Seriously what's that idea?
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I'd call what you're describing "muting" rather than blocking.
I used to agree with you, but then I spoke with some people from persecuted minorities, and this style of blocking just gives power to their abusers rather than keeping their communities and themselves safe.
Yes they can get a new account, but it's another hurdle, and if we erect enough hurdles then it'll catch enough of them. Defense in depth.
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Blocking means you can't see them. It makes them non existent to you. It doesn't hide you from them. It's working as intended.
I'd call that "muting" rather than blocking.
And it leaves vulnerable communities open to abuse, because they're unable to police their communities and kick out harassers.
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I want to stop them from engaging with me. I don't want to let them keep engaging with me without my ability to see what they're saying.
Edit:
Give persecuted minorities a way to protect themselves.
This comes from discussions I've had with minorities about the harassment they face on Lemmy and mastodon, and the currentblockmute feature is more harmful than helpful.If you're using "block" to curate your content, then it works great. If you're trying to prevent harassment, then it's counterproductive
wrote last edited by [email protected]If you care what they are saying, you shouldn't block them. If you don't care, you shouldn't care they are commenting on you.
I don't want other people being able to hide criticism of their posts/comments they don't like from me. Allowing you to completely block engagement with your posts would just strengthen echo chambers and bolster misinformation IMO.
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What you are asking for is closer to something like being able to personally ban another user from all your own content.
This would be more like if you made all your comments and posts in your own personal community, and then banned a user from it.
This, your suggested paradigm, can also be entirely defeated by someone just... making another account.
Or even: Logging out, and viewing as a guest.
Closer to message board styled systems are not twitter, are not instagram.
If you wanna try to develop something like a 'private profile' mode for lemmy, where you would have to grant access to every individual user you wanted to be able to see your posts and comments, good luck, go for it, code's open source, best I can tell, all dev work on it is unpaid, volunteers.
I am reasonably confident this is basically impossible given how lemmy is architected, but hey, maybe I'm wrong.
I used to agree with you until I actually spoke with people from communities that get regularly harassed.
Muting is great if all you want to do is hide content you don't like. But if you need to defend yourself against a campaign of harassment, this only gives power to the harassers.
Yes all the have to do is make a new account, but it's another hurdle they have to cross. Better than no hurdle and also blindfolding yourself
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But its developed by Tankies who wish you and others immediate harm, so definitely a risky longterm strat.
A point worth considering
but i'll still try to coexist x now. -
They shouldn't be able to do that!
How is it not fair? You get to decide what you can see and say. You don't get to decide what I can see and say.
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Imagine a hypothetical situation where I have beef with you. I create a second account and block you. I use this account to scout your posts, then using that other account, I go to all of the posts you're commenting on, and post comments calling you out for being... I don't know, whatever nasty thing I want to call you out for. Because that account has blocked you, you can't see those posts (and presumably not the replies to them, either), and can't defend yourself.
What problem have we solved?
The problem you've solved is that they're not harassing you in your spaces, and your communities.
If they wanna cry about me in their basement with their own friends, that's ok. But I want to put hurdles, at least some inconveniences, between myself and their ability to harass me in my communities. Force them to manage 30 accounts, etc. -
I want to stop them from engaging with me. I don't want to let them keep engaging with me without my ability to see what they're saying.
Edit:
Give persecuted minorities a way to protect themselves.
This comes from discussions I've had with minorities about the harassment they face on Lemmy and mastodon, and the currentblockmute feature is more harmful than helpful.If you're using "block" to curate your content, then it works great. If you're trying to prevent harassment, then it's counterproductive
Engagement is a two-way street. By blocking them you have stopped engaging with them.
The fact that you're upset by what other people are doing somewhere that you can't see and that doesn't affect you seems like a you problem, frankly. Just forget about them.
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My only gripe is that the blocked comment’s replies are also not visible. I want to see what everyone else is saying, even if they’re replying to a blocked user. I just don’t care what the blocked user says.
Maybe you don't need a block function to accomplish that, then. Seems you could accomplish it by just not caring about what the user says.
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If you care what they are saying, you shouldn't block them. If you don't care, you shouldn't care they are commenting on you.
I don't want other people being able to hide criticism of their posts/comments they don't like from me. Allowing you to completely block engagement with your posts would just strengthen echo chambers and bolster misinformation IMO.
What I'm saying also protects vulnerable communities at least a little, and what you're saying leaves them vulnerable.
If they're able to comment on my content I'm my communities, then I need to be able to see if they're spreading misinformation about me to my friends and acquaintances. Rather than just blind myself to that, I'd rather put barriers between my content and their ability to do that.
Imo protecting people from harassment is more important than protecting my ability to combat misinformation on some strangers' posts.
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If I block them, I want to stop them from engaging with me.
I don't want to let them continue to engage with me and other people in my comments, but just lose my ability to see what they're saying about me.
That's like saying the purpose of a locked door isn't to keep people out, it's to prevent you from seeing what they're doing in your house
The engagement between the two of you is over. He's saying stuff to other people now, not to you.
I don't want to let them continue to engage with me and other people in my comments, but just lose my ability to see what they're saying about me.
You want to control what they see and do? No, you don't get to decide that for other people.
If you don't want to lose your ability to see what they're saying then don't block them.
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This isn't about me, this is about what people from persecuted minorities have told me they need, when I bought this exact argument to them.
I used to say what you're saying them they described to be the harassment that they face
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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/
Afaik, the blocking feature is still in the same state as in 2022, which makes modern reddit a heaven for spreading misinformation.
My main experience with blocking is when people use it to "get the last word" in an argument. They'll write up a response - often containing questions and challenges to my position - and then immediately block me after posting it so that it will look like I gave up in the face of their arguments.
I usually just edit my previous comment with whatever responses seem necessary, playing an Uno Reverse on them since they'll be the ones who never see it.
It's still rather annoying, though, because if other people also respond Reddit's brain-dead implementation prevents me from responding to other people who have responded to someone who blocked me.
I am glad that the Fediverse has a much more sane approach to blocking that doesn't let it be weaponized like that.
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What I'm saying also protects vulnerable communities at least a little, and what you're saying leaves them vulnerable.
If they're able to comment on my content I'm my communities, then I need to be able to see if they're spreading misinformation about me to my friends and acquaintances. Rather than just blind myself to that, I'd rather put barriers between my content and their ability to do that.
Imo protecting people from harassment is more important than protecting my ability to combat misinformation on some strangers' posts.
wrote last edited by [email protected]Then go to a private platform. This is a platform for public discourse, not private communities.
PS: You could even make a community on lemmy and ban people as it's moderator. Although a different platform may still be a better fit.
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What I'm saying also protects vulnerable communities at least a little, and what you're saying leaves them vulnerable.
If they're able to comment on my content I'm my communities, then I need to be able to see if they're spreading misinformation about me to my friends and acquaintances. Rather than just blind myself to that, I'd rather put barriers between my content and their ability to do that.
Imo protecting people from harassment is more important than protecting my ability to combat misinformation on some strangers' posts.
You might be better served using the "report" button if you are indeed dealing with harassment. That would be the appropriate tool for such things.
But I am going to go out on a limb and guess that you want to be able to just unilaterally punish anyone you don't like.
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That's not how harassment works.
I think you know that, too.Consider it a restraining order.
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Then go to a private platform. This is a platform for public discourse, not private communities.
PS: You could even make a community on lemmy and ban people as it's moderator. Although a different platform may still be a better fit.
Yeah, fuck those minorities, amirite? They don't deserve to use Lemmy anyways\
- you, a couple min ago
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I used to agree with you until I actually spoke with people from communities that get regularly harassed.
Muting is great if all you want to do is hide content you don't like. But if you need to defend yourself against a campaign of harassment, this only gives power to the harassers.
Yes all the have to do is make a new account, but it's another hurdle they have to cross. Better than no hurdle and also blindfolding yourself
I used to agree with you until I actually spoke with people from communities that get regularly harassed.
Oh great, this again.
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It also makes Lemmy objectively less safe because it's much less effective at limiting stalking and harassment. Especially since way blocks work on Lemmy isn't clearly communicated to the user.
If you block someone you will never see their harassment.
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This isn't about me, this is about what people from persecuted minorities have told me they need, when I bought this exact argument to them.
I used to say what you're saying them they described to be the harassment that they face
In that case substitute "they" for "you" in my comment. The meaning remains the same, as does my position.
