How do Fediverse instance wide bans work? (self.fediverse)

submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by FundMECFSResearch to c/fediverse@lemmy.world

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I’ve not been banned myself, I’m just curious.

Is it akin to getting banned from every community on the instance, but the users profile is still visible from accounts on that instance?

Or is it akin to the user getting entirely “defederated” from the instance they were banned from?

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[-] FundMECFSResearch 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

But why would a user for example: @CDRMITTENS@sh.itjust.works who is instance banned from my home instance, have their last posts available to be seen by me from 7 months ago (right before their ban), but if I look at their profile from my LW alt, I can see they have a bunch of newer posts.

It’s almost like their new posts are “defederated” from my home instance.

The posts they make are in a federated community with my home instance. I’d bet if they replied to this comment, I wouldn’t see their reply. (assuming this comment is even visible to them).

[-] OpenStars@discuss.online 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

~~Can you send us an example of such a post as you are talking about? B/c I am not seeing it.~~ (Edit: oops that was old and I forgot to remove this sentence - see below.)

The most recent content on lemmy.blahaj.zone that I see from sh.just.works is from 2 hours ago: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/1688895/11494679, so those two definitely are federated (I checked and don't see either one in the others' instance blocked list). However, as expected the user https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/u/CDRMITTENS@sh.itjust.works has no content more recent than 7 months ago. They both say that they are running the same Lemmy version - 0.19.5.

Searching... seems not to work for these style of posts, b/c while the searches pull up zero results for common things like a single space, a colon (inside a URL?), the single letter "a", etc., there actually are such posts, e.g. https://sh.itjust.works/post/27811262.

Also, !noncredibledefense@lemmy.blahaj.zone only has 10 posts total, but none are from cdrmittens.

So yeah I think you are correct - the old content that was already there in Blåhaj Lemmy's database remains, for their content posted to !noncredibledefense@sh.itjust.works, but after the ban anything that the Blåhaj Lemmy tries to pull in for that user just gets discarded, and not added to the database. i.e. it has the old but not the new content, for that user. Most likely votes as well as posts or comments (b/c why would that be different?). Though since !NonCredibleDefense@sh.just.works has nothing to do with lemmy.blahaj.zone, they can continue to post on their own home instance - it is only Blåhaj Lemmy that will not see those posts, by design, b/c of the ban.

I hope that makes sense!:-)

[-] recursive_recursion@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

It’s almost like their new posts are “defederated” from my home instance.

That part is odd and I don't really have a good guess or assumption as to why that's happening.

The posts they make are in a federated community with my home instance. I’d bet if they replied to this comment, I wouldn’t see their reply. (assuming this comment is even visible to them).

As far as I understand the system; banned users shouldn't be able to make comments on a home instance their banned from unless something is broken or has been deliberately been changed.

[-] FundMECFSResearch 2 points 2 weeks ago

What I mean is I can’t see any of their posts they’ve made in a shitjustworks instance since their ban from my instance, even though my instance is federated with shitjustworks

[-] recursive_recursion@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 weeks ago

I did get that, I just don't understand as to why that's happening; maybe a federation error?

[-] FundMECFSResearch 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

All I know is that instance defederation on lemmy has a similar error. Sometimes communities are still visible as “artifacts” (not often though).

For example blahaj defederated from lemmygrad one year ago, but I can still view !ukraine_war_news@lemmygrad.ml (but posts from after the defederation don’t show up)

And for example I can still see posts and comments from @yogthos@lemmygrad.ml before defederation.

[-] recursive_recursion@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 weeks ago

Huh in that case I wonder if both instance and defederation works by sort of pausing/suspending the new content updates.

Sort of like how Newpipe works is that new content could be available on your home/sub feed but won't show up unless explicitly updated (by swiping down). Although for this analogy to work, banning would be equivalent to a filter/block in Voyager although it'll only work for newer content?🤔

That's my new guess anyways, not sure if it'll help!😅🤗