Exploding-heads.com is another instance on Lemmy where alt-right MAGA types tend to reside. Some people on this server want us to defederate from them immediately, some people want to save defederation as a last resort. They have 104 active users (more stats below).
It seems that exploding-heads has also experienced a recent botswarm invasion. This is obviously another point in favor of defederating them, assuming you are worried about botswarms, which is currently being discussed here.
My advice to you all is please try to discuss this in a civil manner, we need not allow them to create divisive conflict inside our communities. No matter how the vote turns out, you're not going to be able to defederate from your fellow sh.itheads so be nice.
I've linked many of the previous discussions below so people who are out of the loop can get a general sense of the situation.
https://sh.itjust.works/post/216888 https://sh.itjust.works/post/225714 https://sh.itjust.works/post/281126 https://sh.itjust.works/post/410325
Lemmy.world just recently defederated them.
https://lemmy.world/post/747912
https://lemmy.world/post/577526
Although this could be considered a point in favor of defederation, it actually means even if we vote to remain federated, people have a great alternative in lemmy.world where they can still participate in our communities and simultaneously be protected from exploding-heads.
Ensuring diversity of servers is beneficial to the platform as a whole, but it is also not our responsibility to bear that burden.
TLDR, just wrap up any last points in this thread before we open the vote tomorrow. Please be civil.
EDIT: To clarify, this isn't the official vote, this is the final discussion. The vote thread will be posted tomorrow and you will only be allowed to make a single comment saying Aye or Nay.
EDIT2: Vote thread is up, this thread is now locked. Very lively discussion thread sh.itheads. Please try to be more respectful next time.
I don't know, it was pretty fun on Reddit to go to subs like globalskepticism (a sincere flat earth sub) and argue with crazies for a bit. I had a mildly interesting argument with someone anti trans on that instance. If we stay federated, we can continue to downvote hate things into oblivion so it doesn't turn into a complete echo chamber.
You can always just make an account over there to do that, without expanding their platform.
Hate groups rely very heavily on people sharing their shitposts around and amplifying their messages under the "look how dumb these dummies are" flag. That's what got Trump elected and why I have been forced despite every protest to know who fuckin Gr**n and B****rt are in the alt right. They thrive on the shadenfreude shares.
I don't share things, just post refutation comments. For example, I just posted to explain what the aid in Ukrane is doing to a meme that it was going down the drain. I might make a separate account for that specifically, but that makes it more difficult for people to refute them directly.
I get you, but federation is a form of sharing. We're downloading their content and storing it on our server for people to see.
I'd be quite willing to donate to an instance (I'm donating to my other instance), but I won't pay for bandwidth and storage for alt-right garbage.
I also kind of agree with this. Watching them flip between enjoying the downvotes to claiming people are making bots to downvote them, as if it's impossible ten people could disagree with them, has been entertaining.
But is it worth it?
I guess probably not. I can just make a separate account to mock and debunk them. And it won't be as interesting if they turn off downvotes as they've said they'd like to.