Kbin doesn't have instance blocking (yet). It has domain blocking. But if you block a domain, you block all of the text posts and image posts since they point to that domain. But you will still see the link posts since they point somewhere else.
Kbin's instance blocking didn't seem to be working for a while, instead it blocked users of instances at random (a few times I've seen a thread from a blocked instance but none of the comments from said instance show up).
It might be working (better) now but it's hard to tell exactly when it is or isn't. Same with the language filter. Though random posts/threads (sidebar) doesn't use filtering.
EDIT: Yeah, I think instance blocking only blocks users of that instance, as if a user of one instance posts on a blocked instance their post still shows up. Or close, I guess it's the domain that matters as someone else pointed out.
That is what I would want. If Lemmygrad users want to come to other instances, follow the rules, and engage in civil discussion, I would love to hear from them. I don’t care what instance a user uses to log in. I just don’t want to see their posts in my feed.
I’m a dev, not a lemmy dev, but a web developer. I spend a lot of time thinking about difficult problems. Blocking an instance is one of those difficult problems because while it can be done it’s tricky to do it well. Connect for lemmy does this, and when I block an instance, I don’t see posts from that instance, and comments are hidden behind a message that says the comment is from a blocked instance - if I tap that message, I read the comment. This may not fit the definition of “blocked” by some people’s standards, as it’s more of a “hide” feature. So, I’m somewhat interested from that aspect.
I use the feature myself mostly for testing, but I do wonder if the idea of blocking instances because we don’t like what we see is an appropriate idea to begin with. It’s like saying “block gmail.com” because you have a few people on there you don’t want to get emails from. Very possible to do, but it seems there’s a few thousand more people who might also be worth emailing and you’d miss out if you blocked them. Also, as we taylor the internet to smaller and smaller peices, we decrease the rate at which we find new content. This is fine if if that’s the goal, but to block whole instances and then later complain about lemmy dying because no one posts content on your instances would be weird. Not that you’re doing that, but it seems to be the next logical step if the idea of blocking instances picked up more steam amongst lemmy clients. As others have pointed out, it’s probably best to set your language prefs instead, as this is the mechanism the devs likely put in place for speakers of x language to avoid languages they don’t know.
But yeah, google translate exists, not everyone on one instance may speak only that language, etc. But it’s your internet experience, I ain’t gonna knock it.
I mean yeah, some might use the feature to create an echo chamber for themselves and all the toxicity that can bring is a concern, the alternative is a user experience plagued with content you literally cannot read. I exclusively browse via an app, Google Translate isn’t an option. I have no problem with Germans, if they want to contribute to discussion on English speaking instances- great, I want to see their contributions. I’d just like the ability to cut content that I will never interact with.
The concern that people are going to block instances and complain about the death of Lemmy due to a lack of content feels a bit like a straw man. One could argue that the inability to control content they consume might drive people away and lead to the death of Lemmy. That seems just as plausible but equally unfounded.
I’m sympathetic to your concerns but if someone wants to dodge an instance they don’t want to view for whatever reason they should be able to do that. Blocking posts on an instance from showing up in your ‘all’ feed seems reasonable however, I agree, the members of that instance should be excluded from blanket blocks.
Edit- also, sorry you got downvoted. And I’ll look around for the language options. Thanks.
I’ve got “English” already set so not sure what I’m doing wrong.
Just spit balling here, but if there were a feature which auto translated comments (and mentioned that it auto translated the comment), and allow you to respond (and have it translate your comment, and show the comment as translated) would that be of any interest to you?
And check out Connect for Lemmy. I think there’s another one that does the instance blocking, but I know connect does. Thanks for the reply and no worries about the downvotes. This ain’t my first rodeo.
unfortunately, be aware that this feature is broken on some apps, such as clearing the instance blocklist whenever the app is restarted, rendering it basically useless.
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