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Why doesn't blocking work? (kbin.social)

submitted 1 year ago by danhakimi@kbin.social to c/kbinMeta@kbin.social

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I had to block a few users yesterday. Today, I noticed about ten notifications from users I've blocked—they replied to me, continued to make up lies about my heritage, and I continued to see their comments in my notifications.

It seems that the only effect of my blocking them is that I can no longer see their comments in context—although I am still notified of their harassment. This is quite the opposite effect from the one I was going for—I mean, I'm happy to spend less time engaging with them, but the block feature seems to be guaranteeing these bigots the "last word" and preventing me from even reporting them. They can then follow me anywhere on kbin and continue to harass me, the block function is only stopping me from doing anything about it.

At least one of these users is on the same instance as I am, kbin.social.

Why doesn't blocking work?

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[–] danhakimi@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

Blocking is not a moderator-level function, it is quite personal. You're welcome to continue chatting in the community, just don't reply to me with any more of your hate speech. I don't want it anywhere in my comment thread, I don't have to put up with that shit. Hiding it from me is not a block feature at all, it's a mute feature. I don't want to mute them, I don't want to close my eyes, and pretend I can't see their hate. I want to stop them from pretending to interact with me, I want them to stop posting bigotry in response to my comments, I want them to go the fuck away.

If they invade some other comment thread, there is no risk that anybody will think, "oh, he just couldn't come up with a reply to that last bit of bigotry, I guess the bigot won!" If they annoy others, they'll get downvoted, or the mods will act, whatever—not my business, I'm not looking for a moderation function, I'm looking for a personal function.

I'm not worried about the last word anywhere in the comment section, I'm worried about the last word in my comment thread, where they're directly harassing me. If they have something worth saying, if they have a narrative worth continuing, it'll be worth continuing in some other thread, rather than in direct response to me.

And if every user in the community blocks them, they earned it.

This is not moderation. It's personal.