HC wishes to expand its borders

TL;DR: You might have more people to talk to, we are now federating openly.

The longer version: Until now, we have been maintaining a list of instances that we are federated with. This was done out of an excess of caution, as it's easier to keep tabs on who you link with.

The downside of this approach is that we haven't been linking with many Fediverse instances that we simply weren't aware of.

We have now switched to open federation and will instead maintain a blocklist, reserved for instances that host shit we really don't want coming across to us (e.g. loli porn).

This of course doesn't change other instances defederating from us, we're scary that way.

Thoughts?

13 comments

I agree with the decision wholeheartedly.
- Yay! 🙌

Honestly I like it and like that a blocklist will be maintained instead.
It’s been quiet here for a while with some people coming in as other instances get more authoritarian, but still hasn’t felt like enough.
That, and would be nice to get a new set of eyes on stuff out there. I’ve had to block a lot of communities I like because the doom political spam circlejerks are so obnoxious and constant.
When would this change take effect?
- It's already in effect, though it probably won't make a huge difference unfortunately, as most of the instances we weren't linked with are very small. Ultimately we are a small instance ourselves which is why things are quiet sometimes - in time I hope that can change.
  I will at some point try to see if I can talk with some of the larger instances that have defederated us, perhaps they can change their minds. That would make a larger impact, though my hopes aren't high.

This of course doesn’t change other instances defederating from us, we’re scary that way.
Which is hilarious (ha!) to me. I don't know why Lemmy is so afraid of this instance, but they are!
- It is a bit weird, and mostly for imaginary reasons. There's a growing mythology surrounding our little instance.

I'm a fan of it. It makes me happy bc our users will have more ppl and content to interact with. It makes me worry a little less about them being becoming bored not having new things to look at in the feed as fast as other instances posts come in.
I like and am happy we did things the way we did. Having started unfederated and then slowly dipping our feet in the water. I feel that was honestly the best and smartest approach.
In order to get more posts from other instances, is there anything specific I need to do besides federating their communities ie subscribing to them?
- 🙌
  I think it was the right way to go about it too.
  Subscribing their communities is the main thing you can do. Similarly, they would need to subscribe to ours to receive our content.
  I might try to reach out to some of the instances that have defederated from us, to see if we can reason with them. It all feels very irrational, maybe we can get them to see that the kitty isn't scary after all. That's one for when I have the time and patience though.
  
  Ok, I'll continue to subscribe to communities.
  I think it was the right way to go about it too.
  It really was, and thank you for having it setup that way.
  I might try to reach out to some of the instances that have defederated from us, to see if we can reason with them. It all feels very irrational, maybe we can get them to see that the kitty isn't scary after all. That's one for when I have the time and patience though.
  Oh me oh my oh cherry pie! Oh yea, you're gunna need to be in an EXTRA good mood too when you do lol man, I don't fucking blame you for feeling that way lol I'll be staying out of that one unless you request/need my input. I am so curious how that will go though tbh

13 comments