I found that things became much more pleasant on here when I blocked hexbear. I recently blocked lemmy.ml as well, but I may reverse that if I find that I’m missing too much good content.

I’m open to other ideas on how to mostly avoid people who love conflict or argue in bad faith.

  • @[email protected]
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    653 months ago

    I blocked hexbear and lemmygrad to stop the firehose of kremlin/beijing propaganda cluttering up my feed and that made my lemmy experience worlds better. There’s only so many times you can read “special military operation” used unironically…

  • @[email protected]
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    473 months ago

    Lemmy.ml and hexbear were the first two I blocked and have zero regrets.

    I blocked a few others because the content didn’t interest me and my preference is to browse on All instead of Subscribed so I can find content in communities I did not know existed. For example I blocked lemmynsfw because I didn’t want the content to come up while browing in public.

    I wish there was an additional option to block all users of an instance separate from the instance block that applies to communities.

    • @[email protected]
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      133 months ago

      Not to kinkshame/judge (while judging) but lemmynsfw is super weird. There’s like 50 celebrity or more communities all ran by one guy who uploads like one picture or 50 in a row. I just browse by all but the NSFW filter protects me from seeing a celebrity every 10th post.

      • @[email protected]
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        3 months ago

        That’s why I run 2 different Lemmy apps. One for work and regular browsing. And a second one for those fun NSFW times.

    • @[email protected]
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      73 months ago

      I just blocked individual hexbear and lemmygrad users that were annoying (posting pig anuses or dogpiling/gish galloping/whatabouting). Took a lot of blocking, but a few hundred blocks later later, most of the hexbears and tankies left are pretty chill. I don’t want to end up in a bubble and only hear opinions I already agree with. I think I did block one far right instance entirely, cause I don’t value the ideas of bigots and fascists. Can’t remember who it was though.

      • @[email protected]
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        3 months ago

        I don’t want to end up in a bubble and only hear opinions I already agree with. I think I did block one far right instance entirely, cause I don’t value the ideas of bigots and fascists.

        Hmmmmm

        Edit: Apparently tankie bullshit is fine!

        • @[email protected]
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          53 months ago

          If you’re on a road trip, and you can’t agree on a destination, then arguing about the route to get there is pointless.

          in this analogy, the “destination” in question is whether or not women/lgbt/blacks/jews/etc deserve rights. No point in discussing healthcare policy with someone who thinks women should be property and gays should be executed.

          • @[email protected]
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            73 months ago

            Yeah, tankie bullshit deserves to be heard because of an open mind, but not fascist bullshit.

            Both are bullshit and should be blocked.

            • @[email protected]
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              43 months ago

              well, it’s not the first time I’ve been called a communist for saying that people deserve rights.

    • @[email protected]
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      3 months ago

      I wish there was an additional option to block all users of an instance separate from the instance block that applies to communities.

      There is an option for that, its called Defederation

      • @[email protected]
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        3 months ago

        I want to block the users as a group even if the instance at which I am registered does not defederate.

        • @[email protected]
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          33 months ago

          Some apps let you do that. Sync, for example, let’s you block instances (users included) on the client side.

  • @[email protected]
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    Politics and News on .world. They seem to think that everyone that doesn’t agree wholeheartedly with whatever their politicians say is a fascist. They’re unable to discern left from right.

    It’s also neato how whenever I take issue with FlyingSquid or Roki, both mods, my posts are soon voted to exactly -10. Lazy coders.

    • @[email protected]
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      63 months ago

      Are you saying when you disagree with one of said mods there’s some kind of downvote campaign for your posts for a certain amount of time?

      • @[email protected]
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        33 months ago

        Sounds like it, squid acts an 80’s movie mall cop. So him having alt accounts to downvoted people wouldn’t surprise me. I banned him a few weeks ago. My feed immediately improved.

        • @[email protected]
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          23 months ago

          I blocked him a couple days ago finally. He’s a hateful prick, glad to be rid of his nonsense.

  • @[email protected]
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    183 months ago

    I don’t block hexbear or ml because I like seeing their takes. Even if I disagree with them most of the time, it makes me think about my opinion more critically.

    I do block certain communities and anyone who posts PPB.

    • @[email protected]
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      Thanks for not putting blinders on. I was actually banned by hexbear for not being leftist enough but I still make it a point to seek out perspectives that differ from the censorship-happy tribalist hivemind on world. Communist leopards have yet to eat my face contrary to what the libs on world might have me believe. :)

    • @[email protected]
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      23 months ago

      I definitely agree with this. I signed up with ml just because it was a big instance and generally found it confusing when first setting up an account. So far I think it’s worked out because they have good up time and haven’t insulated themselves too much compared to a lot of instances that will defederate at the drop of a hat. Hexbear can be hard to read at times because many users can turn so hateful so quickly, but I do think their perspective can be at the very least interesting even when it is clearly misguided.

      I do strongly dislike that every large instance has formed its own stereotype and opinions are immediately dismissed if they are coming from an instance that is stereotyped as having ‘bad options’.

  • Admiral Patrick
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    I’ve blocked both of those (or rather, my instance doesn’t federate with them at all). At first I missed some of the FOSS communities on .ml but quickly found alternatives elsewhere. There were a few threads in either [email protected] or maybe [email protected] that discussed alternatives to some of those.

    I also block HilariousChaos since it’s a direct successor to Exploding Heads.

    Beyond that, I tend to only block the problematic ones that cater to hate speech/bigotry/etc. I think your home instance (LW) already blocks most of those as well.

      • @[email protected]
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        I don’t know how to block a whole instance, but in reality I’ve only seen the communities that I’ve subscribed to and some other lame stuff… I’ve blocked all the shitty specific meme communities and web comics though. Call me a cynic.

        • @[email protected]
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          Blocking an instance is a basic option in the web interface for lemmy in the blocks section of your settings. Its at the top. Blocking an instance does not block its users, it just blocks the communities from showing up in your all searches

          • Admiral Patrick
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            Yeah, at the API level, instance blocking is really just “block all communities from that instance”.

            I think some 3rd party UIs extend the behavior of instance blocking to also hide posts/comments from users of those instances, but I don’t think the default UI does.

  • @[email protected]
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    133 months ago

    I usually only block communities, like NoStupidQuestions. There are actually quite a few stupid questions that can be asked, it turns out.

    The only other instances I’ve blocked are HilariousChaos for all the spammy/unfunny communities they make and most of the foreign language instances.

  • @[email protected]
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    Communities: Sports, places that are nowhere close to me or of interest, porn that is not for me, and games I don’t have any interest in.

    Instances: Lemmygrad and hexbear

    People: Not many. Spammers and low effort trolls mostly, and the occasional vatnik.

  • @[email protected]
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    133 months ago

    I’ve blocked so many communities I wouldn’t know which specifically and my client doesn’t show this info but basically any hentai or political ones.

    I have post and content filters and my lemmy experience is amazing. I omit anything containing: trump, elon, yiff

    • @[email protected]
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      43 months ago

      I have a huge number of content filters, basically stopping just short of blocking the words “left” and “right” but trying to block everything else political.

      What I wish I could find a way to do is pick by post language - I have nothing against a user/community, I just don’t speak (usually) German.

  • @[email protected]
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    113 months ago

    Can someone please explain all the .ml hate? From what I’ve seen, it’s mostly a tech (i.e., not tank!) instance and I haven’t experienced any drama at all aside from other instances hating on us. It seems WAY too overblown and generalized from my experience. If the OP blocked .ml are they even able to see my response here?

    • @[email protected]
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      143 months ago

      you can block the instance but when the users are on other communities, it does not block the users

      nobody is going to answer your question because its a sealioning like question coming from a user on lemmy.ml

      • @[email protected]
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        83 months ago

        Makes sense - appreciate the response! Regarding your last point, one look at my comment history shows I’m clearly not a troll, but totally get it…I just keep seeing all these posts/comments hating on .ml and having not seen anything myself, it makes me wonder if I’m missing something or if I should think about even switching instances…

        • @[email protected]
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          33 months ago

          There’s some people who trolled like every other day or post but have some perfectly normal takes… sometimes. Consider maggotycumsock or whatever his name is

        • qprimed
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          /me gives a knowing head nod.

          until we all learn to separate our identities from our politics from our technology, it will likely stay this way online.

          for the record I will second your positive experience report regarding lemmy[.]ml - its diverse, (relatively) active, well federated and technically administered, runs bleeding edge server builds and is mostly drama free. cant think of much else I could ask for from a lemmy instance.

    • @[email protected]
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      .world is neoliberal lumpen who violently reject anything that threatens their politician’s current narrative. They’re not thinking for themselves. They can’t discern left from right, thus reject both with equal hostility.

      • @[email protected]
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        53 months ago

        I believe they.are so far left, they are now right politically. I just blocked the group when I was down voted to berated because I linked an AP article, which they think is a heavily biased source.

        • @[email protected]
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          43 months ago

          I believe they.are so far left, they are now right politically

          That’s not how the horseshoe works, lumpen.

    • socsa
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      73 months ago

      If you never browse all, you probably miss it, but anything which is politics or news adjacent is filled with campist brain rot from people who think “socialism” is relitigating the cold war. Then you will get banned for saying things like “remember that time Russia shot down a civilian airliner?” or “I don’t think sexual violence is a right of the oppressed.”

      • @[email protected]
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        33 months ago

        That’s probably it - I’ve only browsed All once or twice when I’ve run out of new Subscribed posts…I must be missing the drama from other random communities.

    • @[email protected]OP
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      I can see your comment, and I don’t think that everybody on .ml is a troll. They just seem to have an awful lot of them, and I have no idea what the reason is. People arguing in bad faith, etc.

      I enjoy reading the comments, but the top comments from most of the .ml-origin posts always seem to degenerate into name calling, and very quickly at that. The criticisms other people have called out further down in this thread sound accurate to me.

      And clearly it isn’t just me seeing this, since somebody is downvotimg your perfectly polite posts in this thread. (It isn’t me.)

    • @[email protected]
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      43 months ago

      the tech side of .ml is why I haven’t blocked that instance. They genuinely care about privacy and FOSS, as is the instance description. When I joined lemmy, I considered .ml for my home instance.

      As soon as politics comes up though, the tankies come out in force, and oh boy the temptation to get banned is real.

  • @[email protected]
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    103 months ago

    I haven’t blocked any instance per-se but I block every community that is either hexbear or .ml

    • @[email protected]
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      123 months ago

      I used a three-strike rule when I first landed here. As in; deny a genocide or uplift an authoritarian despot 3x and your community can go fuck it’s own face.

      Took 2 weeks before I stopped seeing hexbear and .ml.

  • HubertManne
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    103 months ago

    why am I not innudated with all this porn people are blocking!!!???

    • @[email protected]
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      43 months ago

      The instance your are on may be blocking it?

      TBH, I spend way way too much time browsing all, and don’t see all that much.

      I will say it does tend to run in spurts, you’ll see like a dozen posts at once then none the rest of the day

      • HubertManne
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        13 months ago

        I think it might be because I rarely get to the point where im on new all. I think my instance does not block much of anything or at least its statement implied such.

      • HubertManne
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        13 months ago

        this is way to many replies for an off hand joke comment. which is two but its still wierd that it happened twice.

        • @[email protected]
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          43 months ago

          Off-handing is actually quite a common technique amongst the users of lemmy.nsfw , you’ll fit right it.

          • HubertManne
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            33 months ago

            no. only the dominant hand decides. the off-hand must be submissive.