@angrboda Okay, it looks like an admin can also completely block an instance, and that WILL kill all communication between instances. But that's different than defederating in most cases.
There IS one major difference here that I've learned about - if a server does whitelisting and defederates, it removes the other server from the whitelist, effectively blocking it completely. Awoo whitelists.
Anybody on the local timeline who knows better, correct me if I'm wrong?
@Soreth @angrboda Awoo’s whitelist-only behaviour also means *a majority* of the fediverse can’t interact with you, and vice versa, at all, by default.
The admins of any given instance have to actively seek federation with Awoo, and have to meet some vague requirements (which are requested in good faith), but ultimately this is what drove me away from Awoo.
@angrboda Yeah, I'm not 100% sure that's completely how it works, but that's what I've gotten from listening to some talk about it. I'd have some serious misgivings if defederation just killed all links to anybody on that instance.