this post was submitted on 22 Jan 2024
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privatelife - privacy, security, freedom advocacy

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Why do Instances Block? (i.imgur.com)
submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
19 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

So I want to make this post because I don't know why instances, mine specifically, choose to block others. Now, don't get me wrong that blocking instances that are CP related and anything illegal is something that should and needs to be blocked and/or removed. but if its something like Threads, let me choose to block a user myself, give me the freedom to do so. I've seen Brodie Robertson's video talking about this, and I whole heartily agree with his stance on this where letting the user have the freedom to block a user or instance themselves.

I just feel that some lemmy instances are turning into big tech companies where they are controlling everything, and don't get me wrong, its their server space, do what you want to do, but at least since you are using foss to run your lemmy server, at least be different then Reddit or YouTube etc. I created a lemmy account just to have a more private experience from Reddit without being tracked all the time. guess I was wrong.

not trying to get on the wrong foot here, I am just a fan of internet freedom, and I think you should have the right to do anything you want online, that's within legal waters.

Thoughts...

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago (1 children)

don't know why instances, mine specifically, choose to block others. Now, don't get me wrong that blocking instances that are CP related and anything illegal is something that should and needs to be blocked and/or removed. but if its something like Threads, let me choose to block a user myself

I'd suggest looking for another instance or hosting your own - at least you have the choice to do that here. Choose an instance whose policies align with your interests and principles the most

I just feel that some lemmy instances are turning into big tech companies where they are controlling everything, and don't get me wrong, its their server space, do what you want to do, but at least since you are using foss to run your lemmy server, at least be different then Reddit or YouTube etc. I created a lemmy account just to have a more private experience from Reddit without being tracked all the time. guess I was wrong.

The unpaid volunteers running these servers probably overwhelmingly have no interest at all in tracking any user's activity, whereas tracking is essentially the business model of actual "big tech" companies like Facebook and Google.

Of course, there is a degree of trust being put into the owner of your instance to not expose or exploit your personal info, which could include your real world location (exposed via IP, or looking at logs to estimate it based on the times you are active), and email address

As a side note, some instances state their policies on log retention on the legal/about page, others have it in the sidebar.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

The unpaid volunteers running these servers probably overwhelmingly have no interest at all in tracking any user’s activity

Unfortunately there's no way to prove their innocence, we have no way of knowing just how "compromised" one server or owner may be over the next. Just like all these privacy-focused youtube frontends and alternatives, how do we know they don't have their own secret agenda?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

I don’t understand what you’re actually asking? Beyond complaining lemmy instances are becoming “big tech”?

if youre unhappy with the instance you are on defederating, you can create your own instance and federate with whoever you please

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

They don't like Big Tech, but want to be federated with Threads. What's not to understand?

Fucksake

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (4 children)

I was just wondering why my instance in particular chooses to block threads and instead let us choose to do so. I find it relates to big tech as, it’s there servers yeah, but running Free Open Source Software on top of that. Idk lol. Sorry if this posts seems weird.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago (2 children)

You can’t defederate on a per user basis. Its either accept or reject federation from server A to B.

Theres many reasons servers have been defederated, usually due to illegal content.

There was a big backlash on many lemmy instances to Threads federating. The common feel from those discussions was to defederate from any meta owned instances as all it does is give meta tons more data to use. Anyone interested in privacy should be against threads federating

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

You can ignore instances with the help of apps

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

When I first read this, I thought you were referring to threads in the generic sense -- that your instance was blocking specific discussions. You should have capitalized Threads™, and ideally have the TM.

Wow... Fuck #Facebook for hi-jacking a common word. We really need to replace FB Threads™ with an unambiguous word that does not fuck up conversation.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

It cuts both ways... if you were the owner of a server, would you want to be forced to allow content you didn't want? I didn't think so.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

If you oppose tech giants, then of course these Cloudflare instances are unsuitable and should be avoided:

  • lemmy.world ← Cloudflare
  • sh.itjust.works ← Cloudflare
  • zerobytes.monster ← Cloudflare
  • lemmy.ca ← Cloudflare
  • lemm.ee ← Cloudflare
  • programming.dev ← Cloudflare
  • lemmy.zip ← Cloudflare

This has nothing to do with your question about blocked threads, but I gather that you want to avoid the enshitification brought by tech giants, and you are on lemmy.zip. Cloudflare is a walled-garden and exclusive club. Not everyone can access Cloudflare-jailed content. CF also sees your username and password. So I suggest choosing an instance other than the above, and favoring communities that are also not on those instances.

Some free-world non-walled-garden instances are:

  • fedia.io
  • sopuli.xyz
  • beehaw.org
  • infosec.pub
  • lemmy.dbzer0.com
  • slrpnk.net
  • links.hackliberty.org
  • mander.xyz
[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Beehaw is not a non-walled-garden instance. They are a very choosy and defederating instance.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Perhaps, but your reasoning is a bit too vague to be convincing. So what am I missing? Beehaw registration is open. I had no problem getting an account there; over Tor in fact. I don’t recall if they were using the Q/A interview field back when I signed up. OTOH that screening mechanism has become quite typical these days.

W.r.t defederation, I only know that Beehaw defederated from centralized instances, which is fair enough from the PoV of those embracing the decentralization principle. I skimmed through their several page long policies which boil down to “don’t be mean”. So I would guess they defederate from hate-rich nodes - not sure. What specifically do you have in mind?

The Cloudflare instances I listed are walled gardens because they restrict access hard and fast to various demographics with arbitrary exclusion of various groups of people (which IMO is an even harsher form of walled garden than some of the corporate walled gardens). I would not call having a code of conduct indicative of a walled garden, otherwise we would be calling just about every single instance a walled garden and thus not a useful place to draw a line.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

More defederation means lesser users to interact with, and lesser fostering of a federated culture. Beehaw is not in line with Fediverse spirit. That is all there is to it. Beehaw's "bee nice" is a very vague rule, one that has no standardisation or basis, not anything concrete most Lemmy users have seen.

Not to toot my own horn, but I am one of the few old Lemmy users who helped build it up to what it is now, ignoring the Reddit exodus part (it was a wild time, too many ship jumping redditors). We did not like the friction Beehaw created in such a fragile time, wanting to become its own mini reddit, although Lemmyworld is far more guilty of this.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

lemmy.ml (formerly dev.lemmy.ml) was centralized by Cloudflare (after the renaming iirc). It was an embarrassment that the flagship instance was so antithetical to Fedi philosophy. Perhaps due to that well-placed criticism, lemmy.ml eventually dropped CF. But lemmy.ml is still today centralized by disproportionate size. There is also copious political baggage with those admins which has helped drive people off (thus beneficial shrinkage) but which ultimately enabled/led lemmy.world to become the biggest most centralized instance (which is centralized by both factors: Cloudflare and disproportionate size).

In the big scheme of things, AFAICT beehaw is federated and reachable from other Fedi-principles-respecting instances. I can reach it from other non-walled-garden instances I listed. Grouping beehaw with the walled garden instances is a weird place to draw a line. I’ve only heard about beehaw defederating from instances that are antithetical to the fediverse spirit. But I only know w.r.t the big instances.. feel free to point out counter examples. There probably wouldn’t be much chatter about defederation from small instances.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

I was one of the main people who called against it, and asked to develop an indigenous captcha. And I do not think the CF association happened for that long, as opposed to instances like LW.

Beehaw is somewhere in the middle between federation loving instances and federation hating instances. Beehaw does not hate federation, but says it has a different "vision", one I did not like since I prefer federation with minimal censorship (CP, fascism, basic universally hated elements).