Did the admins poll the community about it? Why was such measure so needed? If the tankie content is so annoying why not let users decide what they want to see or not and what they want to block?
I don't like that the admins want to censor the content I can view or not. You guys are not protecting us nor doing us a favor, you're imposing your views over everyone else by limiting the information we are able to receive.
I don't support the devs views or the views in lemmygrad, but this is a dangerous precedent.
I've read several of the "arguments" for blocking the instance and all I can see is a bunch of people talking about politics and arguing about "floods in the frontpage". Well, let the user block communities if that's the case, same way I'm already blocking communities I'm not interested.
I think the admins want to feel like Facebook moderation. I'd be OK with it if any instance repeatedly generated spam, security, doxxing or any other concern that couldn't be solved by banning individuals, otherwise it's just plain censorship.
I just don't want the admins to use their power to decide what I can see or not. If this is going to be like this, I'll leave for a better instance because I can see where this is going to.
Maybe if the API were the only part of that. It was part of the problem but the other parts were losing extensive modtools to actually moderate the subreddits you go to bitch in, with no replacements despite a decade of promises. Also the whole brush off of accessibility tools for users with visual/cognitive/physical impairments which only just got an exemption.
There's a huge difference. Reddit has people working for free to moderate content with no support from the site and decided to take those tools away without replacing them. The people who provide value to the company thus being shafted.
Lemmy has tons of instances so you can find the one with the rules you like and join there while still getting access to all of the "subreddits".
So no, it's not the same at all. It would be more akin to demanding that all of the third party apps have the same tools and access across all devices despite there being plenty of other serviceable options.
To me leadership and administration is in place to serve the people. The people managing this server are essentially providing a service whether for free or whatever. It is totally OK to raise concerns, questions and demand changes. I think most people just feel reassured of having that instance blocked because it matches their worldview.
Cool story, go be a leader you like then.