That's it. Our instance requires us to stop responding if you explicitly ask us to. It's right here buried in our Code of Conduct
Any discussions may be opted out of by disengaging.
In the past, this rule has only applied to the specific user you say it to. I'd like to suggest going forward that if someone on another instance uses it, we treat it as applying to all of us.
Unfortunately this rule wasn't communicated clearly before, so I'm making this post for visibility.
Edit: As the comments clarify, this has to be done in good faith, typically just a one word "disengage" comment. If you add more stuff to the discussion and then say "disengage" at the end, you're not disengaging, it's a way to put a stop to a toxic argument not to get the last word in.
It's the rule, and it always has been if you want it to changed, talk to the mods, I don't have the power to change it even if I wanted to (I don't).
I saw a blahaj user post a link to this in defense of staying federated in their thread, so I beg to differ.
Not to mention, you just said you hadn't heard of it, now you have. Sounds like the post was necessary then.