1y ago

I made a VERY BUGGY tool to check both "blocked by" and "blocked" of a Lemmy instance

federation-checker.vercel.app

How to use:

The url must be the hostname only, NO SLASHES, like this: lemmy.dbzer0.com, don't use https://, don't append a slash afterwards (lemmy.dbzer0.com/), only the hostname including the subdomain if it has it (in this case, lemmy).

If the instance has blocked the IP address from the server, or it is stuck and its API is not working correctly, it returns "Not a Lemmy instance" (I am too busy to fix this right now).

If the url is not formatted in a way it can process it, it will say Invalid URL. Better processing can come in the future. I won't be updating it now.

URL: https://federation-checker.vercel.app/
Source code: https://github.com/lemmygod/federation-checker

In the backend, it just scrapes https://fba.ryona.agency/?domain={url} and uses the api https://{instance}/api/v3/federated_instances

PRs welcome.

Honestly it works better when deployed locally in a development environment. I think Vercel's IP address is just blocked by cloudflare and other blacklists that stop automated stuff? Idk. Can check back in a few days.

57 comments

I would like to find a website with something like this to see the total blocked users for each instance, sorted from least to most blocked users, to make an account and not feel like I'm missing out, because you can sometimes see different comments from different instances.
- Can do. Later. If the API has that number it's not hard to do. It's not super fast though because it has to be requested from every server any time a request comes and some instances have over 50 servers in their lists on either side of the block.

I've been using https://fba.ryona.agency which does the same.
- This thing uses ryona too on the backend. I state it at the end of my post. The only difference is it fetches both sides at the same time.
  
  Ahh I see. That site does list both blocked by and blocked, but not simultaneously.
- This tool is primarily used for ban evasion and harassment and is run by people from kiwifarms (a known bad actor on the fediverse).
  Please don't feed them data about fediverse instances by querying new domain names.
  Further more: what is exactly the purpose of knowing who is blocked by whom? All it does is stirr drama and it will be used for harassment.
  
  Further more: what is exactly the purpose of knowing who is blocked by whom?
  There's good reason as a regular Lemmy user. To properly interact with a remote community you need the instance of the community linked on your sign-in instance and you need your sign-in instance linked on the remote instance.
  For example if I sign in on lemmy.ml and I want to interact with a community local to beehaw.org, I have to go to beehaw.org/instances and check lemmy.ml is linked. Then I have to go to lemmy.ml/instances and check beehaw.org is linked. It's kind of an unruly task with the /instances lists as large as they are so a tool to check that for you is very useful.
  
  Please don’t feed them data about fediverse instances by querying new domain names.
  I don't believe searching for domains will feed them data as such. You can crawl the lemmyverse starting from a few known servers. It's how awesome-lemmy-instances works.
  what is exactly the purpose of knowing who is blocked by whom?
  Before joining an instance it seemed useful to get an idea of their moderation policy. It just gives transparency as to that instance's policies, as well insight into how the rest of the fediverse views that instance.
  I wasn't aware it was created by known bad actors and it wasn't my intention to promote them. It was just a useful tool.
  
  POV: you're joining an instance. You check the tool. The instance is blocked by instances that have communities you like. You decide not to join that instance, and instead check the tool to find a place that 1. Doesn't block what you like and 2. Is not blocked by what you like. Seems easy enough to understand to me, especially since sh.itjust.works got defederated by beehaw.org and everyone is talking about defederating this and that over some reason or another.

No luck using it for me.
Edit: Its telling me we're not a lemmy instance, but obv I'm commenting here so federated.> Lemmy@lem
Edit 2: Also says lemmy.world is not a lemmy instance...
- Also, hello, fellow God!
- If you read the post, that's a known bug. It doesn't work for lemmy world. I think lemmy world doesn't allow the API to be used from the ip address I send the requests from. A local deploy fixes this issue as the IP address of your local computer would fare better. This is just a speculation. It worked for me locally. Sorry to disappoint.
  
  No worries, I'm just trying to learn and looking for tools that can help me support the broader community as a fellow God.
  For example, I'm still not sure I've got federation set up correctly because of some funniness around discovery. I think it might actually be the way lemmy.ml is set up.
  Any tools that could help admin are just golden so keep cracking.
- This is why it doesn't work. https://lemmy.world/api/v3/federated_instances is inaccessible.

That's odd. My instance shows up as blocked by several other instances. Yet when I check those instances, they show my instance as one of the linked instances.
- My theory: your instance WAS blocked by those instances, probably because it had a bot issue. When it was dealt with, sunaurus' bot instance tracker removed your instance from the list and it was whitelisted and everyone else unblocked you. But Ryona checks don't update cache very often which means it still shows as blocked.
  
  I'm thinking the same thing. Lemmy.ninja had a bot issue for a day or two until we figured out how to cleanly wipe the bot accounts. Do you happen to have a link to the bot instance tracker?

It works great for me! I've bookmarked it, thanks!

Hey, it's a start. 👍

57 comments