this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2024
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I do want to say that I don't think we necessarily have to make the fediverse "grow bigger", but I do want to see it become more diverse, and welcoming.
@stefan Step 1) nuke the Fediblock lists. Probably the number one barrier to diversity in the Fediverse.
@nick I don't think I have the authority to speak on that, sorry.
It seems to me that folks who rely on them do so for their safety. I think that's a great thing about the fediverse, that we can all tailor our experience.
And if some people want to block off portions of the network to feel safe, there's no real harm, there's still plenty of people to interact with.
Unless there's something that that I'm missing?
@stefan@stefanbohacek.online Unless you're self-hosting, your admin might end up nuking portions of the network you're following. Which sucks for you and other users. I honestly don't see Fediblock as anything other than a detriment to the network, except for cases where entire servers are genuinely malicious, like spambot farms or illegal stuff. Blocking entire instances over mundane differences of opinion between a few users seems counterproductive to me.
@nick Right. But how often does this really happen though? I mean I've heard of admins getting into a beef and cutting each other's server off, but I doubt that this is something most people have to really worry about.
The issue here would be with people being immature, something to talk about your admin with.
Clearly there is a net benefit here.
@stefan@stefanbohacek.online A net benefit with respect to what goals? Certainly not the goals of Mastodon, and certainly not your goals if you value diversity on the network. Mastodon is a decentralized and distributed network. The FediBlock lists only serve to curtail that network. The network is literally more centralized with the FediBlock lists than without them, and the more these lists are used, the more homogenous values and perspectives become on the network. Which seems antithetical to your stated goals as well.
This is also a pretty big problem, and a primary complaint that I hear from people who decide to leave this platform. Completely normal servers with normal people have blocked each other without any beef, because FediBlock lists are automated, and the curation of those lists are handled by only a small handful of people, sometimes one individual. You can check the lists for yourself. All it takes is one person on one instance to say something that pisses off one of the curators of these lists and then, boom, two normal and otherwise amicable servers are now defederated.
It just seems incredibly immature to me. Admins should just grow up and use the built-in block feature to block individuals they find troubling instead of blocking entire instances over the actions of a few. The end result is often thousands of normal people not being able to follow each other because a couple people had a squabble. That's incredibly dumb.