. Your account is pretty new
          3. Because you’re against the defederation, I assumed that it’s because you have came from an instance that gets defederated often

          But seems like your opinion actually something consistent and not trolling, in that case I respect your opinion, even if I personally don’t agree with your philosophy I can understand it. It’s good that in the Fediverse you can choose an instance that aligns with your philosophy (Like lemm.ee) and I can choose the one that aligns with mine.

    • atomicpoet
      link
      fedilink
      274 months ago

      No one is entitled to attention, and sometimes people need to take a breather for their own mental health.

        • atomicpoet
          link
          fedilink
          224 months ago

          That’s the same talking points the alt-right uses and we don’t tolerate it.

          And I’ve been on the Internet long enough to watch so-called “progressive” spaces get hijacked by the right wing under the guise of “free speech”.

          When a culture grows toxic, it’s simply toxic no matter their talking points.

          So the fact people have the power to block entire instances at their discretion, this is a good thing.

          You are not entitled to my attention, nor am I entitled to yours.

            • atomicpoet
              link
              fedilink
              174 months ago

              You have freedom of speech. I also have the freedom to walk away from your speech and listen to someone else.

            • @Eldritch@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              114 months ago

              Freedom of speech is an “alt-right” talking point?!?!?!

              They’ve literally been banging the freeze-peach button constantly. Every single time there’s consequences for their actions for a decade or two now. Where have you been?

                • @Eldritch@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  9
                  edit-2
                  4 months ago

                  It’s not my concern if you decide to continue self-sabotaging. That’s on you. You’re definitely not helping yourself and not fostering any actual discussion that’s for sure. You must be an Anarchist ironically. Just out for chaos. And not for Mutual Aid and understanding.

          • Paulo Laureano
            link
            fedilink
            English
            14 months ago

            I do not think it’s a good idea to isolate people in cults in their own echo chambers… although my faith in humanity and basic decency has seen better days, I still believe good examples matter.

            • @wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com
              link
              fedilink
              English
              64 months ago

              A user blocking an instance does not block the users from that instance from interacting with the user who blocked.

              It’s not well explained, but my understanding is that an instance block just prevents communities from that instance, and posts made by users on thay instance, from showing for the user that blocked the instance. Comments from users of that instance still show for the blocking user, and the block is one way anyway.

          • Ada
            link
            fedilink
            English
            64 months ago

            Folks like you and the hundred other people also “just asking questions” or playing devils advocate" and expecting trans people to engage in a debate as to whether or not we actually deserve equal rights is exactly why this shit never works.

            It’s interesting to you because it’s purely intellectual. To the person having to endlessly argue that they do in fact deserve equal rights, it’s a shit fucking experience that we actively seek to disengage from when possible, because it’s all around us, all the time.

              • Ada
                link
                fedilink
                English
                34 months ago

                The first half of your post is you talking about trauma you’ve received from other people, telling you that you’re wrong/evil/broken/perverted etc.

                The second half of your post is explaining how you think it’s ok for you to do the same thing to others, because you do it “for the right reasons”

                When you confront a bigot with transphobia pushed to the extreme, what you do is add to the trauma that every trans person already has to deal with daily. You don’t magically convert someone from bigotry. Bigots aren’t bigots because they reasons their way in to bigotry, and so you can’t stop them from being bigots by reasoning them out of it.

                • 𞋴𝛂𝛋𝛆
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  14 months ago

                  This was deeply hurtful to me and my mental health. My underlying motivation was trying to create a solution to my feelings of inadequate engagement with interesting complexity and depth on Lemmy in general. That has been an ongoing problem for me that feels long term untenable.

                  I’m stuck on an instance that shows all of the trolling negativity, and I seem to be misunderstood a lot here. I don’t know what else to say really. Hopefully saying makes me feel a little better. Maybe it is just the time of year. It will be 11 years on 2/26/14. I don’t even know why this interaction mattered to me so much, but it did somehow in the context of a lack of engagement and other negativity here and elsewhere in my life

                  • Ada
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    14 months ago

                    I’m sorry it played out that way for you, but even so, what you’re advocating for hurts people too. Even if that’s not your intention, it still does, and I think that’s something that should be part of your consideration when approaching this topic.

                    I’m sorry it hurt you, but I’m not going to ignore stuff that hurts my community

                • 𞋴𝛂𝛋𝛆
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  04 months ago

                  I come from the background of bigotry. I was one of these people. I have changed and am still, and hopefully always a work in progress.

                  I am trying to tell you that the experience of debating like I described was the primary catalyst that converted my dogma by questioning my assumptions. The moment that changed my mindset the most was realizing that a ban on abortion is a death sentence for some and that outcome is no better because it is anything but pro life. I realized in that moment that such arbitrary assumptions are stereotypes and all stereotypes have outliers that are harmed. I realized that I want to harm the fewest number of people possible as my internal form of ethics. I believe in the Hippocratic aphorism of “first, do no harm.” So my primary value is to live and let live.

                  If I had not had that opportunity to debate controversial topics, I would still likely be a dogmatic fool. It was hard for some students in the class when racism was a subject, but the teachers tread the subject with strong moderation. I learned a lot of the nuances about what black families were going through and how things were a lot harder for many of them. It made me feel much closer to them as friends and willing to stand up for them when I may not have otherwise. I saw how most students had a similar experience and it put a spotlight on the few students that lacked empathy in ways that ostracized them.

                  All I have said is from this perspective of wanting to help fight dogma effectively. I’m well aware that dogma cannot be argued directly. It can be manipulated easily from within by someone that is an accepted member of the tribal group. Such a person can refocus attention elsewhere and poke holes in the logic that supports some branch of reasoning. It is challenging to do without getting labeled a heretic, but it is not too difficult. Trump banged a porn star he said reminded him of his daughter, and Musk is a polygamist yet they are of divine origin. I can play this way. My entire life has been lived in this balance of understanding dogmatism.

                  Again, I’m not going to create the community. When I post about my explorations of AI that are outside of the norm people show they are not very open minded or curious here. I think this kind of community and post would make me even more deeply depressed based on the demographics response to any topics. I think these types of debates require a filtered room of the best and brightest. That is unfortunate, as I believe this is the only way to convert dogma into questioning and curiosity as it was for me. It didn’t work for my sister though. She is a high Machiavellian as well, but she is emotionally intuitive and manipulative of people whereas I am more manipulative of abstract ideas while empathetic of people. I genuinely care. I will never intentionally hurt you or anyone else and will work to repair anything if it is brought to my attention. My only goal is to make anyone’s life a little better, not worse, before my life avalanches into oblivion soon. I am sorry that I have upset you in that effort, and failure.

    • fxomt
      link
      fedilink
      English
      4
      edit-2
      4 months ago

      What? what does this even mean, is there an instance dedicated for victims of fascism or something?

      That seems like a huge leap. Who knows they might just be blocking an instance that only speaks a language they don’t understand.