i feel like blocking of instances leads to worse echo chambers than subreddits themselves. We gonna have bubbles of federation networks that don't federate with each other. E.g. lefties, righties, "dark web" illegal shit, kinky shit, and instances that federate with all of them will be blocked by other instances because "use my blacklist or get defederated". This is gonna lead to hell for users having to create fifty accounts for each bubble. Aint nobody got time for that.
i wish it remained a user's option to block/unblock content they don't/do want to see. Each instance could provide their "recommended" default list of enabled instances, and user can go and enable others, like how NSFW toggle works. Maybe group instances into categories with tags or something, like "porn", "memes", "tankies", "nazis", "warez", etc
Hosting is the legal issue. Linking to illegal content that somebody else is hosting is much harder to tackle legally, which is why isohunt was around for so long despite being based in the US. IIRC they shut down not because they lost any lawsuits but because they just couldn't afford the legal battle.
Most people will not put their time and energy into running an instance which is destined to become a fascist playground with policies like those. You might not like it but in this real world that we are all forced to live in, that is what those policies lead to.
You can discuss and promote piracy, but lemmy.world is the biggest instance so hosting links up pirated content will get them shut down. The post is 100% right, just make multiple accounts. You want the illegal stuff distributed. What's great about Lemmy is you can still have other accounts on those networks.
The primary purpose of the defederation mechanism is not to block content from readers, it's to prevent brigades. A big problem on Reddit is vote manipulation (not to mention shit stirrers showing up uninvited). On Reddit some mods would just ban everyone who ever posted in a subreddit (like T_D), defederation is essentially the same thing.
Live in someone's house, then follow their rules. Otherwise buy your own house or find another house.
That's what I associate lemmy instances with. Anyways I'm glad that we are free to choose where we maintain our accounts. Unlike reddit wher we cannot even move in order to change the environment, cause it's all under one management.
I would say to all the people who came here from reddit that none of these instances are 'your' house unless you actually created them. This is September and you're all freshmen.