I get it. There's some real jerks around here. Whether they're constantly argumentative, downright rude, always acting in bad faith, just plain trolls, overly opinionated on every subject, have the social skills of a Nausicaan, or whatever - the Fediverse is growing, and it's bound to attract toxicity in one way or another.

This post is mostly a PSA for anyone who's feeling like leaving because they're tired of dealing with things like that. I've been there several times myself, I know exactly how you feel, and I'm tired of seeing good people harassed off the platform.

Just remember that blocking is a very powerful way to stay in control of your experience. Be it a set of users, me specifically, a list of keywords, a whole community, or an entire instance: if it's causing you nothing but stress, hit that block button and see if that improves your experience here. Unlike the alien site, there is no limit to the number of entities you can block; you're in control.

Another thing to keep in mind is different instances have different vibes, and the experience can totally differ depending on the instance's moderation and federation policy.

In conclusion, your experience here can be what you make of it; don't be afraid to just block the parts that stress you out. You're not "creating an echo chamber" as everyone likes to say (often in bad faith) -- you're just taking care of yourself.

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[–] haverholm@kbin.earth 25 points 6 days ago (5 children)

I'd add "report" to that advice. If somebody is outright being jerks, that is probably against your instance's rules — and if it isn't, there are plenty others to choose from.

Blocking helps you, but reporting people (or instances) that are just here to troll will help others.

[–] fxomt@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 6 days ago

I read all reports on my instance (i get reports on our users and from our users, too; so i see quite a lot) rest assured, all your reports actually do something.

[–] ptz@dubvee.org 15 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

True. If it's report-worthy, absolutely. But there are certainly accounts that aren't violating any rules but can still be a source of stress. Those are often the "rules lawyer" type who knows exactly how to stay right on the line without crossing it.

Counterpoint is that if that person is finally banned, they're 9 times out of 10 just going to spin up a new alt and start back up with the same shtick. If everyone just blocks them, they're just shouting into the wind wondering why no one's taking their bait. I dislike how Reddit had "shadow bans", but I can see how they would be effective when used surgically.

[–] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 8 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Temp bans (a couple of days), work too. If they're actually trolling, they usually won't come back. Then just temp ban the next alt if they do, repeat.

[–] ptz@dubvee.org 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Good to know, and yeah, kind of matches what I've observed. I tend to permaban outright trolls, but yeah, they usually spin up a new account and never come back to that, so it's probably overkill. I guess I just don't like leaving the door open for them to come back...just in case lol.

[–] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 4 points 6 days ago

For me, I temp ban because it makes it more easy to do. I don't wrestle with whether or not I'm doing the right thing. Instead, I know it's only temp so no one was harmed if I make a mistake. It's more for me to take out the trolls early on.

[–] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 9 points 6 days ago

I agree with this 100%. The mods can't get rid of the bad guys if they don't know about them. There are very few mods for relatively big communities, help them out if you see something going bad. They might not agree with you, but it's still good practice if people aren't following the rules.

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 5 points 6 days ago

Agreed. I report bad behavior where I see it. I've only blocked one person, becausen they took a downvote as a personal attack and started DMing me.

[–] donuts@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago

You're very right. Blocking when they are being an asshole is just putting your head in the sand. It might feel petty but remember that others are probably also impacted by their shitty behaviour.