We’ve already defederated one tanky instance, and frankly I think I’ve rarely had a positive interaction with Hexbear users. Their defence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, or of China’s genocide against the Uighur people, is hard enough to stomach. But what prompted me to post this is their commentary in this thread where even without any of the propaganda-based reasons to justify their beliefs, they seem to delight in being rude arseholes to people.
Personally, I don’t think they provide us any real value, no we’d be better off without them, just as we are better off without lemmygrad and exploding-heads.
Is it worth growing if the growth is coming from toxic users? Hexbear users aren’t providing us value, in my opinion. Nearly every time I see them, they’re being rude arseholes. They set out to cause other people pain. If the growth of the Threadiverse requires letting in people who are deliberately hurting others, is growth really worthwhile?
I’ve not seen a disproportionate amount of drama from any particular instance, though I do have a habit of simply ignoring trolls and extremists which has been honed from years of participation on Usenet and forums.
I feel there’s more drama being generated at the minute from posts complaining about users from particular instances, than there is from the posts by the users from those instances.
It feels more like tribalism than solving the paradox of tolerance.
It’s also going to lead to the exact same bubble that Facebook etc generate by only giving you content you agree with. I’d rather see the content and choose to ignore it or argue against it rather than never see it in the first place.
In my opinion it is better to block the instance on an account level, unless the instance is engaging in more than saying words people don’t like.