Federation and its consequences have been a disaster for the fediverse

Uncontrolled harassment is the only use case for a domain block. Did you see one specific person on another site who is being annoying or has really terrible takes? Of course, we've all seen that one person. But WHO THE FUCK CARES. If they aren't specifically being annoying at your members, just live and let live. They can exist in their own world. You don't need to care about them. If they're being specifically annoying at one of your members, then choosing how to interact - or not - should be in the hands of the member, not you.

You don't need to play god with what your members see. It's the internet. It's a scary place. We all know about that, and we can deal with it ourselves. The only way to make a truly safe space is to close federation and have approved membership, and vet individual people before inviting them. In other words, a classic forum, or if you prefer real-time communication, a chatroom. Is this what you want? Then make it, instead of trying to make the fediverse fit your whims.

I don't know what to say except...I care? As a user, having a federated timeline that isn't complete garbage is a really nice thing, it's cool being able to interact with people in communities whose values are compatible with (but not exactly the same as) my own. The instance I use is pretty locked down and I appreciate that being the case. If anything, it's the main appeal of fedi to me. I want my experience locked down in a way that roughly fits my values. An instance admin limiting what I can see is doing me a service, and honestly it works pretty well if you find an instance you're comfortable with. I don't want the internet to be a scary place, and plenty of good instances have managed to make it less scary while also federating. I'm not sure why the author thinks it has to be all-or-nothing unless there's harassment happening.

This isn't federation being a disaster, it's certain people using federation in a way that you would prefer not to.

I'm not quite sure why, but I am not particularly keen on this article. It felt... Lackluster? As if it tried to put things into boxes (literally) and then missed the entire point of the fediverse because of such a simple minded view based on very limited experience with different communities. I almost said it felt transphobic, but I know that the author is trans or trans-adjacent so that can't possible be the case (unless implicit phobia was inserted, but I digress).

I could see this article being written as sarcasm, but the tone is all wrong.