The instance seems to be mostly right wing trolls. I know defederating is unpopular but I don't think much is to be lost in this case and it can save the mods some headaches.
Edit: the response on exploding-heads.com to my reporting of transphobia. Courtesy of the "second in command"
They're a tiny instance with even smaller communities, just block them and you're set.
So we just wait until they're a big instance with big communities before we start considering that it might be a good idea to not let them interact with an instance that has rules against them? 🤔
Exactly. r/thedonald started as a tiny joke sub started by 4Chan that wasn't dealt with until it became a festering cesspool of hate that became big enough to be a serious problem, brigading other subs and spreading hateful rhetoric. It has to be nipped in the bud and made clear that it is not welcome.
Our instance’s rules are for our own instance. If they come over here and start spewing ridiculous nonsense, then sure, we should start banning them. For now they aren’t even causing much trouble. If they do in the future then I’d support defederating, but I disagree with jumping the gun.
The alt-right became an issue because social media gave it the reach it never had in the past, you're arguing to let them have reach until they become problematic instead of preventing the issue in the first place, by the time they become problematic the number of converts will have increased, all because some people feel bad for them.
Firstly, the alt-right is far from a modern issue. And secondly it’s nothing to do with feeling bad for them. I couldn’t agree less with the nonsense they’re saying there. I’m saying that defederating them doesn’t “prevent the issue in the first place” at all. Isolating communities only makes them get more extreme over time. Refusing to let them interact with us only causes their beliefs to be echoed and amplified in their communities. And I should clarify again, by no means am I saying that they should be allowed to promote their hateful messages here. If they break the rules of our instance, here in our instance, they should be banned, simple.
The scale of it is a modern issue, far right extremists existed in the past, never have their ideas been as mainstream as they are today, social media and a certain politician gave them a reach they never had in the past. It's much harder to get people hooked when you have to meet them in person to recruit, now you just "question things" on digital public spaces and you'll have people who will start following you.
Isolating them is the solution because, for every one of them that gets out because they're exposed to other points of views, you've got hundreds or thousands being exposed to their message.
Moderation isn't instantaneous either so saying "We'll delete their message as they post it" just isn't a logical solution when you've got the capacity to just prevent them from taking part in the discussion in the first place.
They already have their spaces to radicalize themselves, the goal of taking part in discussions on general forums is just to get people to enter the spiral and to move the window of what is and isn't acceptable. Just look at what happened on /r/Canada, that place was becoming a right wing cesspool before metacanada was forcefully shutdown. Why? Because the mods decided to tolerate bigots.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJA_jUddXvY7v0VkYRbANnTnzkA_HMFtQ