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I am digging some of the conversation this United Federation of Instances is creating. Lots of great ideas so far, every last one.
@freemo I don't want to go through the trouble of creating a GitLab account, nor use my work GitLab account, to ask there, so I'll ask here:
I think I get why you're doing this. UFI seems like it should emphasize positive association rather than the negative association of FediBlock, for example. The question is: why would another server admin want to join UFI?
@pwinn The advantage of the UFI, as you point out, is a more positive approach.. The idea is that anyone int he UFI is sort of "certified" to be a good-actor, at least, so far as the ethics of the UFI go..
So it has two advantages..
1) is it lets other instances outside of the UFI know i follow a certain minimal code of conduct
2) to add a zone of protection against people threatening to fediblock people if they dont block all the same people they do... by promising always to federate with other UFI members this makes them more immune to defederation so long as they remain a good actor.
@freemo ...which is appealing to people who suspect they might be soon on the chopping block, but nobody ever does! Or rather, those who expect to be defederated generally deserve to be, and the zone of protection would do them no good.
You feel strongly the need for a zone of protection because you are in the middle of being unjustly targeted. Most admins are not.
So if I'm running a server, decentpeople.socialbutintroverted, or whatever, and I see there's a proposal, right now it seems like it amounts to: If you're just starting out, or suddenly dealing with a big influx of users, and would like some guidance or advice on moderation, here's a minimal code of conduct that you can use. As a bonus, if you affirm that code of conduct, you'll be able to advertise on your About page that you are part of the United Federation of Instances, which lets people coming to your server know you're not a haven for nazis or pesos or whatever. And if there's any accusation against your server, other UFI servers will stand with you--so long as you're still actually following that code of conduct.
Does that seem like a fair description? Because I'm not entirely sure how appealing that is as I wrote it, but then, I don't run a server.
@freemo I guess what I'm getting at is: in terms of outreach, I hope there's something more. A UFI site to point people that makes onboarding much easier than it currently is, for example.
Right now the choices are joinmastodon, which was weirdly limited and unhelpful even before they cravenly booted qoto, or something overwhelming and unhelpful like instances.social or fediverse.observer.
Perhaps UFI could deliver a better index site? That could be an attractor, at least for admins open to more users, and the "safelist" (I hate the terms "whitelist" and "blacklist") would then be a bonus.
