I know for my instance they get full bans. It's a small instance, but make sure you report people. Mods see it and will ban them from entire instances. They can go be angry trolls on someone else's server.

"Sorry queer folk, you can't block the people who want you dead, because it's important that you see their hate so you know it exists" (as if they we didn't already know)

Imo blocked users get less engagement, therefore it helps to some degree. ~~Also, unlike reddit, it's somewhat difficult to browse the Fediverse without being logged in.~~ I'd guess that if any problematic content does slip through, it reaches a much smaller audience than if it were to slip through on reddit just because of how things are decentralized here.

edit: I tried it again and I now agree that it is easier to browse with an account. I saw a lot more content than the first time I tried it ~2 months ago

I'd say be sure to report them and then block them

That way the mods can see them to do something about them and you don't have to see their hateful stuff before they earn a ban

There's some hate speech and also tons of propaganda. I've stopped recommending the fediverse to people while there's so much authoritarian propaganda.

So far I've only blocked users whose names and posts indicate they're just here to post porn. Nothing against them, I just want to look at All once in awhile without accidentally (clumsy old-lady fingers) opening someone's vulva or ass. Nazis I downvote and/or report and/or yell at.

I've been blocking everyone with a stupid argument, and it feels great. If we're really worried about this, just quarantine anyone with a high block rate.

I like having better control over what content people can push at me. An issue on other platforms is they all want to force things on me -- things that they make money from, or things they think will annoy me (to keep me "engaged"). This makes them really annoying for me to use, and generally results in me giving up on the idea of sharing the things I study with others, and maybe also helping people with their projects.

I'm really mostly here to share science and engineering stuff, and maybe help other immigrants to Vietnam (I mean, there will probably be another one eventually...).

So really, I don't think it's a problem. I'm already painfully aware of the various weird things people think about me in daily life (yay, being an immigrant!). I don't need that to define every single thing I do. Sometimes I just want to log on and post some nice words about optimizing assembly language, without having to deal with a bunch of strange and often inappropriate requests from strangers.