I see we’re talking about blocklists in the fedi again, which always seems to be a major issue with a lot of folks that aren’t targets of hate here.

As an Old, I know community curation has been a thing since the irc days. There have always been mechanisms to identify and expel bad actors.

In this context, the fedi is actually an aberration in the history of digital communities when it comes to its aversion to blocklists.

Which really didn’t happen until Black folks in the fedi started using them to cut off access to bigots.

And I still have yet to see an argument against blocklists that aren’t based in pure entitlement and frustration around strangers not giving other strangers the benefit of the doubt in a hostile and largely unregulated space.

This is a major reason why people leave the fedi and advise other people not to come here.

In its current state, the fediverse is not attractive culturally or technically to most people.

I’m an advocate of keeping the internet weird, but this place is hostile to just about everyone not white. The tooling isn’t great and makers of the major platforms here fight to keep it that way based on some juvenile idea of openness that just puts people at risk.

There is more conversation around these topics that when I first got here, which is good, especially considering there is software being built with these thoughts in mind. GoToSocial comes to mind in this regard.

But progress has been excruciatingly slow because of a lot of people simply don’t value an open but safe web, especially for Black and Brown folks.

The tools will get better, but the culture of bigotry that is given a pass here is going to put a lid on whatever momentum can be created here.

Especially when the alleged flagship instance of the fedi is a known haven for bad actors.