I don't know if this was just because I have a fairly well curated feed, but I didn't really see all the spam (disclaimer: I stopped using kbin.social as my main instance about 2 weeks ago because I wasn't able to log in).
I don't know if it's gotten worse since then (specifically on kbin.social), but I started my own single-user instance (mbin), and still don't see spam. I subscribed to a number of magazines on this instance when I started my own, but I don't think federation is working, so maybe that's why I haven't seen any spam on my instance?
Also, I don't know which instance you're talking about blocking. I haven't had to yet... should it?
I originally went with kbin.social because it was the instance run by the guy who was the dev of the software I ultimately wanted to use on my own instance (because I wanted both threads and microblogging in the same place). I kinda lost faith in this instance because I was effectively locked out for a week or two. It more so scared me off of someone else hosting my data than this specific instance, but... the result is the same.
I also kinda lost faith in the future of the codebase, because the root cause(s) (whatever they may be) of the lack of administration on the instance will surely affect Ernest's ability to actively develop it.
Was using kbin.run (without logging in) to at least keep current (as much as one can without subscriptions), and I saw that it was running mbin (an actively developed fork of kbin), so when I created my own instance (just in the last few days), I went with mbin.
I hope that good things come to Ernest, but the project is stagnant, and the new admin is an unknown quantity to me, so... yeah. I still come back to keep up to date, but it's not my home instance anymore.
My reflex to reply was triggered by your comment about defederation. I've subscribed to as many magazines as I could from here (that I was already following, and that didn't trigger a 500 error), and I hope to maintain those. I guess we'll see how that goes.
Edit: I'm dumb. This whole post is about federation not working and I posted it from my personal instance. I guess you'll see it too when federation is working again.
I have a Fold 3, had it since launch. The shitty screen protector started to crack in the middle. They offer free one-time replacement at any authorized Samsung repair shop. So far, so good.
Problem is that in order to do the repair, they need my phone's login data and total, un-supervised access to my phone. Fuck you. The reason they need it is to run diagnostic tests on the phone (reading and storing who-knows-what about my device usage). Fuck you again.
They needed all that access to replace shitty plastic (this was only like 1 year into having the device). Now I know what they wanted all that access for. Fucking fucks.
I told them to eat shit, and just peeled it off. A year later, the screen itself started to crack.
The point of my original post was that their update cadence is slower. The point of my followup reply is that they are not devoid of updates, either.
They have a release every 1-2 years, and it's packed full for various tweeks, improvements, and new features. They fix broken shit, and enhance where it makes sense.
I don't need my window manager to get fad features, and I don't need constant updates. It does what I want it to do already.
I've actually been thinking about editing my LinkedIn to specificly call out my lack of desire to work with LLMs (which I refuse to call AI, ever). Honestly, I only want to entertain contact from employers who feel the same.