Exploding-heads.com is another instance on Lemmy where alt-right MAGA types tend to reside. Some people on this server want us to defederate from them immediately, some people want to save defederation as a last resort. They have 104 active users (more stats below).
It seems that exploding-heads has also experienced a recent botswarm invasion. This is obviously another point in favor of defederating them, assuming you are worried about botswarms, which is currently being discussed here.
My advice to you all is please try to discuss this in a civil manner, we need not allow them to create divisive conflict inside our communities. No matter how the vote turns out, you’re not going to be able to defederate from your fellow sh.itheads so be nice.
I’ve linked many of the previous discussions below so people who are out of the loop can get a general sense of the situation.
https://sh.itjust.works/post/216888 https://sh.itjust.works/post/225714 https://sh.itjust.works/post/281126 https://sh.itjust.works/post/410325
Lemmy.world just recently defederated them.
https://lemmy.world/post/747912
https://lemmy.world/post/577526
Although this could be considered a point in favor of defederation, it actually means even if we vote to remain federated, people have a great alternative in lemmy.world where they can still participate in our communities and simultaneously be protected from exploding-heads.
Ensuring diversity of servers is beneficial to the platform as a whole, but it is also not our responsibility to bear that burden.
TLDR, just wrap up any last points in this thread before we open the vote tomorrow. Please be civil.
EDIT: To clarify, this isn’t the official vote, this is the final discussion. The vote thread will be posted tomorrow and you will only be allowed to make a single comment saying Aye or Nay.
EDIT2: Vote thread is up, this thread is now locked. Very lively discussion thread sh.itheads. Please try to be more respectful next time.
And I’m perfectly fine with there being instances that heavily moderate content/users on their instance. I may not agree with it, but it isn’t that difficult to get around. To that extent, “just go somewhere else” is am easy solution.
My problem with defederation is that it effectively bans my account from just going somewhere else to view content that wasn’t here in the first place, such that I need a new account there, which means just having a multitude of accounts to cover a patchwork of instances that are and aren’t federated. I currently have six separate accounts to deal with instances defederating with each other since they still have content I want to browse.
And yeah, I genuinely fucking am considering just setting up my own personal instance so that I don’t need to manage a whole stack of accounts to use the platform. But that’s a pretty significant investment just for convienience, so I’d rather not if possible.
It’s true, it is a significant time investment. Now imagine doing all that, people joining your instance, and then insisting that you moderate it the way they want instead of the way you want because they don’t want the inconvenience of doing the thing you did.