So in light of finding out that I can't block an instance as a user, I am trying to find an instance that actually suits me better. Specifically I do not want to see anything relating to lemmygrad.ml and from what I can see, the main instances that block lemmygrad are lemmy.one which isn't accepting new applications and beehaw which, while I don't mind interacting with their instance at all, I don't wish to join it for a couple reasons. There are others like midwest.social but I don't live near there and while I know it is open to people that don't live there it doesn't exactly seem like where I would want to make an account that I plan on actually using.
So if I'm not mistaken, my options are basically to stay on lemmy.ml and deal with having to see posts and comments from lemmygrad.ml users, go to beehaw which I also don't want to do, make a new instance for myself which I'm not going to do, or just leave and come back later when there are actually options that suit me better. Does that sound about right?
Beehaw is blocking lemmygrad, they're federated with lemmy.ml which is federated with lemmygrad, though.
I'm a member of the lemmygrad instance and I don't think I've see any content from beehaw, so you should be good over there.
Edit: Okay, I can confirm you cannot see any content from users in a blocked instance. I just looked at this thread from slrpnk.net and you cannot see my comment. And I also just read that you didn't want to join beehaw. What's wrong with beehaw?
What's worse, or maybe not worse but more detrimental, is that you can't see chains of comments on replies to a lemmygrad user. I have this account on lemmy.ml and there was a thread about the UI that I commented in from my lemmy.ml account where I replied to another lemmy.ml user, who had replied to a lemmygrad user. Looking at that post on sopuli.xyz and beehaw.org both my comment and the other lemmy.ml user's comment were not visible on sopuli or beehaw because they were nested comments to the lemmygrad user.
It's really bad for lemmy that individual users don't have the ability to block instances so that these instances could federate with lemmygrad again.
It is a shame. I was trying to help OP out, but I think they might have blocked me individually, maybe through a mass ban of individuals in a thread they found on lemmygrad. As for the instances that have already blocked us, it's unlikely they will ever federate with us again.
Perhaps the devs could implement a "soft" ban as an alternative to outright removal from federation. Censoring a comment or thread created by a user from the targeted instance with a confirmation click to view. I'm sure a lot of these QoL features will be added when the devs get through the enormous backlog, which has only been growing larger due to the influx of new users.
An option to exclude an instance's posts from the front page but leave comments untouched would be ideal