I get it. There’s some real jerks around here. Whether they’re constantly argumentative, donwright rude, always acting in bad faith, just plain trolls, overly opinionated on every subject, have the social skills of a Naussican, etc. The Fediverse is growing, and it’s bound to attract toxicity in one way or another.
This post is mostly a PSA for anyone who’s feeling like leaving because they’re tired of dealing with things like that. I’ve been there several times myself, and I know how you feel.
Just remember that blocking is a very powerful way to stay in control of your experience. Be it a set of users, me specifically, a community, or an entire instance: if it’s causing you nothing but stress, hit that block button and see if that improves your experience here. Unlike the alien site, there is no limit to the number of entities you can block; you’re in control.
Another thing to keep in mind is different instances have different vibes, and the experience can totally differ depending on the instance’s moderation and federation policy.
In conclusion, your experience here can be what you make of it; don’t be afraid to just block the parts that stress you out. You’re not “creating an echo chamber” as everyone likes to say (often in bad faith) – you’re just taking care of yourself.
Im a big believer in block. I think its better for people to peruse all and block communities they are uninterested in and you should totally block users you don’t like. To me it should be like real life. Don’t hang with folks you don’t like. My hope for the fediverse is instances that only remove things to stay out of legal trouble and communities that only block things that are unrelated. I want all the big tools to be at the user level. Bottom up.
I have blocked a few communities which I have really enjoyed. I think there is definitely a different but freeing experience to be in charge of curating your experience instead of algorithms doing it for you. It’s more work but the freedom is nice but making the constant choice feels hard.
Yes and no.
I am a big fan of block buttons and use them quite liberally (if someone responds to me in a manner that makes it clear they have no intention of having a conversation? I never see them ever again).
But the problem is that it only blocks it for the user who blocks them. So harassment is still a thing and now even fewer people are likely to flag it for moderation (to the extent that works).
There is obviously room for abuse but I am a firm believer that any block feature must be bidirectional. If user A blocks user B then A and B can no longer see each other or interact. Which would be a fundamental lemmy feature which makes things difficult.
But “just block them” is good for people who are annoying. Not for people who are abusive. And while the latter isn’t SUPER common on lemmy, there are still a good number of people who respond to the simplest of things with “Fuck you you fucking moron and you should go kill yourself”
I’ve yet to block anyone here and the only one I had blocked on Reddit was Gallowboob.
Well that’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time.
Thank you! I try to exercise caution for myself of am I just off put by this or is this truly uncessary behavior, and I’m glad the option to judge for myself is available.
Block users and instances (although blocking instances just blocks the topic posts from that instance, not all the users from that instance).
Wish instance blocking actually blocked properly. But the main devs know everyone would block the tanky triad immediately and they’d have no one to troll.
Instance blocking works on:
- PieFed
- the Lemmy apps Sync and Connect
- instance admins who can choose to defederate
- someone willing to go deep and make a custom web browser filter (presumably like Ublock Origin I would guess)
Nothing else works.
That’s one of the benefits of the smaller community here too, the block button actually feels like it does something. If you’re frustrated by comments that add nothing to anything or are fishing for drama etc, a short commitment to blocking repeat offenders really improves things quickly
Block is useless on lemmy. They can still cause a nuisance. Just becuase you can’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not there…
The point of my post is protecting one’s own mental health. I’m not here to police the Fediverse. Report people if it’s warranted, block if they’re a source of stress or make the place unenjoyable.
It’s nice not having to look at Blaze or some of the other trolls at least.
What I read to do is to call them out, report them, then block them. They need to know they’re being mean.
Additional PSA to admins not running a “universal free speech” instance- if you see someone someone being obnoxious it’s probably annoying your users just as much as is is you. Don’t put the onus fully on users to curate their experience. The Fediverse needs our adults in the room!
Make sure to also report the people you see being toxic, astroturfing, or downright attacking users. Many instances have policies against this and reporting them will increase the likelihood they’ll be dealt with, in some cases permanently.
This is something that should be discussed more since blocking is not a moderation function that makes the platform better, it’s a tool for people to pretend the problems don’t exist. I’m not a fan of pretending issues don’t exist, especially since I’m a mod and that would be insanely counter-productive.
Oh, yeah, that goes without saying. Report anyone whose behavior warrants it. I’m just mainly reminding people that blocking can be a way to take control of your experience. It took me a while to fully appreciate the block button and get over my FOMO (in the earlier days of Lemmy, blocking even a few people would cut down the amount of content drastically; thankfully that’s no longer the case).
Semi-specific (but still intentionally vague) example for “block” candidates are some accounts that even the mods are like “Look, I don’t like them either, but they’re not breaking any rules”. But, in general, just don’t be afraid to block what or whoever stresses you out.
have the social skills of a Nausicaan
Play Domjot?
The biggest toxicity comes from the tank triad. I have blocked them and now it is peaceful.
That’s like the “install uBlock Origin” first step as far as I’m concerned lol.
Yup. Learned it the hard way. My first account was with lemmy.ml and it got banned because of criticizing China. I consider myself leftist and the amount of censorship the tank triad do to ensure China numba wan is mind numbing.
I’ve been told by then that China isn’t authoritarian And China has more freedom of speech than western countries… They banned me. Lol
Who are the tank triad?
Lemmy.ml Lemmygrad Hexbear
Basically the 3 far left instances that will enforce the discourse to be Marxist and anti-west.
Most instances are defederated from the latter two but not the first because that instance is run by the main Lemmy devs (who are communists)
Is “far left” an accurate description? They are not really what I consider “left” at all.
Not really. They give some lip service to communist dogma, but they really only have a big hard on for totalitarianism.
It’s pretty absurd in 2025 to get high on late 1980s Comintern propaganda, but here they are 🤷
They are the actual far left. Horseshoe theory is bs.
In contrast, Antifa is left. US democratic party are right. Canadian liberals are centrist.
And not in a productive way, either. Once in a while I see a couple hexbear users in a thread, so I’m guessing crossposts happen. But their comments are mostly just name-calling and shitting on liberals.
And never, ever criticizing the Right. These people cheer for Trump more than the fucking MAGA crowd.
They’re not Marxists sadly, they’re worse.
They’re Stalinists who want authoritarianism.
Marx wouldn’t have condoned having a dictator/Tzar
Not even communists. I have had communists as friends during my grad and undergrad. Tank triad are a worser kind. They actively hinders any discussion against China. Tianenmen? Never happened. Mao’s genocide? western propaganda. Chinese imperialism in Tibet? China reclaiming its historical boundaries. Basically China and USSR can never do anything wrong. If they did, its western propaganda.
Also why cant they defederate from lemmy.ml? That should be technically possible as the code is open source and can be fetched easily to run an instance?
Anyone can defederate from .ml but they have a lot of users being the dev run site, so many don’t. Or at least that’s the reason lemmy.world has given in the past about why they have don’t federate with hexbear and lemmygrad but still do with ml
I know for a fact I’m opinionated, and don’t have problems sharing them.
Please, by all means, block me if you think seeing my comments is adversely affecting you. I’d rather be ignored by someone than make their day worse (unless they’re actively trying to make others miserable, but that’s a separate discussion)
The fediverse has definitely gotten a little less hostile after blocking a few things.
And remember you can jump ship to another instance at any time! I’ve hopped a few times but for now my instance is filling my needs without much drama that I am aware of.
I think it’s less about having strong opinions and more with how those are expressed. But either way, you’re here with a good attitude, and that’s appreciated.
Same!
I quickly went over your comment history of the last 30 days and you have almost no downvotes. You are a wholesome person and I’m glad you are here!
It’s very disappointing that Lemmy was only good for a brief period of time. RIP.
Yeah, why do considerate mods like OP have to wade in and tell others they can just block you? Wotta revoltin’ development. /s
The cool thing about Lemmy is that when the funko pop collecting morons start to pile on, it’s super easy to just create a new account like a snake sheds its skin. Block all you want buckaroo.
