Ok, you have this completely off base about it “not doing anything”. While I might be wrong about it defederating, what this code ACTUALLY does is rate other instances defederation lists based on this hard coded list. Let me explain:

The site_instance_chooser_view() function in /app/api/alpha/views.py provides a JSON representation of the current site’s metadata for the instance chooser feature. This feature allows users to browse and compare different Fediverse instances before choosing one to join.

Within site_instance_chooser_view(), the defed_list variable is defined as follows (lines 1148‑1151):

defed_list = BannedInstances.query.filter(or_(BannedInstances.domain == 'hexbear.net',
                                              BannedInstances.domain == 'lemmygrad.ml',
                                              BannedInstances.domain == 'hilariouschaos.com',
                                              BannedInstances.domain == 'lemmy.ml')).order_by(BannedInstances.domain).all()

This query retrieves only four specific domains from the BannedInstances table:

1. hexbear.net
2. lemmygrad.ml
3. hilariouschaos.com
4. lemmy.ml

The resulting list is used to populate the defederation field in the returned JSON (line 1187):

'defederation': list(set([instance.domain for instance in defed_list])),

The defederation field is part of the site metadata returned by the API endpoint /api/alpha/site/instance_chooser. This endpoint is called by the instance‑chooser UI (/auth/instance_chooser) when a user clicks “More” on an instance card.

The template app/templates/auth/instance_chooser.html uses the defederation list to compute a defederation quality rating. The rating is based on how many of the four watched domains are blocked:

• ≥3 blocked → “Good”
• 2 blocked → “Ok”
• 1 blocked → “Minimal”
• <1 blocked → “Negligent”

This rating is displayed in the instance details modal under the “Defederation” label (line 114 of the template).

The UI also contains commented‑out code (lines 124‑130) that would show individual status indicators for each of the four domains, but this is currently disabled.

This is problematic for a number of reasons, most of all is that this rating that it generates is NOT transparent to the user. This page is used on PieFeds main page when you go to register, it’s part of the instance picker. The defederation rating under More is where this shows up. For instance, this means that instances like anarchist.nexus have a “OK” rating but instances like multiverse.soulism.net have a “GOOD” rating.

Anarchist.nexus has an “OK” raiding because they block Lemmygrad.ml (socialist) and hilariouschaos.com (MAGA instance)

multiverse.soulism.net has a “GOOD” rating because they block Lemmygrad.ml (socialist), Hexbear.net (socialist), lemmy.ml (operated by open communists).

So the Defederation rating has an OBVIOUS BIAS that isn’t explained to the users at all. Not only is the bias not explained it doesn’t even contain all of the FASCIST INSTANCES IN ITS CALCULATION.

Ah yeah I see that. It still doesn’t change my position on if the system should have defaults.

Naturally! Otherwise, we’ll never get to the Fallout future where people call us Pinko’s again and Canada finally becomes the Big 51.

I’m telling you that Hexbear.net is on by default, and so is lemmygrad.ml. They both need to be removed from your settings before you can federate with them. There shouldn’t be any default instances period.

In the admin back end video produced to show the features of the software, these sites were said to be “defaults” by the software creator, and they are prefilled in. You can change them after the fact, this is true, but if you simply spin up the instance and never touch those settings they are defederated. I know this is true, because I am in contact with an admin who manages a PieFed instance that is federated with Hexbear, they had to remove the Hexbear defederation after initial setup.

This is an incredible thread. This is the kind of ‘fast-and-loose’ nonsense that really lives at the heart of PieFed. Most people’s complaints about Lemmy have nothing to do with the software. The software does exactly what it says it does, and it does it in a very stable way. PieFed however, will suddenly add code to remove the Unicode Þ from comments because the repo maintainer things a user is being annoying. Why do would anyone want to hitch their wagon to such a thing?

lol @Edie@lemmy.ml you see this?

There are all kinds of fun stuff in the Piefed code. Allow me to dredge up a comment I made recently:

@edie@lemmy.encryptionin.space was looking at PieFed code the other week, and I ended up taking a look at it too. Its great fun to sneak a peak at.

For example, you cannot cast a vote on PieFed if you’ve made 0 replies, 0 posts, AND your username is 8 characters long:

    def cannot_vote(self):
        if self.is_local():
            return False
        return self.post_count == 0 and self.post_reply_count == 0 and len(
            self.user_name) == 8  # most vote manipulation bots have 8 character user names and never post any content

If a reply is created, from anywhere, that only contains the word “this”, the comment is dropped (CW: ableism in the function name):

def reply_is_stupid(body) -> bool:
    lower_body = body.lower().strip()
    if lower_body == 'this' or lower_body == 'this.' or lower_body == 'this!':
        return True
    return False

Every user (remote or local) has an “attitude” which is calculated as follows: (upvotes cast - downvotes cast) / (upvotes + downvotes). If your “attitude” is < 0.0 you can’t downvote.

Every account has a Social Credit Score, aka your Reputation. If your account has less than 100 reputation and is newly created, you are not considered “trustworthy” and there are limitations placed on what your account can do. Your reputation is calculated as upvotes earned - downvotes earned aka Reddit Karma. If your reputation is at -10 you also cannot downvote, and you can’t create new DMs. It also flags your account automatically if your reputation is to low:

PieFed boasts that it has “4chan image detection”. Let’s see how that works in practice:

            if site.enable_chan_image_filter:
                # Do not allow fascist meme content
                try:
                    if '.avif' in uploaded_file.filename:
                        import pillow_avif  # NOQA
                    image_text = pytesseract.image_to_string(Image.open(BytesIO(uploaded_file.read())).convert('L'))
                except FileNotFoundError:
                    image_text = ''
                except UnidentifiedImageError:
                    image_text = ''

                if 'Anonymous' in image_text and (
                        'No.' in image_text or ' N0' in image_text):  # chan posts usually contain the text 'Anonymous' and ' No.12345'
                    self.image_file.errors.append(
                        "This image is an invalid file type.")  # deliberately misleading error message
                    current_user.reputation -= 1
                    db.session.commit()
                    return False

Yup. If your image contains the word Anonymous, and contains the text No. or N0 it will reject the image with a fake error message. Not only does it give you a fake error, but it also will dock your Social Credit Score. Take note of the current_user.reputation -= 1

PieFed also boasts that it has AI generated text detection. Let’s see how that also works in practice:

# LLM Detection
        if reply.body and '—' in reply.body and user.created_very_recently():
            # usage of em-dash is highly suspect.
            from app.utils import notify_admin
            # notify admin

This is the default detection, apparently you can use an API endpoint for that detection as well apparently, but it’s not documented anywhere but within the code.

Do you want to leave a comment that is just a funny gif? No you don’t. Not on PieFed, that will get your comment dropped and lower your Social Credit Score!

        if reply_is_just_link_to_gif_reaction(reply.body) and site.enable_gif_reply_rep_decrease:
            user.reputation -= 1
            raise PostReplyValidationError(_('Gif comment ignored'))

How does it know its just a gif though?

def reply_is_just_link_to_gif_reaction(body) -> bool:
    tmp_body = body.strip()
    if tmp_body.startswith('https://media.tenor.com/') or \
            tmp_body.startswith('https://media1.tenor.com/') or \
            tmp_body.startswith('https://media2.tenor.com/') or \
            tmp_body.startswith('https://media3.tenor.com/') or \
            tmp_body.startswith('https://i.giphy.com/') or \
            tmp_body.startswith('https://i.imgflip.com/') or \
            tmp_body.startswith('https://media1.giphy.com/') or \
            tmp_body.startswith('https://media2.giphy.com/') or \
            tmp_body.startswith('https://media3.giphy.com/') or \
            tmp_body.startswith('https://media4.giphy.com/'):
        return True
    else:
        return False

I’m not even sure someone would actually drop a link like this directly into a comment. It’s not even taking into consideration whether those URLs are part of a markdown image tag.

As Edie mentioned, if someone has a user blocked, and that user replies to someone, their comment is dropped:

if parent_comment.author.has_blocked_user(user.id) or parent_comment.author.has_blocked_instance(user.instance_id):
    log_incoming_ap(id, APLOG_CREATE, APLOG_FAILURE, saved_json, 'Parent comment author blocked replier')
    return None

For Example:

• Cowbees comment on lemmy.ml: https://lemmy.ml/post/41587312/23288779
• Non-existent on piefed.social: https://piefed.social/comment/9647830

(see Edies original comment here)

More from Edie:

Also add if the poster has blocked you! It is exactly as nonsense as you think.

Example:

I made a post in testing@piefed.social from my account testingpiefed@piefed.social, replied to it from my other testingpiefed@piefed.zip account. Since the .social account has blocked the .zip, it doesn’t show up on .social, nor on e.g. piefed.europe.pub.

I then made a comment from my lemmy.ml account, and replied to it from my piefed.zip account, and neither .social, nor europe.pub can see my .zip reply, but can see my lemmy.ml comment!

[ Let me add more clarity here: what this feature does is two things. On a local instance, if you block someone who is on your instance, they cannot reply to you. However, this condition is not federated (yet, it would seem), and so, to get around this “issue”, the system will drop comments from being stored in the PieFed database IF the blocked user is remote. This means you end up with “ghost comment chains” on remote instances. There is NEW code as of a few weeks ago, that will send an AUTOMATED mod action against blocked remote users to remove the comment. So long as the community is a local PieFed community, it will federate that mod action to the remote server, removing the comment automatically. For PieFed servers, eventually, they would rather federate the users block list (that’s fair), but it would seem this code to send automated mod actions to remove comments due to user blocks is going to stay just for the Lemmy Piefed interaction. I don’t really understand why the system simply doesn’t prevent the rendering of the comment, instead of stopping it from being stored. It knows the user is blocked, it already checks it, it should then just stop rendering the chain of comments for the given user, prevent notifications from those users, etc. ]

But wait! There’s More!

• PieFed defederates from Hexbear.net, Lemmygrad.ml, and Lemmy.ml out of the box. I was mistaken about lemmy.ml.
• PieFed uses a hard coded list which includes Hexbear.net, Lemmygrad.ml, and Lemmy.ml to rank a instances defederation list for its quality. If it includes each of those instances the quality goes up. Interestingly enough, this list doesn’t include any facists instances that are included in the default defederation list
• The “rational discourse” sidebar that you see on the main instance is hard coded into the system.
• Moderators of a community can kick you from a community, which unsubscribes you from it, and does not notify you. This has been removed actually, the API endpoint is still there.
• I was going to say that Admins had the ability to add a weight to votes coming from other instances, but the videos that showed this are now gone, and as of v1.5.0 they have removed the instance vote weight feature, claiming it was “unused”.

All this to say. Piefed is a silly place, and no one should bother using its software.

Oh sure!

It is very tragic, and because of the nature of Reddit, this kind of advice would get removed more likely than not.

3

I think you’re going to have to look elsewhere, fighters are not the preview of the Democratic Party. See if there is a DSA chapter near you and join it, it might ease your mind some to find like-minded people who actually want to fight. The streets are where the fight is now, not congress. ICE is knocking on our doors, not the doors of Congress. That should tell you everything you need to know about who they think is a threat.

Why would the Democrats be the ones to green-light such a thing? Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries have made it clear that they are not interested in dealing with this.

One of them could be the Tianfu Twin Towers in Changdu.

They are real pictures. Here’s another city you’ve never heard of.

I have an account on Hexbear, I also mod their !parenting@hexbear.net community, which has been growing steadily. It’s always wild to me to read what people think goes on at the site because, in my engagement with folks, it’s clear that everyone is just someone trying to get by in this crazy world we live in. All this talk about “tankies” or whatever, is pretty “online” behavior, and Hexbear often appears to me the least online by comparison. Sure, we’re active on the site, but I don’t get the sense that many people are wildly active outside the site, many people have negative views on most social media and have no interest in it.

The other thing that people never seem to notice is just how active our !mutual_aid@hexbear.net community is, and just how generous the users can be. There is a real sense of community on Hexbear that I struggle to find on the wider internet. That probably has a lot to do with the relative size of the user base.

Even though zee news was unable confirm the footage’s accuracy

Listen here, bub, we don’t need to “confirm” any kind of “accuracy” if it aligns with our racist view of China and Chinese people.

One thing I know I’m going to be doing is reading “Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next)” by Dean Spade. From the first two paragraphs of the first chapter:

Mutual aid projects expose the reality that people do not have what they need and propose that we can address this injustice together. The most famous example in the United States is the Black Panther Party’s survival programs, which ran throughout the 1960s and 1970s, including a free breakfast program, free ambulance program, free medical clinics, a service offering rides to elderly people doing errands, and a school aimed at providing a rigorous liberation curriculum to children. The Black Panther programs welcomed people into the liberation struggle by creating spaces where they could meet basic needs and build a shared analysis about the conditions they were facing. Instead of feeling ashamed about not being able to feed their kids in a culture that blames poor people, especially poor Black people, for their poverty, people attending the Panthers’ free breakfast program got food and a chance to build shared analysis about Black poverty. It broke stigma and isolation, met material needs, and got people fired up to work together for change.

Recognizing the program’s success, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover famously wrote in a 1969 memo sent to all field offices that “the BCP [Breakfast for Children Program] represents the best and most influential activity going for the BPP [Black Panther Party] and, as such, is potentially the greatest threat to efforts by authorities to neutralize the BPP and destroy what it stands for.” The night before the Chicago program was supposed to open, police broke into the church that was hosting it and urinated on all of the food. The government’s attacks on the Black Panther Party are evidence of mutual aid’s power, as is the government’s co-optation of the program: in the early 1970s the US Department of Agriculture expanded its federal free breakfast program—built on a charity, not a liberation, model—that still feeds millions of children today. The Black Panthers provided a striking vision of liberation, asserting that Black people had to defend themselves against a violent and racist government, and that they could organize to give each other what a racist society withheld.

People in your community already need help. You and your friends can start building a mutual aid network today, one that can help queer people, black people, and women in need. You can decide what kind of aid you can provide. Maybe you’re offering rides to airports to women who need to travel out of state for medical care. Perhaps you’re providing safe places and spaces for the Trans population in your area. Whatever it is, you’ll feel more connected and more in control of your community, and put out a positive influence within it.

Along the way, you should also try and educate yourself so that you can educate others.

Well, that does make some sense. I swear some of the channels who have these sponsorships are the same channels that had them last time around too.

I had that same reaction. It actually happened around 2018 (where does the time go?)

https://www.polygon.com/2018/10/4/17932862/betterhelp-app-youtube-sponsorship-controversy-explained

We’ve definitely been here before. One of the interesting things about this article is that a lot of the videos they embedded are gone now.