Update: In light of the programming.dev update here https://programming.dev/post/8399272, the defederation is no longer going ahead.
However, something more needs to be said. Even here on Blahaj, some of our users took issue with the choice to defederate over this issue.
So I would like to give some background and context.
Blahaj Zone exists, because both Kaity and I left mainstream social media to escape transphobia. Reddit, with its lackluster approach to fighting transphobia, and twitter, with its outright celebration of transphobia pushed us here, to the fediverse, and to create Blahaj Zone and Blahaj Lemmy.
To that end, we will continue to treat transphobia seriously. Our goal is to create a space where gender diverse folk can exist and let our defenses down a little, where we don't have to worry about getting dragged in to an argument with a transphobe, or a bad faith actor "just asking questions".
If you are looking for a more reddit like experience, where in the interest of increased engagement, we let low level transphobia slide, and push responsibility for dealing with it on to community mods and individual users, then you will likely not be happy with blahaj going forward. If you choose to stay here, understand that we may defederate again in the future over similar issues.
The choice is yours.
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It has recently been brought to my attention that the lead admin of programming.dev is engaging in ongoing transphobia.
You can see the conversation in question here https://programming.dev/comment/6131539
For that reason we will be defederating from programming.dev in 48 hours.
There are only three communities on that instance used by small number of our users, so this won't have a big impact, but if you are one of those users, you will need to use an alt account on another instance if you wish to access the communities.
I'm torn about this. Although I agree that the admin of that instance is being pretty transphobic and abrasive, I don't know if it's bad enough to defederate. In addition, I really like some of the communities there (especially the Godot community) and this might be the thing to push me off blahaj.zone...
It's a hard balance to strike, protecting vulnerable people from potentially harmful instances with bad policies, while at the same time, providing a valuable instance that people will want to use. Unfortunately, this will probably push me and some other individuals onto other instances that may have worse moderation and will likely expose us to a lot more bigotry. It's a tough situation, and I honestly don't know what the best option is.
on that note, does anyone have recommendations for a neutral and controversy free instance but that also isn't so quick to defederate?
I understand instances like this wanting to defederate on principle and I'm sure it helps to curate a better experience for the people looking for that. Personally I'd rather make the choice myself to block communities I don't like and leave defederation on an instance level to just blocking illegal content and poor moderation and the like.
There typically will always be some form of controversy, tends to be just how the admins handle that
I try to keep this instance federated with instances as much as reasonable (the only lemmy instances we really defederate with are burggit and rqd2 since their instance rules break our instance rules, lolicon+DMCA ignoring for the first and very questionable communities in the second (zoophilia, MAP)) and were dealing with the situation in this post internally currently to solve the situation here with blahaj. Should make a post in meta probably tomorrow
I can give some recommendations of some instances with admins ive had positive experiences with (im one of the programming.dev leads though if that affects my stances on this)
I chose lemm.ee because of how rarely it defederates, and I'm not aware of any major controversy with it. Blahaj is still federated, as is hexbear, lemmygrad, and beehaw. For those who want to curate their own instance experience, I'm not currently aware of a better home (though if anyone knows of one, definitely let me know, of course!).
Still being federated with Hexbear and Lemmygrad is a deal breaker for me but thank you for the suggestion
?? I was suggesting it for the user above, who specifically mentioned wanting instances that weren't quick to defederate.
I had a very similar comment in this thread and while being tired AF I replied to your suggestion
Maybe I thought it was a reply to my comment? IDK. I was tired AF.
I have an alt there, but there have been some availability issues lately. Is it better now?
The server was upgraded this past week actually, and I haven't had any problems since.
ee is one of my favorite instances because their users will occasional wander into a lemmygrad thread and get shocked as shit.
Unfortunately the best option will probably be to see if the defederation takes place then if it does move instances.
It's a tough call but it's starting to really seem like the right one.
The problem will be finding a new instance, I think the solar punk one might be a good place but I have to see who they're federated with first.
Edit: Spleling
You can always make another account (on another instance) to view content from defederated instances.
I'm not all that sad to see them go, honestly. I think proactively taking action against instances who tolerate or perpetuate transphobia is a good thing for an instance made to be safe for trans people.
~~The admin could just as easily respond to all of this, there's no way he isn't aware, but he has thus far chosen not to.~~
Edit: misunderstood that there was only one lead admin of the programming.dev instance.
We have been talking about it internally currently (+ was talking with ada). I'm planning to do a post tomorrow
Ah, I see your comment explaining how the administration of the instance is set up. I thought there was one lead admin, but my knowledge on that comes entirely from the thread on the transfem community. Pardon my ignorance on that point. I'm glad to hear that you're in talks internally and with Ada. No one likes defederation, but I do understand why in this situation, some kind of action was warranted. Hopefully everything can be sorted out.