First, practically speaking, do you run that site or have some ability to modify it? You mention it a lot, but it was a different account that introduced it to the Fediverse (that I could find with my search), so I was not sure if you were merely promoting it or something deeper. Otherwise we are merely discussing theoretical possibilities here but it is up to whoever owns or maintains that site to do whatever they want with it… and they likewise should have a record of having been explicitly asked to remove that instance, if such a request existed. So even if you were to do a feature request or full-on git code contribution to fix it, having some contact with the actual owner/maintainer sounds necessary, to avoid potentially doing something non-consensual on behalf of lemmy.ml, which they have (may have) explicitly asked to be the opposite?

Second, is it the “best place for FOSS content”? I just blocked that entire instance, so I will miss out on all future posts, regardless of whether the community was politically affiliated or not. Ironically it might have been you that convinced me to take that course of action (though I could be misremembering the username, sorry if that is the case, or perhaps you were merely part of a 4/5-way, which does strike a note), with something said months ago about how most of the toxic interactions came from there, after blocking hexbear.net and lemmygrad.ml. I was advocating essentially (paraphrase here) that “at least positive conversations can be had on the Fediverse, whereas on Reddit I had to give up on that entirely outside of niche subs, and so far I have not had sufficiently negative encounters with people on lemmy.ml to want to block that instance fully (like those other two), but indeed >90% of the time when I get the most batshit insane replies it is from them; though not always b/c that is something to be expected from any large instance?” Since then, the line got crossed in my mind and I just blocked it and have not looked back. I will miss some interactions, yet I do not care: those that remain will be sufficient, and contain far less hassle. It is like filtering water: yes it will contain less taste, but it will also contain less fecal matter too:-P, and I have gotten to the point where that is what I am looking for, in every community that I visit now, not just the “non-political” ones.

I recognize that my individual user instance block would be irrelevant to this conversation if it were unique or even rare, however it is not. Many others are talking about already having done that as well, and potentially many more will do so in the future, especially as new users arrive and are told (some of them by me:-D, but again I am far from the only one who does this). I feel that I have done my due diligence in that particular respect - I have warned innocent users of lemmy.ml that they will increasingly be locked out of good conversations, as in worse than not seeing them, they will reply to people and never get a response no matter how long they wait, b/c we will not even receive their notifications. And then I waited for days for people’s replies to continue… and then I simply moved on. If they remain there, that is their choice, but I will not remain personally federated with that instance by choice. Furthermore, if a major instance were to defederate with all 3 of the axis powers instances, I would join it and not even be able to view their responses in the first place. Over time I predict that it will become more and more of an echo chamber, where they shout into the void, and ofc have conversations amongst themselves, but in isolation from what is going on in the rest of the world. At least as it pertains to my account, and again I am far from the only one (though I do not know the stats - possibly some instance admin could anonymously count how many instance-blocks to it its users do? lets say the ones who have done some activity on that account in the past week, although you and I both maintain alts and yet I don’t always keep any of mine except my main fully updated in such matters, so even that would be an over-counting as all my older ones, even if I posted something from it, would still not have user-blocked it). Or someone will do a poll at some point.

I hope you continue your efforts to help migrate those communities elsewhere. But the reason I say that is for their sake - whereas for my own sake, I’ve already settled the matter (until I can move to an instance that has a full instance block and do so still more firmly). I am satisfied, and if they want to gate that content to solely users federated with that instance, then that is their choice, but I have made mine. And I see others individually stating that choice for themselves as well. This is happening - the admins & so MANY of the users on that instance have earned a reputation: they FA and so they will, to some degree, by some people, FO. I am so glad that someone (you) will continue warning them, but I am also glad that it is not me:-).

So perhaps that is what the warnings could say? Assuming we had any ability to add such in the first place? Something like “Warning: many users have chosen to block this instance, so an account on this instance will have more restricted interactions with the rest of the Fediverse” - repeated for each of the 3. Possibly as a tooltip, an additional column, a footnote, or separating them into a distinct table altogether, below the main one if someone really wanted to push the issue hard:-P - but the latter seems unnecessarily punitive imho, and I think a footnote+tooltip would do just as well. Surely this list will expand in the future as well - e.g. if a federated Truth Social equivalent instance were to be made, or some other warning needed to be delivered even temporarily (like “Warning, this instance has <70% uptime over the last 3 months, you may in the short-term want to avoid it until it stabilizes”). And no need for any detailed reasons why - different people have different values, and ideas about what is acceptable or not, but just simply stating the consequences of choosing to make an account on it is all that needs to be said to ensure that the recipient has all of the requisite information to make an informed choice? That seems to me to provide maximum freedom - that way both the admins there and users all across the Fediverse including the most vulnerable newest ones can then do however they please. It is a solution that should fully please nobody, least of all those on the most extreme ends, but as a middle-ground compromise seems the least worst that could be done?