The Federated Timeline is a lot more useful/managable after hiding content from a few noisy/irrelevant instances.

Figuring out how to block instances was difficult, though. Here's how to do it: Go to the profile of someone from the server you want to hide toots from, press the ••• button there, and select "Block everything from <server>".

Why you can't do this from the Filter section of your preferences or the ••• button on toots...

¯\(º_o)/¯