Hi all, first time posting. I’ve tried googling a bit but its not totally clear to me. Say I have servers A, B, C, and D.

Can servers A and B federate, and then separately C and D federate?

If so, can A B and C be federated, but separately C and D be federated, so D is not recognized as federated for A?

If A, B, C, and D are federated, and it becomes apparent that D is a bad actor, how does D become defederated?

I feel like these kinds of situations are critical to ensure long term success. I really appreciate any answers anyone can provide!

  • MXYp3Lk66yKv
    1·
    2 years ago

    From a philosophical perspective, it is complex.

    This is a a simple start on Lemmy’s federation

    -Allowlist: Explicitly list instances to connect to.

    -BlockList: Explicitly list instances to not connect to. Federation is open to all other instances.

    -Open: Federate with all potential instances.

    • melonplant@latte.isnot.coffeeOP
      2·
      2 years ago

      Thanks this link is great!

      Thinking long term, it feels like “open” or “blacklisting” methods are not sustainable. Bad-actor servers can come along much faster than servers can coordinate blacklisting. Is there any movement towards “factionalized” communities or whitelist groups? Hoping there’s not a limit on number of whitelisted instances because it could get pretty long in the future.

      • MXYp3Lk66yKv
        1·
        2 years ago

        It’s tricky. But I keep thinking that ‘bad servers’ bring similar issues to those of bad actors on ‘good servers’…

        Not sure how they might approach it - or what exactly is even available now. I should probably stand up a lemmy server just to have a poke around 🫣.