You may remember how I complained for years about moderation, rules, instance blocking by admins, etc. I saw a direct connection between restriction of free (unimpeded) speech and restriction of federation (with a split into various sub-diverses). Why block whole instances when (at least in principle) every user can decide for himself what content to allow in his TL and what not?

Contemplating my experiences on X, in which moderation has drastically receeded and where I less and less feel comfortable to be around, I recently came to the conclusion that I may have been wrong. That indeed some moderation and blocking of accounts and instances on the level of instances and admins seems necessary. Otherwise, at least on X, you spend the half of your time muting and blocking. Why would one waste one's time in *such* activities.

Still, I don't know. But I feel the advocates of moderation (broadly understood) had a far better understanding than I had.

cc @hannes