Developer is targeting individuals with a blacklist he maintians, enabled by default. Dev can do what he wants, but I’d like my home instance to consider removing it as a front end.
YSK post: https://lemmy.world/post/49813386
Dev post about it: https://lemmy.today/post/57096701
Blacklist: https://copyparty.adrian.place/u/?doc=policy.json
I agree with what you’re saying, and some of this is also against our drafted new guidelines. While people have suggestions on the wording and implementation, those guideline proposals have been received positively
However this implementation doesn’t really solve the problem effectively.
your comment would also have been hidden, along with any comment that wants to discuss the issue or make the same point you are making (or a completely unrelated topic, see Scunthorpe problem)
mods and admins are less likely to notice the obviously bad actors. So instead of those accounts getting banned and purged, they might still be posting harmful content or coded language that the filters don’t pick up on and can’t keep up with
Some words SHOULD get blanket banned, but we already have the admin level keyword blocklist for that.
Otherwise I think that a frontend is the wrong place for this functionality, and It should be handled by a proper automod or reporting tool/plugin
lemmy.ml also loves overreaching:
As an Australian I find this censorship offensive. I can’t express myself without that word, it’s like tying an Italian’s hands!
Well that’s a funny direct example
We did also adjust the default filters for our Canadian instances, to account for words that are harmless in French but harmful in English. For example: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english-french/late
I hear what you are saying and I agree on so far that something needs to be done. Having a small frontend team that controls a somewhat opaque block list is not ideal. I get where they come from and I get why they decided to do something they could do. I think at least some good came from that in so far that the thing gets discussed now and that there are some new content guidelines soon. I don’t think we will see hexbear reformed anytime soon but there will probably be somewhat improved self regulation on Lemmy and isn’t that what good anarchism is all about? Communities self governing and regulating?