this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2023
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I did write down some "typical reasons" for de-federation in our Wiki: https://wiki.f-hub.org/books/slrpnknet/page/lemmy-instance
But it is intentionally a bit vague and left open for interpretation as there will be always edge-cases and people trying to game rules. So no, I don't think it will be ever possible to have "clear circumstances under which we would or would not defederate", its always a bit of an individual judgement call related to both our specific community here and the health of the wider Fediverse.
In the specific case of Threads, I think it would probably not matter so much for our specific community here, but the threat to the wider Fediverse is very real and warrants a coordinated attempt to keep them out as best as we can.
And "denying potentially millions of people from experiencing the fediverse" is just not the case. They are free to make an account on another Fediverse server that is not run by a known bad actor like Facebook.
I’m glad there is something but I think a clear document has the potential to avoid a lot of potential issues. Such rules would help eliminate or clarify many edge cases and I somewhat doubt that we’ll ever be large enough that instances are deliberately trying to game our specific rules. But if it does we can always revise the document with whatever solution seems most practical.
And sure, people are free to join Lemmy… if they know about it. Which they largely don’t, and perhaps never will if we choose to isolate ourselves from most of the web. But it seems I’m in the minority on this issue so the decision has been made. We will see what the consequences are in time. Given Meta’s past behavior, it may prove wise. But there is also a cost to defederation that we should keep in mind when making these decisions.