Topic: Getting blocked in the comments.

@-wc-
People on this site, are generally nice and friendly and keep it civilized ( one of the reasons, why I like this site so much ), therefore I do not see a reason to block you or anyone else.

Apologies to whoever was originally comment #5 when I made the original example of how to spot being blocked. I thought I'd be comment #5 so I used it as my example given I never use ignore/block but I noticed later on that I was comment #6 so I changed the example.

@-wc- It did bother me initially getting blocked by one person because I didn't (and still don't know) what triggered the block but over time it's kind of become whatever. Don't get me wrong, I do miss their unique take on things but if it makes the blocker's experience better by blocking then that means the feature is doing its job.

@Grumblevolcano

yeah, same. i really liked both people I'm thinking of in particular, and the one that I just dont know why will just have to feel "more okay" over time. 🫤

this thread is somehow helping though. I'm glad it got unlocked. thanks, all. ❤️

@Jhena

"People on this site, are generally nice and friendly and keep it civilized ( one of the reasons, why I like this site so much ), therefore I do not see a reason to block you or anyone else."

I appreciate that, and I agree wholeheartedly! 😊✌️

This is how I feel. I feel to many people abuse the feature and thus ruining the experience for other people cause they can't follow a conversation. I believe that kind of power should be only handled by the staff. I can only speculate why the staff thinks that giving regular users this kind of power is a good thing but I never got an answer from staff.

@CharlieZee Agree he's the main one that abuses the system although their are others.

And BTW blocked is being different then banned. Blocked is you are still able to post only those that block you won't be able to see your posts nor will you see theirs. Banned is you can't post at all on any of the sites and only staff can ban you.

I've never blocked anyone, but I've ignored three users for being persistently hostile or insulting. As to whether I've been blocked, maybe? I don't know, but I have to imagine I'm better off not seeing posts from someone who'd block me, anyway.

@Grumblevolcano Oh okay, thanks.

@-wc- Yeah I get you man, I'm the same way but I think its okay to argue as long as its civilized, because i will not become a pushover lol.
Also ironically now that I look whoever number 3 was blocked me so we are in this together!

@-wc-
Congrats on getting your thread unlocked! I don’t think I’ve seen that before.

FWIW, I’ve been blocked, too, by at least one frequent poster here, which is unfortunate. Generally, I’m agreeable and easy going, but I must have said something to upset that person.

I just think it’s odd that although I know who blocked me, I have no idea why! I mean, I’m from an older generation that believes in dialogue. I’ve not blocked anyone here - you’d have to be downright belligerent before it got to that point.

Well, such is life. To each their own. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I've gotten blocked by two people AFAIK. One of them, to be fair, I was a bit mean towards them once....

...lol Lightyear

But the other is a very consistent regular who I've had...thoughts on but I don't think I've ever actually said anything about them in a real negative way ever? Like many more people have but I've not said anything IIRC so that's...very odd.

But otherwise I have blocked maybe 3 people but that was ages ago so I dunno if they even still post here anymore.

I've been blocked by exactly one person as far as I know. No idea if other people have ignored me but that is non-obtrusive so it doesn't really effect me either way.

I myself have never blocked or ignored anyone. Very rarely I see someone (usually a brand new poster) being offensive to the point of breaking TOS, so I report them rather than ignoring or blocking.

For my own block-related experience:

I do know why I was blocked. A person said something publicly and I felt like it was a bit offensive but I also felt like it probably wasn't intended that way and could even potentially be a language issue since this is a very international site (note that I was wrong about the language guess). Because I thought it might be offensive to others as well as myself, I decided to comment (politely) to the person even though it wasn't really my conversation so I probably shouldn't have. The response I got was half explanation and half insult. I then responded mostly with a real apology for inserting myself in a conversation which wasn't mine though I may have also inadvertently been a bit snippy because of the insult. I admit I was having a pretty bad day which never helps when you are trying to interpret the words of a stranger or respond politely.

So... in the end, pretty sure it was 100% a miscommunication on both sides but I found out later the other person blocked me. Ironically I had been thinking about setting the other person to ignore at the end of that interaction but I decided to forgive and forget because I do think it was just a quick miscommunication where we both accidentally insulted each other (the full interaction was a total of 3 short messages- 2 from me; I'm not sure if I got blocked immediately after the first message or not until after I had sent the second message). Fundamentally I'm to blame for feeling insulted when it wasn't my business and starting the back-and-forth ('not your business' is always an ambiguous line when we are all shouting things out to the world in a public forum).

When I first noticed I was blocked I admit I felt personally attacked, but now everytime I see that empty ping I just feel a little sad. But, y'know, most of us are adults and life goes on and this is fundamentally just a place to casually chat and get news. I would certainly enjoy my time here a little more if I wasn't blocked, but it is what it is.

Side note, but I didn't actually realize it was possible for a thread to be unlocked. I was just about to respond when it got locked before. 😆

Blocked one person because they were being very, very rude, just wasn’t nice at all. Other than that I think I’m blocked by one person, maybe two? I’m not sure lol. But it’s not something that bothers me really, I might not have known what I did but if they don’t want to talk to me they don’t want to talk with me, that’s fine.

I personally don’t like blocking people at all though regardless of disagreement are views, I honestly kinda feel bad from the person I blocked from time to time.

As far as I know I’ve only been blocked by at least two people… can’t say either of them were fair but it’s their loss at the end of the day, I’m sure many would kill for my game commentary 😓

I had posted a reply that got nuked because I hit send after the thread was nuked. I'd also add that I disagree with the reasoning why it was locked. The fact that a block on what is essentially an open, public forum is so easy to circumvent is kinda fundamental to why I don't think it's a feature we need. Anyways, there are reasons why this feature makes sense on OTHER sites and I think it's worth me outlining those and why they don't apply here:

1. I want to hide information from this person
This is the main reason I've ever used a feature like this. Some people (usually that one relative everyone has) are just .... those kinds of people. I generally avoid posting personal information on Facebook, and frankly these days just don't post there in general. But just to be extra sure that this person wouldn't dox my workplace, stalk me at some event I went to or even just twist something I said on there and use it against me? Yeah, nah. I'm not going to open digital doors to someone who refuses to talk to me in real life

Obviously..... this reason doesn't exist on this forum. I would suspect that the vast, vast majority of people on here are largely if not mostly anonymous. And even the people who aren't I doubt anyone cares who you are. And, going to the way you can circumvent a block, the block here does nothing to resolve this problem anyways. If someone wants to stalk your [checks name of site] opinions on Switch 2... they can

2. This person should be banned
This one has.... a very small amount of merit in the context of this forum. When I used to regularly use twitter I used to use the ban/report on there in this way. Mostly because on a site that large moderation was slow and the entire place was just a toxic wasteland. So sometimes you just had to use the block, so you could have some peace. Because, again, the mods were slow and the bar to be banned was fairly high

I do believe some people are using the ban here for these reasons. The person who I suspect most people are talking about would probably argue that talking about Metroid is a reason to banned. Some people's bars are very low indeed. But I think the lock of this thread earlier on demonstrates clearly that the mods here are active and the bar is low enough. If someone here started spam replying with pornography, scams and links to viruses. On other sites that would just be a Tuesday and well within the terms of service

3. De-escalation
I have never used a block for this reason on any site so I'm not particularly sold on it. But here, on this open forum, I think it's an even less valid reason. If there is an argument going on that I don't want to be a part of? I can ignore the user. If it's super toxic then a mod can lock the thread. What does a block add?

I'd argue a block is basically just you flipping the bird as you walk out the door. I'm sure it makes you feel good doing it but really all it does is agitate the user you just blocked in a way that an ignore doesn't. And people know they've been blocked, everyone in this thread is talking about people they know who have blocked them. The OP started this thread because they noticed someone blocked them. This thread existing at all is proof that it fails comprehensively at being a tool for de-escalation

It's a bit like the feature Reddit added a while ago where you can report a user for being "at risk of self harm". I'm sure the people sitting around the boardroom who decided that feature was reasonable had good arguments for it. And they had a vision in their head about how this feature would be used. But people are.... people.... that's not how the feature is used. The number of times I was sent that message while I was on there trying to argue in support of last years' referendum? I can tell you now it didn't help make that site a more "friendly and inclusive" place. It's one of the many reasons I stopped using Reddit entirely

...is there a block system that isn't "ignore" that I'm missing? If not, saying the word "ignore" by not using the button that literally says "ignore" is very confusing.

Also if not, using the ignore button is for me and me alone. If someone's being obnoxious, at some point I don't want to see what they have to say and get myself to waste my time on them. Same reason why I tend to limit my Twitter use. Though ironically I've not used it the couple of times someone's outright mocked my identity in some way, probably because the first time it happened they got so thoroughly dunked on for it that it was hilarious. (though I do try to actively ignore the comments in certain articles every June, if you get me)

@kkslider5552000 There is ignore and block, 2 different implemented functions on this website. If Alice ignores Bob, Alice doesn't see Bob's posts. ignore is pretty non-controversial. If Alice blocks Bob, Bob can no longer see Alice's posts. So blocking is more invasive than ignoring because you are literally changing what a different person can see.

@kkslider5552000
I haven't seen how it works because I've never used it. But from what I've read on other threads discussing this once you ignore users you can go into your profile and choose to block them. So it's a little bit hidden and requires some additional effort to do. It's not something you'd accidentally do

But yeah, I think it's fairly obvious I'm not at all convinced of its value. I think at the very least if it must exist for the purposes of like a "partial-ban" type thing, which is all this does of value IMO, I think it should be on a timer. Or require mod approval. Or be limited to a certain number of users. Or be restricted in some way more than it currently is

If a user is ticking you off to the point where you want to have the power to cut them from seeing your posts entirely? That power should be very limited. Because as it stands there are some users who are abusing this power to the point where they're basically cutting themselves off from pretty much all of the regular users on this site. I don't think that was the intent of this feature and if it was the intent I think the intent was wrong

Regular users should not have the power of mods

this conversation has given me a lot to think about! I don't have much to add at this time but I really appreciate y'all for your input, and I do feel less alone in my shame, having been blocked 😅 some of my favorite lifers came here to chime in and that has helped me process things and get some perspective. thanks! ✌️