I found that things became much more pleasant on here when I blocked hexbear. I recently blocked lemmy.ml as well, but I may reverse that if I find that I’m missing too much good content.
I’m open to other ideas on how to mostly avoid people who love conflict or argue in bad faith.
I blocked hexbear and lemmygrad to stop the firehose of kremlin/beijing propaganda cluttering up my feed and that made my lemmy experience worlds better. There’s only so many times you can read “special military operation” used unironically…
ditto
Lemmy.ml and hexbear were the first two I blocked and have zero regrets.
I blocked a few others because the content didn’t interest me and my preference is to browse on All instead of Subscribed so I can find content in communities I did not know existed. For example I blocked lemmynsfw because I didn’t want the content to come up while browing in public.
I wish there was an additional option to block all users of an instance separate from the instance block that applies to communities.
Not to kinkshame/judge (while judging) but lemmynsfw is super weird. There’s like 50 celebrity or more communities all ran by one guy who uploads like one picture or 50 in a row. I just browse by all but the NSFW filter protects me from seeing a celebrity every 10th post.
That’s why I run 2 different Lemmy apps. One for work and regular browsing. And a second one for those fun NSFW times.
I just blocked individual hexbear and lemmygrad users that were annoying (posting pig anuses or dogpiling/gish galloping/whatabouting). Took a lot of blocking, but a few hundred blocks later later, most of the hexbears and tankies left are pretty chill. I don’t want to end up in a bubble and only hear opinions I already agree with. I think I did block one far right instance entirely, cause I don’t value the ideas of bigots and fascists. Can’t remember who it was though.
I don’t want to end up in a bubble and only hear opinions I already agree with. I think I did block one far right instance entirely, cause I don’t value the ideas of bigots and fascists.
Hmmmmm
Edit: Apparently tankie bullshit is fine!
If you’re on a road trip, and you can’t agree on a destination, then arguing about the route to get there is pointless.
in this analogy, the “destination” in question is whether or not women/lgbt/blacks/jews/etc deserve rights. No point in discussing healthcare policy with someone who thinks women should be property and gays should be executed.
Yeah, tankie bullshit deserves to be heard because of an open mind, but not fascist bullshit.
Both are bullshit and should be blocked.
well, it’s not the first time I’ve been called a communist for saying that people deserve rights.
Says user Delightfully Divisive
I don’t block hexbear or ml because I like seeing their takes. Even if I disagree with them most of the time, it makes me think about my opinion more critically.
I do block certain communities and anyone who posts PPB.
I definitely agree with this. I signed up with ml just because it was a big instance and generally found it confusing when first setting up an account. So far I think it’s worked out because they have good up time and haven’t insulated themselves too much compared to a lot of instances that will defederate at the drop of a hat. Hexbear can be hard to read at times because many users can turn so hateful so quickly, but I do think their perspective can be at the very least interesting even when it is clearly misguided.
I do strongly dislike that every large instance has formed its own stereotype and opinions are immediately dismissed if they are coming from an instance that is stereotyped as having ‘bad options’.
I don’t know enough about Lemmy to block anything yet.
You should block Hexbear because its just a broad daylight CCP advocate forum trying to incite political extremism and violence in English speaking countries.
Lemmy ml isn’t all bad but they federate and align themselves closely with Hexbear.
I don’t know how to block a whole instance, but in reality I’ve only seen the communities that I’ve subscribed to and some other lame stuff… I’ve blocked all the shitty specific meme communities and web comics though. Call me a cynic.
I thought hexbear was far right. .grad is the full-on tankie instance.
Far right, CCP cuck, same difference. They at least claim to be the “true left”.
I usually only block communities, like NoStupidQuestions. There are actually quite a few stupid questions that can be asked, it turns out.
The only other instances I’ve blocked are HilariousChaos for all the spammy/unfunny communities they make and most of the foreign language instances.
I’ve blocked so many communities I wouldn’t know which specifically and my client doesn’t show this info but basically any hentai or political ones.
I have post and content filters and my lemmy experience is amazing. I omit anything containing: trump, elon, yiff
I have a huge number of content filters, basically stopping just short of blocking the words “left” and “right” but trying to block everything else political.
What I wish I could find a way to do is pick by post language - I have nothing against a user/community, I just don’t speak (usually) German.
Same here.
Then also around 600 communities and probably atleast 400 users blocked. Each list grows by the day.
I haven’t blocked any instance per-se but I block every community that is either hexbear or .ml
I used a three-strike rule when I first landed here. As in; deny a genocide or uplift an authoritarian despot 3x and your community can go fuck it’s own face.
Took 2 weeks before I stopped seeing hexbear and .ml.
I just block anything political and/or news. I am much happier now.
Mostly foreign language and shitty porn. Also “moe art” because why are there 70 subs for anime girls JFC.
deleted by creator
I don’t block any instances, though I am rather happy that .world decided to defederate with hexbear and .grad. I’m not so bothered by .ml, while they can be a little annoying sometimes, they’re at least usually able to carry on a semi-intelligent conversation. Usually anyway.
That might explain it then. Everybody’s talking about blocking hexbear, and I’ve never had any idea what they were talking about, but I’m on .world, so I guess it’s already blocked for me.
I use world now instead of blahaj just cause I’m a weirdo. But hexbear was federated with blahaj and their users/admins are super irresponsible and rude and called a blahaj admin transphobic
Can someone please explain all the .ml hate? From what I’ve seen, it’s mostly a tech (i.e., not tank!) instance and I haven’t experienced any drama at all aside from other instances hating on us. It seems WAY too overblown and generalized from my experience. If the OP blocked .ml are they even able to see my response here?
I can see your comment, and I don’t think that everybody on .ml is a troll. They just seem to have an awful lot of them, and I have no idea what the reason is. People arguing in bad faith, etc.
I enjoy reading the comments, but the top comments from most of the .ml-origin posts always seem to degenerate into name calling, and very quickly at that. The criticisms other people have called out further down in this thread sound accurate to me.
And clearly it isn’t just me seeing this, since somebody is downvotimg your perfectly polite posts in this thread. (It isn’t me.)
the tech side of .ml is why I haven’t blocked that instance. They genuinely care about privacy and FOSS, as is the instance description. When I joined lemmy, I considered .ml for my home instance.
As soon as politics comes up though, the tankies come out in force, and oh boy the temptation to get banned is real.
.world is neoliberal lumpen who violently reject anything that threatens their politician’s current narrative. They’re not thinking for themselves. They can’t discern left from right, thus reject both with equal hostility.
On this account, porn, most sports stuff, any instance that’s in a language I can’t read, and a few communities in .ml and hexbear.
I tend to block folks who spampost the same content three to four (up to 50) times, as this messes up my All experience, then those weird nearly CSAM manga style posts, and the clearly Russian/CN spam farm users.
