I have been looking through a long thread on another instance where a few users have been trying to convince that instance to defederate from Exploding Heads - because they do not want to see the content posted on Exploding Heads.
I have thought long and hard about how to please these people. They do have the option to individually block Exploding Heads communities or users, but they either do not know how to or simply do not want to.
In the end I realized if I ban those specific users requesting defederation from Exploding Heads - they will not see any content from Exploding Heads and therefore will not be offended by it. (Truth be told I am not sure if some of these users have really visited our site or interacted with our users).
So today I have banned those users with the explanation that they have said they do not want to see Exploding Heads content. If any of those users wish to be unbanned in the future, all they have to do is say so and I will happily unban them.
These users are not being banned in order to censor them, but to help them achieve what they have been requesting - to not see Exploding Heads content.
I hope you all find this a fair and reasonable action - if not let me know.
Ooh! I think that’s actually a clever solution to the problem of blocking a whole instance.
I don’t know what the technical challenges are when it comes to implementing a full-instance block by users. But this makes me think that there might be a way to achieve this by simulating a self-instance ban.
On a second thought… When you ban a user from your instance, they can still see the comments left by your users in other instances, right? The banned users may still argue that it is not only the posts but also the way the users engage that bothers them.
Still, this seems like a reasonable workaround until users get the ability to block instances.
I think it is the most I can do to try and make them happy.
Even if their instance did defederate Exploding Heads, they could still see Exploding Heads content if they visited another instance that is federated.
Have you tested it? Does it work? Will they not be able to see exploding heads communities on their instance? That’s a great idea if it works and good admin skills.
I think it works, but I guess we will find out.
Also, don’t let them get to you. They will dig hard, they will make accounts here just to post racist/hateful shit so they can then go back to their shit instances and say your instance is racists. People have no life.