That is their statement, but this doesn’t change the outcome. I cannot participate, I am not welcome in their communities. I see no reason why new communities can’t be created on instances which won’t defederate, even temporarally.

When it comes back, I’ll still avoid the instance. I’m not going to participate where I could suddenly become unwelcome again. They’ve done it once, they’ll do it again. As is their right, the heavy handed moderation is their stated goal, but it’s also my, and other peoples, right to simply go elsewhere when we are unwelcome.

Other instances will do this too. One answer to this question of ‘why create another copy community’ is for this situation. When we are no longer wanted in one place, why not create another?

Thank you for the kind reply though. While I disagree with the action I’m happy they have the ability to create the site they want

They didn’t say it’s “temporary” they said “we might reconsider in the future”.

And it’s not their only problem - I’ve spent the last week trying to join beehaw before finally giving up - I finally joinned one of the instances beehaw has defederated - since it’s actually possible to sign up.

Their stubborn distrust of strangers is not conducive to a proper online community. They’ll probably realised that in future, but unless they do it very soon their instance will be far smaller than alternatives like this one and that will make it even harder for them to handle large volumes of unvetted users. They’re growing too fast now - imagine how fast they’d grow on the day they re-federate?