ngl my take on the whole dni thing is that yeah to a point they're mostly useless. from using broad/undefinable terms ("general dni criteria" what is that "racists dni" most people who are racist do not self identify as racist, "women dni" define a woman for me, quickly. etc) to being useless at actually deterring the kinds of people you dont want interacting with you ("transmisogynists and terfs dni" if a terf wants to bother you about terf shit a dni isnt going to stop them, etc), by and large they're for appearance to signal to others the kind of bigot that you're not.

the one kind of place they do actually kind of work though. spheres that remain encapsulated microcosms of 2015 era tumblr microlabel identity politics. the places where, regardless of if you're a self identified transmed or a proud tucute, you wouldn't be caught dead interacting with someone on the "other side", because the second someone brings up "umm op made a post last year about xyz" you have to RACE to denounce any and all knowledge or interaction lest the people on "your side" put you on a list of "blogs unsafe for xyz" that you'll be arguing against anons about for months. if you're really unlucky, someone will make a callout about op and include you in it as an enabler and a bigot by association.