I’m a dev, not a lemmy dev, but a web developer. I spend a lot of time thinking about difficult problems. Blocking an instance is one of those difficult problems because while it can be done it’s tricky to do it well. Connect for lemmy does this, and when I block an instance, I don’t see posts from that instance, and comments are hidden behind a message that says the comment is from a blocked instance - if I tap that message, I read the comment. This may not fit the definition of “blocked” by some people’s standards, as it’s more of a “hide” feature. So, I’m somewhat interested from that aspect.
I use the feature myself mostly for testing, but I do wonder if the idea of blocking instances because we don’t like what we see is an appropriate idea to begin with. It’s like saying “block gmail.com” because you have a few people on there you don’t want to get emails from. Very possible to do, but it seems there’s a few thousand more people who might also be worth emailing and you’d miss out if you blocked them. Also, as we taylor the internet to smaller and smaller peices, we decrease the rate at which we find new content. This is fine if if that’s the goal, but to block whole instances and then later complain about lemmy dying because no one posts content on your instances would be weird. Not that you’re doing that, but it seems to be the next logical step if the idea of blocking instances picked up more steam amongst lemmy clients. As others have pointed out, it’s probably best to set your language prefs instead, as this is the mechanism the devs likely put in place for speakers of x language to avoid languages they don’t know.

But yeah, google translate exists, not everyone on one instance may speak only that language, etc. But it’s your internet experience, I ain’t gonna knock it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I mean yeah, some might use the feature to create an echo chamber for themselves and all the toxicity that can bring is a concern, the alternative is a user experience plagued with content you literally cannot read. I exclusively browse via an app, Google Translate isn't an option. I have no problem with Germans, if they want to contribute to discussion on English speaking instances- great, I want to see their contributions. I'd just like the ability to cut content that I will never interact with.

The concern that people are going to block instances and complain about the death of Lemmy due to a lack of content feels a bit like a straw man. One could argue that the inability to control content they consume might drive people away and lead to the death of Lemmy. That seems just as plausible but equally unfounded.

I'm sympathetic to your concerns but if someone wants to dodge an instance they don't want to view for whatever reason they should be able to do that. Blocking posts on an instance from showing up in your 'all' feed seems reasonable however, I agree, the members of that instance should be excluded from blanket blocks.

Edit- also, sorry you got downvoted. And I'll look around for the language options. Thanks.

I've got "English" already set so not sure what I'm doing wrong.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Just spit balling here, but if there were a feature which auto translated comments (and mentioned that it auto translated the comment), and allow you to respond (and have it translate your comment, and show the comment as translated) would that be of any interest to you?

And check out Connect for Lemmy. I think there’s another one that does the instance blocking, but I know connect does. Thanks for the reply and no worries about the downvotes. This ain’t my first rodeo.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'd love to read German instances translated to English, actually, yea.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I love you.