I just had my first experience blocking an instance, and it made my realize now nice the lemmy content curation experience is vs the centralized model.

Recently I started noticing a lot of posts from that I just found annoying. There was nothing inherently wrong with them, they just came from a culture I don't understand and so I found them cringey. Since they all came from one community, realized most of them come from the same instance. I just added that instance to my blocklist and the problem is solved!

Now think about in the centralized model. I would be forced to either just accept that these posts are in my timeline, or block each community and user individually. The instance gave me an easy way to manage my content.

I also appreciate that instances can manage the blocking for their users. So the most horrible stuff I don't even see. But it also preserves free speech, as those users who want to say horrible things can do so in their own instance, and most people will just block it.

Anyway, just impressed again by the fediverse!