I only just learned today that, when someone from one instance gets banned from another instance, that person not only is no longer able to interact with the second instance, but people from the second instance actually can’t see anything the person said from the moment they got banned even though they’re still there. I’m disappointed to learn all my friends who got banned from my instance are still saying stuff and nobody told me, making it more akin to an instance forcing everyone to block them (because individuals blocking each other the same way work like this). And this is coming from the person who has fantasized about universalization of federation.
What’s something about the fediverse that was most recently unobscured but that you know now?
Run your own instance or join a permissive one if you don’t want your instance to moderate trash away.
What you’re describing is a massive downgrade, and also massively adds to the legal exposure of hosting an instance, because you’re serving everything any user of your instance sees. Being able to block bad actors isn’t really an optional feature. You’re effectively asking for your instance to be forced to serve you abusive content.
I understand the liability issue, I guess this is just an inherent tradeoff with how the fediverse works.
I at least think there could be a two stage ban, ‘no posting here’ and ‘block everything’.
Also, defederation could still be used for instances that fail to moderate, although I do agree that fully blocking a user is much preferable to the nuclear option.
It would be a waste of time when no one would use the half ban. They’re banning users because they don’t want to serve whatever they’re posting.