I agree wholeheartedly.

I’d only add, just because I’ve been thinking this a lot lately and have been looking for a chance to shove it out of my brain and out into the world, that I find much of the focus on Reddit to be sort of creepy.

There’s something about the behavior of some of the people I see around here that very much reminds me of an obsessed ex-lover - like they’ve gone through a messy breakup and now they just can’t let it go. Every conversation ends up being diverted into them whinging about their ex some more, they’re obsessively stalking the ex’s social media, hoping to see signs that they’re miserable without them or just having a hard time in general, and they’re potentially even sending them nasty messages, trying (almost certainly vainly) to make them suffer. They can’t just let it go and get on with their lives.

And they really need to. That part of their lives is over, and it’s time to move on. Clinging to it is not healthy, and frankly, to others, it’s tedious, and sort of creepy.

I’ve been online for close to 30 years now.

I’ve lost count of the number of forums I’ve had to leave because they went to shit.

I always find another one.

Amusingly enough, your assertion here is functionally identical to the one you’re criticizing.

Your assertion is that it’s not worth engaging with those who advocate for preemptive defederation because their fundamental nature makes it such that you cannot legitimately expect a positive outcome.

And that’s EXACTLY the position that those in favor of preemptive defederation have taken regarding Meta.

Broadly, I have no issue with this.

In the first place, it’s just a part of the nature of the fediverse that admins are free to manage their instances as they prefer and users are free to choose instances as they prefer, so it’s no more significant in that sense than a restaurant not including some particular thing on its menu. It’s their choice, and I’m entirely free to order something else or go to a different restaurant.

Specifically, to the degree that it matters (which is likely not at all), this is the decision I’d make too, just because even in a culture increasingly defined by corporate shitweasels, Meta stands out for being especially shitweaselish.

All that said, I keep wondering if it’s going to be an issue anyway. The fediverse is a sort of technically and conceptually complex place, and uncharitably, Meta’s customer base leans toward the lazy and stupid end of the spectrum.

I can definitely see some likelihood that a lot (most?) of the people who might end up following a link to a Meta-owned instance are just going to get confused and frustrated, then scurry back to Facebook.

We’ll see…