cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/162716

Hello friends, I have been thinking about the defederation issue

I have a satirical post in mind for the subject but a different topic came to mind

what if instead of defederating, a “soft” defederation could be activated, where content basically is not served to users unless they opt in to it

So like say “shhhhhhitjust.works” instance activates “opt in soft defederation”. Exploding Heads posts stops showing up on the instance, but users could still navigate to shhhhhhitjust.works/c/[email protected] and choose to subscribe and then stuff would show up

This would allow admins to be able to not promote content they agree with, while allowing users the ability to still interact with content they might approve of agreeing with

thoughts or has someone proposed this already?

we could also call for a new round of soft refederation if this idea is of use to anyone

edit: I suppose I should add I’m not really advocating for soft defederations at all so much as for them over “hard” or “full” defederations as have gone on as they drastically cut off all communication

  • @carbon_basedEnglish
    8•1 year ago

    This interesting idea (has been expressed before) could be just made in extension of the “user blocks instance” ability, for which there is an issue waiting to be taken up by a programmer:
    https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/issues/2397
    This feature request has a “hide instance from ‘all’ feed” included:
    More granular administration tools for federating with other instances #3255 https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/issues/3255

    The way a “soft defederation” could work is that an admin could have the ability to insert an instance block in every user’s blacklist. The user could still unblock if they wish. That would have most of the future defederation discussions dealt with. I suggest adding this suggestion to the above feature request.
    Edit: just added it.

    • @[email protected]OPEnglish
      -1•1 year ago

      thanks for adding it on github, I’m glad to see some progress in the discussion

      looks like we just need someone to code it and it would become an available tool

      I’m curious then on who would want to use the tool(s) if and when implemented: perhaps that discussion could be posted about on various instances that are currently totally defederated with certain platforms?

      maybe the “instances” page could also have a list for “soft defederated” instances?

      • @carbon_basedEnglish
        1•1 year ago

        Well, it’s a much-wanted feature, so it will get known with ease, i think.
        About the interface, i could think about possibilities but i’d say don’t make it look too complicated if we want to have it soon. ;-)
        We now have a page with blocked users and opted-out communities, and there could be another section with opted-out instances. That’s how i would do it but i will not get directly involved in the development.