Community relays are a bad idea

Community relays get mentioned a lot as a solution to spam or illegal content. The basic idea is that specialized relays can moderate and filter content. Choosing relays would be akin to choosing the type of content you want to see.

I think community relays create more problems than they solve:

1. Spam or illegal content filtering through relays only works if you also stop using unfiltered, general purpose free relays. This would see you isolate on a small, relay-bound network island.

2. By using specialized relays, you give those relays power over you. If relays are generic and interchangeable, then being banned by one of them doesn't matter. However, if you get banned by the largest Politics relay, for example, you can no longer reach that community.

3. Filtering at a relay level is impractical to begin with. It's similar to expecting node operators to filter what makes it on to the blockchain, though admittedly with a bit less permanence involved. Relays should have basic spam filtering in place, but no sane relay admin wants to actively monitor and police all content that their relay carries. Even if they were so inclined, they would need to use a client to do it.

4. Relays don't actually host any illegal media, they only carry text. Illegal media such as CP, for example, needs to be uploaded to a 3rd party platform, and displayed by a client. The relay can potentially carry a URL to such content, but it never actually hosts it and it's clients that display it to users.

5. Communities, reports, content filtering, these are all easier to implement at a client level. Ultimately, the website or app where the content appears is the one that will be held to account, along with the platform where the media is stored.

Please do not give power to relays, I ask you this as someone who runs a free relay.