this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2023
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How does Federating work? (latte.isnot.coffee)
submitted 1 year ago by melonplant@latte.isnot.coffee to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml
6 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Hi all, first time posting. I've tried googling a bit but its not totally clear to me. Say I have servers A, B, C, and D.

Can servers A and B federate, and then separately C and D federate?

If so, can A B and C be federated, but separately C and D be federated, so D is not recognized as federated for A?

If A, B, C, and D are federated, and it becomes apparent that D is a bad actor, how does D become defederated?

I feel like these kinds of situations are critical to ensure long term success. I really appreciate any answers anyone can provide!

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[โ€“] kersploosh@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Can servers A and B federate, and then separately C and D federate?

Yes.

If so, can A B and C be federated, but separately C and D be federated, so D is not recognized as federated for A?

Yes.

If A, B, C, and D are federated, and it becomes apparent that D is a bad actor, how does D become defederated?

A, B, and C each individually decide whether they want to deferate with D. Maybe they all do, or maybe only some of them do. It's analogous to groups of people deciding who they want to be friends with.

At least that's my understanding.

[โ€“] melonplant@latte.isnot.coffee 1 points 1 year ago

Thanks! This is an ideal method for keeping servers in check once user base starts gathering steam.

Side question but I assume servers have the ability to make communities private. Is there any segregation of content when it comes to federated users? For example, could you make content only visible to users, or federated users, or federated users from a specific server? Thinking in terms of bad actors exploiting bandwidth

[โ€“] ppp@lemmy.one 1 points 1 year ago

Can servers A and B federate, and then separately C and D federate?

Yes. Server A and B can communicate with each other while C and D can also communicate with each other.

If so, can A B and C be federated, but separately C and D be federated, so D is not recognized as federated for A?

Yes. A can communicate with B and C but not D while only C can communicate with D. A and B cannot communicate with D.

If A, B, C, and D are federated, and it becomes apparent that D is a bad actor, how does D become defederated?

A, B, C will block off D. D will no longer be able to communicate with A, B, and C.

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong but this is how I understand it.

[โ€“] MXYp3Lk66yKv@aussie.zone 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

From a philosophical perspective, it is pretty complex.

This is a a simple start on Lemmy's federation

-Allowlist: Explicitly list instances to connect to.

-BlockList: Explicitly list instances to not connect to. Federation is open to all other instances.

-Open: Federate with all potential instances.

[โ€“] melonplant@latte.isnot.coffee 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thanks this link is great!

Thinking long term, it feels like "open" or "blacklisting" methods are not sustainable. Bad-actor servers can come along much faster than servers can coordinate blacklisting. Is there any movement towards "factionalized" communities or whitelist groups? Hoping there's not a limit on number of whitelisted instances because it could get pretty long in the future.

[โ€“] MXYp3Lk66yKv@aussie.zone 1 points 1 year ago

It's tricky. But I keep thinking that 'bad servers' bring similar issues to those of bad actors on 'good servers'....

Not sure how they might approach it - or what exactly is even available now. I should probably stand up a lemmy server just to have a poke around ๐Ÿซฃ.