Hi all, I’m a Lemmy FOSS app contributor that’s made a couple of tools for people starting small instances including Lemmy Community Seeder (LCS) for building content on new server’s All Feeds and Lemmy Post Purger (LPP) for clearing old posts on smaller instances.
Today I’m releasing Lemmy Defederation Sync (LDS). When launching a new Lemmy instance, administrators may not understand the necessity of defederation with problem instances. Using LDS, you can sync your instance’s “blocked instance” list with that of another server(s) whose admins you trust.
This sounds a bit like how to bring the shared blocklists from Twitter to Lemmy. Those were a disaster on Twitter, and I don’t expect it’ll end any better here either…
Please don’t use tools like this. Manually curate instances you feel the need to defederate with. The Fediverse was built on a model not unlike that of email. You wouldn’t just randomly block whole email providers willy-nilly, so you shouldn’t do so here on the Fediverse either.
As a sysadmin that’s a terrible analogy:
Also a sysadmin.
Shared blocklists in IT are managed by industry professionals for the purpose of safety from malicious activity and there are vetted processes for being removed from days lists. False positives happen, but you aren’t hung out to dry if you get hit, you just go through the process and clear your name.
Most of this “Fediblock” nonsense is several orders of magnitude less reliable, and filled with toxic people pursing personal grudges. There’s no process to clear your name, and I’ve personally watched multiple admins and their entire communities be publicly mocked and told they “don’t owe you anything” for merely asking why they were blocked, let alone how to remedy the situation.
These are not remotely equivalent and anybody who trusts them is a fool. The Fediverse has a serious problem with vile, bitter people who would not be out of place running an HOA. If we are going to emulate the blocklists common in IT, we need professionals in charge of it, not nosy busybodies.
Great, you form the not-for-profit company to manage this and get the buy-in from a critical mass of servers. Gold luck finding and vetting staff
The point is valid though The fact that they’re not going to set up the solution doesn’t invalidate their core message.
I can equally point out that you’re not providing a viable solution either.
Except you don’t import blocklists, you typically query them (and maybe cache that result for a very short period) as email blacklists are very transient, especially so that admins can remediate. Also email blacklists aren’t being weaponized for “I vehemently hate/disagree a select few of users on this server”, it’s generally reserved for high-volume spam.
Read my other reply, I’m not talking about email blocklists, my reference is to email providers doing that, which is extremely rare and done with explicit intent and good reason.
Secondly, while I won’t disagree there’s some vile content out there on the Fediverse, do you trust someone else to make that decision for you? Why would you let someone else decide what is and isn’t vile for you and those using your instance? Better yet, how would you feel if some popular instance decides you were the vile one, and because it was a common instance to use for blocking references, your instance is now cut off from a good chunk of the Fediverse?
This is exactly the sort of nonsense that swept Twitter with shared Blocklists, and the potential for negative impact on the Fediverse is even worse from it. Don’t let others decide make decisions for you just because it’s easy, as it doesn’t absolve you of responsibility when something goes wrong.
Now you compare EMails aka mostly private communication to a public forum, that’s even dummer…
The ActivityPub standard is modeled on email. Each instance is a server, and we all have inboxes. It’s a very apt comparison to use.
Also, unless the email is E2EE, then it’s not private, no more meaningfully so anyways.
🤦
Admins can and do use email server block lists, though, so maybe that’s a great example.
I suppose you’re right–for now. But at some point Lemmy etc will grow large enough to make manual blocking infeasible. Just how much effort does it take to start a new instance even today?
Wrong comparison. It’s not like a server admin using an email block lists (which are also often implemented badly, as anyone with a protonmail account knows…). It’s more like if Protonmail suddenly blocked Tutanota, or if Gmail blocked MS Exchange. The uproar and rage from that would be unceasing.
The Fediverse operates on a model like that of email, and in the email world blocking whole email servers from each other is very rare, and usually done with the most explicit of intent and for a very good reason. That’s how the Fediverse should operate as well.
Youre just flat wrong here. Basically every email admin uses RBLs to one degree or another.RBLs commonly block whole email servers that allow spam, not individual users. Thousands of email servers. You literally dont know what youre talking about.
The reasons “MS exchange” are not blocked is because they clean up their servers and ensure this bad behavior is not passively or actively allowed. Protonmail had some serious spam issues, which is why they were blocked. They were not doing the work it takes to be a good member of the “email” federation, so they were excluded from it.
RBLs are ruthless, because email has no enforcement mechanism for good behavior besides “you are not allowed to talk to me.” Thats the nature of federation. There is no central authority to appeal to, so each member of a federation instead sets their boundaries. You play nice, or other people dont have to deal with your shit, and RBLs are a proven and effective tool to help them accomplish that.
The only issue with reputation block lists for the fediverse right now is that it’s still very small. They will likely limit growth, but that’s up to the server admins to weigh agaisnt allowing hateful content. Youre always free to spin up your own server and federate with whoever is willing.