One other late thought on this. Lemmy advocates like this one have told me that “It doesn't matter which instance you use. You'll still be able to interact with communities (subreddits) on all other instances, regardless of which instance your account lives.” Doesn’t defederation prevent interaction between two instances, making the above statement false?

[–] Ajen@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I think it would be harmful if defederation became commonplace and fragment the fediverse. On the other hand, I don't see any issue with there being "niche" instances which have a specific demographic of users they want to serve, and I don't see any harm in them defederating with other niche instances. Lemmygrad and exploding heads seem like a good example, I've heard they've defederated each other. I don't think that affects the overall fediverse too much because the users of those instances would probably block or brigade the other instance anyway. There wouldn't be any positive interaction between them, so nothing of value has been lost.

Basically, I think it would be ideal if it's only the "niche" instances that use defederation as a moderation tool, and most instances only defederate for spam or illegal content.

[–] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago

Defederation doesn't prevent you from subscribing to the instance that defederated yours, you'll only be able to interact with people from your own instance when checking content over there.

[–] manitcor@lemmy.intai.tech 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

small and private instances are the key

[–] Relected@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

it only applies when you use your own instance or an instance you can control