Fediverse

Haven't felt the need to block anyone but it's nice to have the functionality

I don't block unless it's excessive spam. Informational disadvantage, yadda yadda.

I just exercise the same muscle I use to restrain myself from responding to bait on modern day Reddit, since my account there is still active but not posting (yes, even lurking is technically contribution, but there's too much useful information there for me to justify completely cutting it out).

And for the record, I disagree with block features removing posts from the user on the other end. Public information -> only I get to decide what I do and don't see. Private information -> only I get to decide what I do and don't share. A bit idealistic, but we're talking about a web forum here.

People over use blocking like crazy.

I constantly see people blocking others just for making a point they disagree with. Rather than actually think through the logic and reasoning of what the other person is saying they go 'oh I have no counter point to that, that must mean that you're arguing in bad faith, blocked'.

The internet is already an inherent filter bubble, you don't need to accelerate that. Most people would benefit from spending more time deeply considering that they might be wrong in ways they can't fully comprehend, then they would blocking people who fervently disagree with them.

Cool, block me too

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Blocking is great. I truly wish more people would block. We would be able to all have a more enjoyable experience.

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!

People who I notice just dont get jokes and are in 20 different meme communities being all serious? Blocked.

Been doing this with a warning system. I tag shitty people and block them if I see a person who is tagged acting shitty.

2 years in, no regrets.

I do wish Lemmy would fix the blocking system though. If someone who I've blocked responds to me, I don't see it. Fair enough, but I also don't see what people who respond to that say. I feel like it should just show the username as [blocked] and the content as [hidden] with an option for me to show that content/username, while keeping the rest of the child content fully visible.

What are your blocking habits?

I made it through nearly two years and eventually caved after I made the mistake of arguing in favor of the truth, supported by video evidence and a fact check from an internationally recognized fact-checking organization only to be told to "fuck off", a second user said that they enjoyed pissing on my shoe(s) in their personal fight against truth, and some other catastrophically braindead takes. I generally don't like the blocking approach for opinions I don't agree with because everyone has differing views and also people have bad days and that's just life. However, being actively hostile to the truth and being extremely confrontational about it was a bridge too far for me and it was either blocking a few mouldy potatoes in an attempt to keep things tolerable or getting off the threadi/fediverse so I decided to give the former a whirl.

If you do block a lot of people, has that affected your experience?

Thankfully haven't felt the need to block many, so the only thing I've really noticed is that occasionally one of the blocked users comments in the thread for something I've submitted (which I don't get a notification for and can't see) - but then someone unrelated replies to them and then I get a notification for a comment chain which I can't actually load. It took me a while to even figure out why I was getting these "ghost" notifications.

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 have similar blocking habits. People who will not be enriching my life tend to announce themselves with brain-dead comments, hostility, or starting arguments just for the sake of arguing. I don't hesitate to block people like that.

I just tag the worst assholes and then simply not engage next time.

I have been working in IT for too long. First thought upon reading the title was you were obstructing someone’s work.

I have blocked hundreds of communities to sanitise my ‘all’ feed, and a few foreign language instances. But only a handful of obnoxious users. The users I’m inclined to block often end up banned anyway

I'm more on mastodon and their filter system is so nice

I made a filter for "idiot did a thing" and every time the news has another article about how some idiot whose name is on my list did something again, as they do, because that's all they've been doing for 20 years, I no longer have to read it.

But I still get the little "something was blocked, click here to read it" thing, so it's very satisfying.

I don't block often, but I would expect it's a similar upgrade.