@Sandra @wim_v12e @kensanata I think that we’re going to see someone introduce an allow list (as opposed to the current block list) version of federation sometime soon. Whether in a masto fork or some new implementation, I think that’s the next natural progression for fediverse software.

@Sandra @wim_v12e @kensanata there was a “neighborhood” concept that was being pushed around a bit, but yeah this is the biggest reason people push back on the idea, it makes it difficult for small instances to get off the ground.

@Sandra @wim_v12e @kensanata like, you could set it up to automatically poll other instances you federate with and see if they federate with the new instance. You could set it so that trust is rated, 0 for who the fuck is this? 1 for if you’ve got followers, 1/2 for if you are federating because someone else is and not because of your own interactions, decaying with each hop. Then set the threshold at like I dunno 3? Then someone new (Z) pops up, gets a strong link to in network server A.

@Sandra @wim_v12e @kensanata A is strongly connected to a bunch of your fellow instances and so B, C, D, and E all see Z is federating with A so they give Z a 1/2 vouch. Now they all see each other’s rating for Z and they all hit the 3 point threshold. Everyone starts federating with Z. If users on Z pick up followers then the score gets strong and we’re all good, but if that doesn’t happen and any one of the servers blocks Z they drop off for everyone. Something like that.