How your instance admins can vibe-check other instances in the Fediverse

You might already know how to vibe-check users and instances as a Fediverse user. But there are tons of bad instances out there. A wee little user can’t mute/block/report ’em all!

Our scenario

You’re in an instance called weLoveCats.hehe. Yes, I know that .hehe is not a valid TLD, but that’s because our instance here is a fake one for the sake of example.

You love your instance! Most of its users are amazing. The admins are friendly. The moderators make sure the instance stays squeaky-clean of the bad stuff you don’t want in there.

Unfortunately, you can’t have perfection all the time. Some bad stuff still gets through occasionally.

NOTE: not sure how these apply to different Fediverse software, but they definitely work in Mastodon and Misskey.

Some Fedi terminology

We know that all instances on the Fediverse (sometimes referred to as Fedi) can connect to each other and allow its users to interact. This is called federation.

If weLoveCats.hehe can interact with weLoveKittens.hehe, we can say that these two instances federate with each other.

Defederating with instances

Your moderators have recieved numerous reports on users who openly support animal abuse and even post videos on it! Yikes.

Turns out, a majority of these users come from one instance: weHateAnimals.hehe. Disgusting behaviour.

So your admins decide to get the banhammers out. They can defederate from the instance. It’s similar to how a user can block a user or instance, but this is effective throughout weLoveCats.hehe.

This means that, from weLoveCats.hehe, it’s almost as if weHateAnimals.hehe didn’t even exist. These two instance will no longer federate with each other. They are no longer federated. You get the idea.

Limiting instances

So that horrible instance is out. However, the users of weLoveCats.hehe have been saying that they’re not fond of having oh-so-many dog posts from weLoveDogs.hehe flooding their timelines.

It’s not that bad. Some of your fellow users follow users from that instance and would like to continue interacting with them… but the majority wants that instance out of their timelines.

So there’s a slightly softer option that can be a decent compromise: limiting.

This is similar to defederation, except enough links are still there that if a user from weLoveCats.hehe still wants to interact with a user from weLoveDogs.hehe, they still can. It’s just that the posts from weLoveDogs.hehe won’t appear in the public feeds like local, federation and explore.

The FediBlock

If weLoveCats.hehe finds some instances horrible, perhaps other instances like weLoveKittens.hehe might share the same views!

There is an instance, weHateEverything.hehe that promotes terrorism and genocide. Absolutely horrible. We don’t want that at all.

So instances like weLoveCats.hehe and weLoveKittens.hehe and weLoveDogs.hehe can all agree that they don’t want to federate with instances like that.

Admins across the Fediverse can cooperate with each other under the #FediBlock. If an instance is bad enough, admins might report it under that hashtag to alert other admins that this instance is bad news.

Each admin has the choice of doing whatever they want with instances under the FediBlock. However, federating with FediBlocked instances is kind of a red flag, so it’s just best to do what everyone does.

There are some public lists of instances that are FediBlocked: instances that are agreed to be horrible enough that you should defederate right away. Instances like weHateAnimals.hehe and weHateEverything.hehe can go there.

There are many reasons an instance might be FediBlocked:

• The instance is not moderated, and so many bad users reside there.
• The instance refuses to moderate bad content.
• The instance actively promotes bad content.

And such.

For instance, loli is legal in Japan and so there are some Japanese instances that allow it. These instances are often included in FediBlock lists. Some instances also have horrible admins who might be racist, homophobic, etc. Perhaps some instances are also turning a blind eye to such things and tolerate racist comments on their instance. FediBlocked.

There have also been some spam waves across the Fediverse, and so some instances were temporarily (or even permanently) FediBlocked to prevent the spam from federating.

But what if…?

In an alternate universe, weLoveCats.hehe is not so amazing. Its moderation is either absolutely horrible or even nonexistent.

You see local users posting animal abuse and being homophobic. You see that your instance federates with instances that promote or tolerate the same things.

Oh no.

In that case, I suggest you just jump ship. Find a new instance. Chances are, your instance is already FediBlocked. Can’t expect your admins and mods to help you now.

Some Final Words

The Fediverse is cool! If your instance is well-moderated, then your mods and admins probably put these tools to good use to ensure your instance stays chill for everyone, including those that federate with it.

If your instance is not-so-well-moderated, then good luck with that.

Have a nice day!