this post was submitted on 30 Dec 2023
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I'll probably get downvoted for saying this, but in general I think defederation is against the free software ethos.
Free software is supposed to be about giving control back to the user, not the BOFH that happens to run the server they are using.
There's obviously going to be exceptions for illegal content, or actively trying to disrupt the lemmy network (by DDOS, flooding, etc) but I feel that's where the line should be drawn.
By "BOFH that happens to run the server" you mean "the volunteer whose money, time, and effort are being expended on your behalf", right?
This is the single most entitled opinion I've ever heard in this. "I, the person who bears none of the pecuniary, temporal, or psychological costs of running the server insist that 'the free software ethos' means I get what I want on someone else's computer."
Fuck that noise.
If you want a server run your way that federates with the people you want to federate with, put your own skin in the game. Run your own server with your own rules. THAT is the actual free software ethos: DIY if you don't like the way someone else does it.
The free software ethos is the punk ethos, not the hippy dippy shits ethos.
There's a difference between defederation policy and ban policy. You could have a server that is very slow to defederate, only defederating for abuse and illegal content that can't be stopped through moderation, while implementing a standard or even fairly aggressive enforcement policy for individuals, both local users as well as remote users. The idea is that you ban offending users, while only defederating when the instance itself is the problem.
Defederation splits the network apart. Trying to make defederation a last resort doesn't necessarily mean one is a freeze peach instance. Defederation policy is an entirely different beast from moderation.
That said, my understanding is that Lemmy's moderation tools are pretty lackluster at the moment, and so a big part of the reason that some instances are quick to defederate is that it's difficult to moderate between poor mod tools and small volunteer mod teams. It's easier to just defederate.
I agree though that the freedom of FOSS moreso lies with admins, as they're the ones deploying the software so they can choose how to run their instance, whether that means federating with everyone or just running a completely defederated Lemmy instance with no peer instances.
does bigotry count
But the user of the free software has all the controls? How is Lemmy (as an example) not maximum free software?
the user of the free software in this case would be the server owner.