So, can someone explain to me why people who don't like posts about politics can't just not follow people who post about politics?
Genuine question. Because I do feel that the stakes are society itself, and the life or death of millions, and I do feel that OStatus/GNU Social could and should play an important role in this.
A civil discussion on this would be appreciated.
@forteller also you could argue that if you have a strong interest in political discussion, and it seems the general mastodon public isn't into seeing that, it'd make sense to find / host a politics focused instance, which the more "safe space" mastodon instances would not federate with.
@tcql No, that would be horrible! Breaking federation should only be used when instances are flooded with spam or nazis or stuff like that. If it becomes normal to break for other reasons then the whole thing will become so fragmented that it'll be impossible for most people to use this. Why do most ppl use the closed gardens? Because they are easy to use. Not getting to follow ppl you want to follow b/c they use the "wrong" instance is the death of federated networks as more than a fringe thing
@tcql Well, I must admit that I haven't checked this, but I assumed that not federating with other instances would break all ties to them. Not 100% sure, though.
@forteller fair point. I was under the impression that you could still follow people whose instances were blocked by your instance, but their instances posts would not show up in your instances federated timeline