Exploding-heads.com is another instance on Lemmy where alt-right MAGA types tend to reside. Some people on this server want us to defederate from them immediately, some people want to save defederation as a last resort. They have 104 active users (more stats below).
It seems that exploding-heads has also experienced a recent botswarm invasion. This is obviously another point in favor of defederating them, assuming you are worried about botswarms, which is currently being discussed here.
My advice to you all is please try to discuss this in a civil manner, we need not allow them to create divisive conflict inside our communities. No matter how the vote turns out, you're not going to be able to defederate from your fellow sh.itheads so be nice.
I've linked many of the previous discussions below so people who are out of the loop can get a general sense of the situation.
https://sh.itjust.works/post/216888 https://sh.itjust.works/post/225714 https://sh.itjust.works/post/281126 https://sh.itjust.works/post/410325
Lemmy.world just recently defederated them.
https://lemmy.world/post/747912
https://lemmy.world/post/577526
Although this could be considered a point in favor of defederation, it actually means even if we vote to remain federated, people have a great alternative in lemmy.world where they can still participate in our communities and simultaneously be protected from exploding-heads.
Ensuring diversity of servers is beneficial to the platform as a whole, but it is also not our responsibility to bear that burden.
TLDR, just wrap up any last points in this thread before we open the vote tomorrow. Please be civil.
EDIT: To clarify, this isn't the official vote, this is the final discussion. The vote thread will be posted tomorrow and you will only be allowed to make a single comment saying Aye or Nay.
EDIT2: Vote thread is up, this thread is now locked. Very lively discussion thread sh.itheads. Please try to be more respectful next time.
First, federation isn't just a passive series of links, it's paying to host and serve their content from our instance. I'm not going to be part of, and very much not going to donate to, an instance that's fine with hosting material like that.
Second, no, their admins are pretty visibly transphobic. It was seeing their transphobic memes in my feed, before this conversation even came up, that was my initial problem. Since then there's been far more stuff. Had it been a few users maybe this conversation would be different, but it's the admin and from there the entire community. I intend to be an active part of the community I join on Lemmy - I think that's really the entire point of the federation model - and I'm not going to be an active part of a community that, as I said, stores and serves that kind of stuff.
Further, I'm on here for fun. My job deals aplenty with stress along these lines... I don't need it in my relaxation time as well.
You're quite welcome to feel differently. If the vote goes against me I'm just going to leave for a place that fits my needs. Likewise I encourage you to do the same. That's how it's supposed to work.
That's a fair point and an interesting distinction regarding hosting content - I had assumed that your home instance was simply fetching content hosted from elsewhere but I really don't know much about the underlying technology.
And we can certainly all pack up and go separate ways. I just worry that excessive fragmentation is an existential threat to the success of the ecosystem. Today I don't feel like there are enough users on Lemmy to reach a self-sustaining critical mass - if the barrier to entry is too high, we won't get enough engagement and this could turn into another failed experiment like Google+. If the price to pay for having a full vibrant community is downvoting and blocking some bad users every now and then that's something I am willing to do.
Finally, I think this interaction has been a good example of what I hope to get out of Lemmy. I don't agree with many of your points, but I am glad for the conversation and think I have learned something by exploring a point of view different to my own. If we had been siloed with only like-minded people, that would not have happened. Food for thought perhaps.
Should be noted, I don't plan to silo myself with only like minded people. I have a line though, and exploding heads is well beyond it.
Thanks for the conversation!
Edit to explain further: for example,.even if I leave this instance, I don't have any plans to defederate from it in my other instances. It will clearly be a place far more "okay" with the alt right than I am, but that doesn't mean I need to remove it from my feed entirely.