These are Mastodon server

Nope, only one server I mentioned is a Mastodon server.

Now you seem to think that defederation of lemmy.ml is a big gotcha though they aren't actually very large all instances considered

Actually, lemmy.world is not that big all things considered. It’s big for Lemmy, sure. But Lemmy isn’t that big at all.

Enter Beehaw.org. They defederated lemmy.world and sh.itjust.works back in 2023 during the first Reddit Migration.

Beehaw.org didn’t lose influence because they defederate the bigger servers. They lost influence because they took a heavy-handed approach to things. But if that’s how they want to run things—fine. No one owes anyone else federation.

This is kind of a stupid argument because if platforms or communities don't have any people in them creating content or replying, or voting, they don't really function at all as a social platform.

This is not a “platform”. It’s a software distribution for an open protocol. And how people choose to use that protocol is up to them.

If you want to federate with everyone, that’s fine. If you don’t, that’s fine too. No one is putting a gun to your head and telling you who or what to associate with.

But the fact is, defederation is an option. It’s always an option.

The fact is that in the fediverse any server that has a significant IS to big to block, else userbase and interaction will suffer.

The second biggest Mastodon server is near universally defederated.

The biggest Pleroma server is also universally defederated.

You probably don’t know what these servers are, and that’s a good thing because the actual fact is defederating them improves the user experience for everyone else.

To say this isn't the case is to spread misinformation, as people who follow such advice will notice they have a much poorer Fediverse experience.

Until July 2023, the biggest Lemmy server was lemmy.ml. It has now found itself defederated by many servers. If lemmy.ml was too big to defederate, how did it find itself defederated?

The myth of “big server = undefederatable”—that is misinformation. Big servers find themselves defederated all the time. See also: Gab.

Assuming good-faith effort, don't you think it's reasonable to publicly call out disingenuous, trollish behavior, especially with that sublemmy being one of the biggest ones across the FV?

Not at all. Trolls can be vindictive and litigious. Call-outs can result in swattings or long drawn out lawsuits.

The best way to deal with trolls is to quarantine them. That is, minimize their reach.

Consider that we don't have the same mechanisms across the FV as exist on Reddit, such that other means of correcting (evidently) terrible decisions (such as making a huge troll a mod on a big community) need to be explored at the very least. I.e., sometimes I think it doesn't help in the end to run away from this kind of problem, and none of us should really want LW to drift towards an abomination such as HexBear, right?

I assume that all servers can be compromised -- even the "good" ones. Which is why you should always consider an escape hatch. And federation itself is that escape hatch.

LW is not so big that it is immune to defederation. It's not even among the top 10 servers on the Social Web either by MAUs or total users. And you don't even need a big server to be seen. I'm on a small server (atomicpoet.org), and from my experience, it's a lot easier to be seen on the Fediverse when you run things yourself.

But "bigness" is also a reason to build more Fediverse servers and redundant communities that exist on those other servers.

Let's be real. What OP really wants is for a certain moderator to not have power on a server she deems as influential. Thus, she's trying to leverage peer pressure in order to make that happen.

But the moderator can join any server or create her own as well. So trying to remove her perceived influence is basically playing whack-a-mole, and because she herself doesn't run any servers, peer pressure is an ineffective tool.

So if the moderator is that objectionable, the reasonable thing to do is either:

1. block the moderator
2. block all communities the moderator runs
3. block LW

If neither of these options have the desired results, then I'm sorry -- that's just life.

OP's problem is with LW allowing a certain person they don't like to become moderator of the server. They could block the user, but their issue is that the specific user has power in an LW community.

If OP doesn't like that, and feels like that moderators presence is a non-negotiable, she has options.

I'm not saying that everyone should block LW. I'm saying that if one has an ethical objection to LW, it's on them to block the server. If they don't want to block the server because of its size, then it's also on them to either promote alternatives to LW or build your own.

No server on the Fediverse is too big for blocking.

OP, sounds like the solution for you is to join another server and block lemmy.world.

I’ll always upvote posts about Jerry Lawson. The Fairchild Channel F was truly revolutionary.

Well, you seem to be upset that people are able to block entire instances. That’s just a weird stance for an anarchist to have.

You have freedom of speech. I also have the freedom to walk away from your speech and listen to someone else.

That’s the same talking points the alt-right uses and we don’t tolerate it.

And I’ve been on the Internet long enough to watch so-called “progressive” spaces get hijacked by the right wing under the guise of “free speech”.

When a culture grows toxic, it’s simply toxic no matter their talking points.

So the fact people have the power to block entire instances at their discretion, this is a good thing.

You are not entitled to my attention, nor am I entitled to yours.

No one is entitled to attention, and sometimes people need to take a breather for their own mental health.