I always felt like it was wrong to block an account unless it was smth absolutely insane. Nazis etc.
But now I’m blocking people who’s tone I dont like, or who are baiting or actingnin bad faith.
I know I can’t do it as a mod. But i can certainly do it as an individual now. Judgy comment? Blocked. Unnecessarily confrontational? Blocked.
This is new to me, literally 3 days. Wonder how this affects my feed. Only disappointing thing is they can still see and respond to my posts, just that I can’t see it. I wish they couldn’t see anything I posted either.
What are your blocking habits? If you do block a lot of people, has that affected your experience?
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Removed by mod
I don’t ever want people I blocked to not be able to see my stuff when the account is public. It’s just a weird limitation and gives a false sense of security. Though not being able to directly reply to things would be nice.
I block only when I see a user who is unhinged enough and is obviously not getting banned by moderators. Usually theses people can be baited into making terrible arguments terrible opinions backed by either terrible ideology or lies, and mods can deal with them.
I think reporting users is more effective to not let the whole site become completely unusable by attracting shitheads/trolls/agitators who even if blocked keep posting garbage because that might be seen by new users.
Also responding to them is taxing on some people’s mental health, so this isint for everyone and I get why people might opt for it. I prefer arguing since there is a chance that they might be misinformed or hot headed (me included).
Honestly it depends on how you want to engage with a platform.
I use the Boost app, so I just tag users who are being annoying. I only rarely block someone.
I block freely. My time and attention and mental and emotional bandwidth are limited resources, and to the extent possible I intend to spend them carefully.
When I see I have a message/reply in my Lemmy inbox, then open the inbox and see nothing - there is such a relaxing feeling pressing “mark all as read”, knowing I just avoided an annoying interaction from some idiot I’ve blocked in the past.
I tend to ask questions about their opinion until they stop responding.
I like to pretend they’ve realised the absurdity of their own stance.
In reality I’m just easily amused.
I wish there was a hide posts option, rather than a flat out block. There are some overly prolific posters that i would like to block, but their comments are not an issue, just the 40 rapid fire posts they make everyday.
Is me 👉👈
lol no.
of course not, we all respect our local mothfucker
Oh don’t forget how controversial that was too lol
Opposite for me, there are quite a few that I want to see their posts but not their comments.
Ask your admins about that - PieFed has that feature but only admins can do it and it’s instance-wide.
Or even more granular. There’s folks that make a large number of posts that I do like in some comms, and a large number of ones I don’t care about in other comms.
If they’re the main one making low effort posts in the Weevil community or whatever, but everyone else is great, it would be preferable to prune the community for myself instead of blocking it or them.
I still think they’re a net positive for Lemmy and want to interact with them, just we may not like all the same things in the exact same way.
I hardly ever block individual posters, but communities, I’ve blocked 936 of them at the time of making this post. Sports, porn, anime, or furry shit are all block on sight. Plus a handful of randoms that I’m just not interested in.
I’ve finally got All where it’s pleasant to browse. Takes some doing, but worth the effort if you want to customize your feed reductively vs actively seeking out and subscribing to communities.
How about language issues? I dont browse all bc half the time I dont get the languages. Changing the language is apparently buggy on Lemmy.
Also blocking instances doesn’t cut it.
That accounts for a good chunk of the blocks as well.
This is one of those one-bite-at-a-time projects - just hit a few on each visit, it adds up.
I never even considered using All…
I may have to start doing this. I’ve subscribed to enough that I see enough to keep me occupied, and if I don’t I go to All and add anything that I find particularly interesting. This mean I miss new things I might really enjoy unless I’m not as occupied with my current subscription list. This could be better.
More people need to make use of the curation tools available to them in my opinion. Too often I see people browsing /all and then complain about seeing tons of stuff that they don’t like. There are tools that are available to them to help them create a more pleasant experience that they just aren’t using. The fediverse doesn’t have some algorithm that learns the type of content that you most often engage with and feed it to you, you have to more proactively do the curation yourself.
Just as an example, I was in a conversation with one of the lemmy.world admins a while back. We were talking about instance blocks and how infrequently users actually use them. Across all of the users on lemmy.world, only about 700 of them actually created an instance block for the most-blocked instance (lemmynsfw). Only two instances had more than 500 users block it.
Curation tools is brilliant. Thats what it should be seen as.
Very well put. Also the important point of the lack of learning algorithm.
*curation
I thought lemmynsfw was sort of ‘mass-delisted’ by most instances? In that users from lemmynsfw.com can interact with the wider fediverse but the communities on there don’t display out to other communities - because the issue is the communities there, and not the users.
It’s great for your mental state.
Just be aware of any filter bubble you might create. If you block every person that has an opposite perspective, you’ll fall into your own echo chamber.
>:(
They would be annoyed at this comment if they could see it /s
Just be aware of any filter bubble you might create.
That’s a great point. I block pretty easily, but for rudeness, not for disagreement.
I’ve blocked some assholes that I wholeheartedly agree with, but I just don’t want to read them abrasively support things I believe in.
This is the biggest reason why I only block sparingly. If you aren’t regularly challenged in a way that forces you to assess and explain your world view and why it makes sense to you, then you risk becoming detached from reality in the same way that so many people have these days. It’s easy to fall into the idea that your way of thinking is inherently correct, especially when you only interact with people who agree with you.
It’s tough to interact with someone who disagrees with you, especially on the internet where people can be unnecessarily harsh, but it’s also good to do for your own understanding of the world. I think of it like a workout for my moral compass - if I can’t fully explain why my viewpoint is more accurate than someone else’s, then there’s something I’m missing, and I know where I need to spend more time reassessing my beliefs.
Blocking is great. I truly wish more people would block. We would be able to all have a more enjoyable experience.
A shared suggested blocklist would be helpful for new users. Growing it organically is the way to go imo but I know some in my life who rawdog the internet w/o ad block without knowing they can do something about it.
If someone needs to be on a shared block list they should be banned.
You’re right. I guess a ban is a shared block list in a way.
People who I notice just dont get jokes and are in 20 different meme communities being all serious? Blocked.
Meanwhile, you using jokes to denigrate groups you don’t like and crying when people righteously call you out on your bullshit:
Only disappointing thing is they can still see and respond to my posts, just that I can’t see it. I wish they couldn’t see anything I posted either.
I understand. Lemmy users are divided on that issue because not only can these people see, comment and downvote your post, they can manipulate the situation to their advantage (feel free to use your imagination or search posts about blocking).
FWIW, I hear you loud and clear. Please understand that there are plenty of people in this world who are angry, unfulfilled and can’t/won’t touch grass whose only gratification is to try to make other people miserable. This mental instability coupled with current events is unfortunately unleashed here in Lemmy and you.
Block away and save your sanity. I’m here for the jokes and your memes. If I want to argue, I’ll go to work and get paid. Sadly, you are a volunteer and many people don’t realize that — they seem to think that it’s your job to take their crap. For that, I am truly sorry.
Two of my friends recently blocked .world and had good experiences with users from other instances. Recently, there was negativity in Uplifting News that had to be addressed; a .world mod left because they were burned out; some more drama recurring also at .world instance.
Please take good care of yourself and don’t take &#!+ from any of us!
First of all, thank you. Secondly, when did you change instances?
Also. Modding is easy in my comms. The biggest is !aneurysmposting@sopuli.xyz at 3k subscribers.
Lol, I’ve been lurking since June but couldn’t decide which instance to sign up with; my friends are scattered all over the fediverse.
Yes, I’m one of the idiots who picked an instance because I like the name. That’s my major decision for the year.
I just subscribed. That community looks good, thanks!
Picking by name is as good a reason as any. Can always move to a different instance
I hear plenty of nice things about PieFed 😃 Who knows… I might see you there.
So do I. You just might
Since I’m on .world… Can you explain why they blocked the instance? I haven’t really paid much attention to the different instances.
Drama, angry people and excessive crossposting and reposting.
It’s a big instance which means a lot more people, so you will always run into a .world user and/or .world community — some are awesome and others are not so great. It was easier for them to block an instance after blocking 50+ communities and people. There’s also this:
Uplifting News https://lemmy.coffee/post/429320
Cooking https://lemmy.coffee/post/478931
There’s also drama at other communities like YPTB but it was really hard for me to follow; I saw it because my feed was set to ALL. Some of us come here for the news, memes and the occasional recipe but not to be verbally abused or bear witness to one.
In addition to the controversies, the amount of news articles being crossposted to four other news communities by the same user (user # 1) was just overwhelming. Then, another user (user # 2) will do the same exact thing, unbeknownst to them that the same articles were already posted since the time gap was usually about 5 minutes or less.
What do you do? Start blocking.
Just when you think you have it all figured out, user # 1 creates an alt account and wipes the smile off your face. As you start blocking, user # 1 creates another alt account… and another. Holy cow!Lucky for us, the weather is nice so to the great outdoors we go. TBH, I’ll probably be very annoyed if this is happening in the middle of a blizzard, lol.
Nice to meet you, FishFace. I like your name!
I block pretty freely, on all social media. Being both trans and religious means that people on any part of the political spectrum might think I’m subhuman, and I don’t see the point of engaging when that’s the case.
Echo chamber time
Only disappointing thing is they can still see and respond to my posts, just that I can’t see it. I wish they couldn’t see anything I posted either.
I’ve seen this view in discussions of blocking before and it really bugs me. You’re desiring to unilaterally control what I can see and do on the Fediverse.
This is how it works on Reddit and it’s a terrible mechanism. It means you can preemptively ensure that anyone who might refute misinformation will be excluded from your threads before you post them. It means you can step into a conversation I’m having with someone, derail it, and then prevent me from responding to your derail. Over on Reddit by far the most common use I see of the block tool is to get the “last word” in on whatever argument is going on, posting some sort of seemingly clever comeback and then instantly blocking me before I can point out the flaws.
For anyone wondering how the blocking feature has been weaponized to spread misinformation, in 2022 a redditor did an experiment: https://www.reddit.com/r/TheoryOfReddit/comments/sdcsx3/testing_reddits_new_block_feature_and_its_effects/
I don’t understand this view either. What’s it to ya? You cant see what the person does anyway. There doesn’t seem to be a point behind it besides control.
Also, it simply is difficult to implement. You have to tell every server “do not show my posts and comments to these accounts”. Other servers can just choose to ignore that. It’s centralized thinking to believe the “feature” will work all the time.
Sounds like something a sea lion would say.
on reddit people have been scorched for blocking and reporting, you can get banned for reporting too many times, or if the specific mods in a sub deems you “report too much”. i block most of the time, instead of reporting. reddit has way too many bots and trolls, propaganda to block them all. the point of blocking is to get rid of trolls and propaganda comments, dont want them to keep harassing you, or using different accounts.
I have blocked people on reddit who have stalked me.
You’re saying that they should be able to continue to do so?
Blocking and them not seeing what you write is not an adequate defense to that anyway. If someone wants to stalk you, they can just not log in at all. You’re posting in a public place that everyone can see. Because of that, blocking only makes sense in one direction.
Of course you shouldn’t be stalked, but the proposed way to combat that is just useless.
No, he’s pointing out the severe issues with the system at scale. If someone is stalking you on Reddit, that sounds more like a “this user should be banned” issue.
