TL;DR: You might have more people to talk to, we are now federating openly.
The longer version: Until now, we have been maintaining a list of instances that we are federated with. This was done out of an excess of caution, as it’s easier to keep tabs on who you link with.
The downside of this approach is that we haven’t been linking with many Fediverse instances that we simply weren’t aware of.
We have now switched to open federation and will instead maintain a blocklist, reserved for instances that host shit we really don’t want coming across to us (e.g. loli porn).
This of course doesn’t change other instances defederating from us, we’re scary that way.
Thoughts?
Honestly I like it and like that a blocklist will be maintained instead.
It’s been quiet here for a while with some people coming in as other instances get more authoritarian, but still hasn’t felt like enough.
That, and would be nice to get a new set of eyes on stuff out there. I’ve had to block a lot of communities I like because the doom political spam circlejerks are so obnoxious and constant.
When would this change take effect?
It’s already in effect, though it probably won’t make a huge difference unfortunately, as most of the instances we weren’t linked with are very small. Ultimately we are a small instance ourselves which is why things are quiet sometimes - in time I hope that can change.
I will at some point try to see if I can talk with some of the larger instances that have defederated us, perhaps they can change their minds. That would make a larger impact, though my hopes aren’t high.