Recently I was browsing some communities I typically hang out in and I started noticing Hexbear accounts being… well their typical selves.
Which made me check which account I was on because I’ve got a few, and when I noticed I was on my Blahaj account I had to check and it looks like we’re federated again?
Why?
Hey, sorry about the way this unfolded.
I removed hexbear from the blocklist, as they are defederated from us, and I was unaware that it would mean that hexbear users and blahaj users would be able to interact on 3rd party instances. I’ll add them back for now.
Ultimately, the reason I removed them from the list now is that once we have the ability to let users block instances on a per user level, I am open to the idea of refederating with hexbear, because I am aware that many of their trans and gender diverse users want the ability to connect with our trans communities, and trans solidarity is something that I hold to be very important. Enough that I am willing to give this all another go.
However, it was only meant to happen after blahaj users had the option to opt out of interacting with hexbear users, and after I had made an announcement letting people know it was coming. I apologise for the screw up leading to a mini refederation before I gave people a heads up and before the tools were in place to let people choose whether they engage with hexbear users.
I will warn you right now: regardless of their claims to be LGBTQ+ inclusive, they mercilessly harass users and fracture communities. I have left a couple other instances over their federation with them because of the constant harassment for any kind of perceived slight (I was accosted because they thought I had implied something about autistic folks? When in fact I was trying to make myself understood as an autistic person!).
You are making a huge mistake with this decision. But, obviously, as a user, I can only wish you well if this is the direction you choose. You will be making so much more work for yourself by doing this and putting a lot of stress on users who did not sign up for what is to come.
Best of luck.
I am not saying we will stay federated and that’s the end of it. What I’m saying is that with the goal of trans solidarity, and more refined blocking tools, I’m willing to give it another try.
If it ends up causing more harm than benefit, then we’ll shut the doors again.
I am very keen to try and make this work, but if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work.
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It should be noted that Lemmy’s blocking function is more for “things you don’t want to see” and is next to useless for users that are actually harmful because it does not restrict access to the person it is used on, it only hides their content from you (great for people who you “disagree with” but insufficient for legitimately/objectively harmful users).
Instances like Hexbear post large amounts of spam and spread objectively harmful ideology and misinformation. They aren’t merely “things you don’t want to see”. Their defederation should be done to maintain the health and safety of the instance due to the severity of some of their offenses.