Hello Users of Hexbear I wanted to have a featured post discussing the next steps for federation. We have discussed this at length among the mod team, and it is pretty much evenly split between federating based on a "block-list" or federating based on an "allow-list". While the mod team slightly skewed in favor of federating using a block-list, meaning that any instance not specifically blocked will be able to link with hexbear.net, we will be starting with an allow-list.
What this means is that only instances specifically on our allow-list will be able to link with us, there are a few reasons for this. We wanted to slowly integrate into the fediverse to see what it would mean for hexbear.net's culture as well as how we fit into the wider fediverse. We also wanted to minimize the instances have not blocked threads, or does not block the reactionary/fash/pedo instances.
I was honestly suprised to discover that most lemmy instances block lemmygrad.ml but do not block the reactionary/pedo instances, sad.
Here is a tenative list of what our allow-list would look like: lemmy.world/instances , https://possumpat.io/instances , https://lemmy.ml/instances , https://sopuli.xyz/instances , https://discuss.tchncs.de/instances , https://lemmygrad.ml/instances , https://mander.xyz/instances , https://lemm.ee/instances , toots.matapocos.dog
a block-list would be massive and exhaustive to ensure that we do not federate with any pornographic, reactionary, fascist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, or csam-adjacent instances.
We will be creating a pinned post in c/hexbear where additional instances can be nominated for addition to the allow-list. https://hexbear.net/post/277506
Please see these previous posts by Nagarjuna regarding federation: https://hexbear.net/post/273407 and https://hexbear.net/post/273404
If you would like to officially put down your opinion on federation, please make a comment with 🧱 if you'd like to federate based on a block-list, a ✅ if you'd like to federate based on an allow-list, or a 🚫 if you do not with to federate at all, this is a temprature check and not a binding vote. Thank you and as usual off-topic comments will be removed.
Thank you for the feedback and apologies for the original emojis chosen, the final count is 58 🧱 111 ✅ 45 🚫, please correct me if that is wrong
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I have zero interest in federation. I don't understand why people who want to post on other instances don't just make an account somewhere else in the fediverse and post away. Everyone can go post on these other places right now if they want to. Why change what we have going on here? I like it here.
it's not good for us to become too insular/navel gazing. federating with other leftist sites serms like pure upside to me, so long as mods are able to ban reactionary shit the other instances leave up.
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see my other reply to this thread for why the impact won't be so major.
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nothing is static and unchanging and trying to keep things as they are today is a reactionary impulse. I've also been here from day 1 and literally nothing has done as much for site culture as aggressive moderation. so long as that moderation standard isn't comprised, I don't think there will be a huge shift in site culture.
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sure, I agree with all of this. I'm just saying that moderation challenges don't by themselves turn into a reason for not federating.
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Maybe. Idk, I guess I see this site as like a place to shitpost and take a break from the rest of the internet. Like, if we were a party or any sort of org, or ideological entity or whatever, I'd agree with you and with others who want to federate. I'm a Maoist; I think active ideological struggle is GOOD. I guess to me this just doesn't feel like the place for that. I do that on every other fucking website I go on. But like anything, you need breaks. I come here to rest, to see some memes, to journalpost on the main thread. It just seems like federation might change that. And for what? To make this another platform to yell at shitlibs on? That's the entire rest of the internet.
I don't think federation hurts that goal though? if you don't click through to a comm on another instance, the site remains largely the same, except that other people can post here without making a dedicated account. so it's a moderation challenge, since we have to enforce site rules, but it's not going to meaningfully affect the threads that people post here. also, all forums have an attrition rate and we have to stay ahead of it or the website will death spiral.