It seems that the issue was resolved behind closed doors, so it could have been resolved behind closed doors to begin with, and then if the defederation was to go ahead simply announce the defederation.
Making an announcement "it will be defederated in 48 hours" made for this weird countdown drama thread (we even had programming.dev people show up and be sad about defederation!) that didn't really go anywhere, and then y'all just locked it when we refederated and made it clear that you were never interested in input and you'll be running the instance as you please (which is well within your rights of course). So what was the point of the thread?
I can see how it is nice to have warning if a community you're involved in is going to be defederated, but it also drags drama to our nice little corner of the fediverse, and pins it at the top of our feeds for all to see. In fact it shows up as the top of every feed for me, Local, All, and Subscribed. I can't get away from it.
Every time these threads show up they end up blowing up. Honestly, if you didn't make these threads, I wouldn't care who you defederate. But because the thread exists, I have to come in and I have to have an opinion. That's a personal issue and I recognize that, but I would hazard a guess that I'm not the only one. People who have never interacted with Blahaj nor the instance getting defederated show up in these threads sometimes. These threads invite drama, and for me personally, whenever they come up they make this space feel significantly less safe and make me want to leave Lemmy as a whole because it feels like it's just nonstop defederation drama for days at a time, but it's pinned at the top of my feed.
Maybe these threads actually provide utility, and I should just take these threads as a sign I should take a break from the Internet for a bit. But to me, they just seem like they're all downsides.
Yes, hello. As an uninvolved person, I would like to say that I was tempted to join the fun simply because it was there, regardless of the request not to.
Sadly, I had no popcorn readily at hand and so had to refrain from stoking the fire.
You are quite correct that these threads attract drama lovers, regardless of background, and it does create more hassle for those trying to maintain order.
Perhaps a one-sided instance-wide announcement, notification or message for users from its admins might be coded in as an option if possible?
Though, then again, that might create a wave of posts asking about what happened and such...
Some level of interaction is needed for these kind of things. The problem is figuring out how to balance them at reasonable levels to avoid exhaustion.
Perhaps an automated bot that temporarily bans users from other instances? Sounds like a fun thing to have around for admins.
Regardless, as long as the windows are open, buzzing flies will always show up sooner or later.