I found that things became much more pleasant on here when I blocked hexbear. I recently blocked lemmy.ml as well, but I may reverse that if I find that I’m missing too much good content.

I’m open to other ideas on how to mostly avoid people who love conflict or argue in bad faith.

  • mlfh@lemmy.ml
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    13 days ago

    I blocked hexbear and lemmygrad to stop the firehose of kremlin/beijing propaganda cluttering up my feed and that made my lemmy experience worlds better. There’s only so many times you can read “special military operation” used unironically…

  • neidu2@feddit.nl
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    13 days ago

    Communities: Sports, places that are nowhere close to me or of interest, porn that is not for me, and games I don’t have any interest in.

    Instances: Lemmygrad and hexbear

    People: Not many. Spammers and low effort trolls mostly, and the occasional vatnik.

  • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.org
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    13 days ago

    I’ve blocked both of those (or rather, my instance doesn’t federate with them at all). At first I missed some of the FOSS communities on .ml but quickly found alternatives elsewhere. There were a few threads in either !fediverse@lemmy.world or maybe !fedigrow@lemm.ee that discussed alternatives to some of those.

    I also block HilariousChaos since it’s a direct successor to Exploding Heads.

    Beyond that, I tend to only block the problematic ones that cater to hate speech/bigotry/etc. I think your home instance (LW) already blocks most of those as well.

  • itsathursday@lemmy.world
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    13 days ago

    I’ve blocked so many communities I wouldn’t know which specifically and my client doesn’t show this info but basically any hentai or political ones.

    I have post and content filters and my lemmy experience is amazing. I omit anything containing: trump, elon, yiff

    • KestrelAlex@lemmy.world
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      13 days ago

      I have a huge number of content filters, basically stopping just short of blocking the words “left” and “right” but trying to block everything else political.

      What I wish I could find a way to do is pick by post language - I have nothing against a user/community, I just don’t speak (usually) German.

    • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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      13 days ago

      You should block Hexbear because its just a broad daylight CCP advocate forum trying to incite political extremism and violence in English speaking countries.

      Lemmy ml isn’t all bad but they federate and align themselves closely with Hexbear.

      • NineMileTower@lemmy.world
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        13 days ago

        I don’t know how to block a whole instance, but in reality I’ve only seen the communities that I’ve subscribed to and some other lame stuff… I’ve blocked all the shitty specific meme communities and web comics though. Call me a cynic.

        • thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org
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          13 days ago

          Blocking an instance is a basic option in the web interface for lemmy in the blocks section of your settings. Its at the top. Blocking an instance does not block its users, it just blocks the communities from showing up in your all searches

          • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.org
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            13 days ago

            Yeah, at the API level, instance blocking is really just “block all communities from that instance”.

            I think some 3rd party UIs extend the behavior of instance blocking to also hide posts/comments from users of those instances, but I don’t think the default UI does.

  • GrayBackgroundMusic@lemm.ee
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    13 days ago

    I don’t block hexbear or ml because I like seeing their takes. Even if I disagree with them most of the time, it makes me think about my opinion more critically.

    I do block certain communities and anyone who posts PPB.

    • demesisx@infosec.pub
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      13 days ago

      Thanks for not putting blinders on. I was actually banned by hexbear for not being leftist enough but I still make it a point to seek out perspectives that differ from the censorship-happy tribalist hivemind on world. Communist leopards have yet to eat my face contrary to what the libs on world might have me believe. :)

    • MagicPterodactyl@lemmy.ml
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      11 days ago

      I definitely agree with this. I signed up with ml just because it was a big instance and generally found it confusing when first setting up an account. So far I think it’s worked out because they have good up time and haven’t insulated themselves too much compared to a lot of instances that will defederate at the drop of a hat. Hexbear can be hard to read at times because many users can turn so hateful so quickly, but I do think their perspective can be at the very least interesting even when it is clearly misguided.

      I do strongly dislike that every large instance has formed its own stereotype and opinions are immediately dismissed if they are coming from an instance that is stereotyped as having ‘bad options’.

    • YeetPics@mander.xyz
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      13 days ago

      I used a three-strike rule when I first landed here. As in; deny a genocide or uplift an authoritarian despot 3x and your community can go fuck it’s own face.

      Took 2 weeks before I stopped seeing hexbear and .ml.

  • regrub@lemmy.world
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    13 days ago

    I usually only block communities, like NoStupidQuestions. There are actually quite a few stupid questions that can be asked, it turns out.

    The only other instances I’ve blocked are HilariousChaos for all the spammy/unfunny communities they make and most of the foreign language instances.

  • stoy@lemmy.zip
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    12 days ago

    I was drawn into a discussion with a group of people from hexbear, who decided that since I didn’t agree with them a full 100%, that I then had to be treated as a troll just because I registered my account with lemmy.zip.

    I took a long time to finally get them convinced that I may be one of the good ones, I decided that I didn’t want to have to do that again and blocked the instance.

    I have a huge blocklist of instances and communities, I generally only browse All, so I see it all, unless I block it.

    I mostly block non English or Swedish instances/communities, but I have plenty of blocks of instances/communities that I either find annoying or disagree with.

      • stoy@lemmy.zip
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        11 days ago

        They claimed it is a place for trolls since it is more permissive, I don’t know really what their issue with it was.

  • SirDerpy@lemmy.world
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    13 days ago

    Politics and News on .world. They seem to think that everyone that doesn’t agree wholeheartedly with whatever their politicians say is a fascist. They’re unable to discern left from right.

    It’s also neato how whenever I take issue with FlyingSquid or Roki, both mods, my posts are soon voted to exactly -10. Lazy coders.

    • Lifecoach5000@lemmy.world
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      13 days ago

      Are you saying when you disagree with one of said mods there’s some kind of downvote campaign for your posts for a certain amount of time?

      • Crashumbc@lemmy.world
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        12 days ago

        Sounds like it, squid acts an 80’s movie mall cop. So him having alt accounts to downvoted people wouldn’t surprise me. I banned him a few weeks ago. My feed immediately improved.

  • Daxtron2@startrek.website
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    12 days ago

    I only block users when they directly harrass me. I don’t really care if we disagree but if you’re following me around to different threads. You’re getting blocked.

  • Etterra@lemmy.world
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    12 days ago

    Mostly foreign language and shitty porn. Also “moe art” because why are there 70 subs for anime girls JFC.