Is a blocking feature on the way?
It seems like blocking is the basic bit of functionality that is standing out the most for not existing on ~ at the moment, at least for those of us who have ran into a reason to want it. Is this something we can expect soon, if at all? I know just reporting things to @deimos works for now for things that are rule-breaking, but there are plenty of situations where you don't want to continue interacting with a person for reasons that may not even take place on this site (I'm sorry if the person this is in reference to sees this and recognizes me...I don't really have a way of avoiding that...hence this post), and there isn't really a way to take care of that.
Sorry, I know feature requests and suggestions are being piled in really fast, but at least for me and some users I know, this is pretty essential.
What would we want a block feature to look like? There are A LOT of different ways to handle blocking, and many have different issues.
I don't tend to use block features purely on the basis of the fact that it doesn't actually make an issue go away. I might not want to interact with a user anymore but I also want to be able to keep an eye on that user to minimise the damage or problems they cause. Particularly if they specifically target me and I can't see what they're doing or saying anymore, sometimes misrepresenting something entirely. On many sites the block feature becomes a goto get-out-of-jail card used by both the site and the userbase as a "if you don't like it just block them" response, as if that makes it all better, and it's not good enough. I would hate to see the block feature start to get treated by users in that way here.
The different ways the block feature could be implemented matter too. For example let's say person A blocks person B. What happens? Do all of person A's posts become invisible to person B? Or do all of person B's posts become invisible to person A? Or both? Or neither but instead the ability to interact with one another is simply removed, no more posts to either person by those two? Or combinations of the above? Or something different entirely?
Lots of ways to handle it. What do we think is optimal? Personally I like it when it renders the you invisible to the person you have blocked but does not render the person you have blocked invisible. This way you can still keep an eye on them. Perhaps I would like both an option to block user from seeing/interacting with me and an option to "hide" a user. Separating out the two things.
What do others prefer in a feature like this? We're in a position where we can actually talk about it before it has happened.
Hiding yourself vs hiding the other person are quite different but seem to be used interchangeably in block features around different services. I'd argue that both should exist as separate functions.
EDIT: I suppose the downside in being able to hide your own posts from another person is that this can be used by bad actors. You could block anyone that says something to call you out. A homophobe could participate by posting bad and fake science while blocking literally every possible person that might call them out articulately on their bad science, thus pushing the likelihood of their post or comment gaining traction up a few percentage points. Definitely a downside. But perhaps people have ideas on preventing that too.
Exactly. Especially if you're a moderator, but even if you're just a general user, it's good to be able to see and report problems.
Yep. I strongly dislike the fact that Reddit's reporting menu now includes an option to block the user whose post/comment you're reporting.
Well, there's probably gonna be archives of the site anyway, or if/when it opens up they could always just log out and look at the posts. In terms of keeping yourself invisible from the other person, blocking is always going to be a surface-level solution, but still one that I think should be available. Honestly, I don't have any more input on if the person should be able to see your stuff or not. It's not effective and there's possible ways to abuse it as you mentioned, but it still seems like a small layer of safety that should be there. It at least gives some way to deter people who you're uncomfortable having around but haven't been doing anything ban-worthy. That seems like something worth making small sacrifices for.
I'm mostly concerned with being able to get someone out of sight and unable from contacting me, though. I have a former friend who found their way on here who I blocked in many places and banned from communities I run. While I don't think they're terribly interested in making contact with me, I don't want to be running into them. Not having a way away from them is a problem. I'm personally not interested in monitoring their behavior, but I understand the value in that and it's a conversation worth having.
How does it work on Reddit? I'm just now realizing that I don't think I've ever blocked someone there while I usually use it quite liberally in other places, so I'm not super familiar with how it's implemented there. Sorry, I haven't actually thought about how blocking should work much, I just need it.
On reddit I think it just makes the other person invisible to you. You can no longer see their posts (or replies to their posts) but they can see and interact with yours, you just won't see the interaction.
If you block a user on Reddit, you will never see anything by that user ever again. In subreddits, you just won't see their posts. If they comment in a thread and someone else replies, you'll see a tag where the blocked user commented saying "blocked user" or something. And if they send you a PM, you'll never be notified of it.
Yeah, this is a pretty important feature just in terms of accessibility, so I think it should be given a bit of priority. Blocking users is no substitute for proper moderation (as twitter et. al. show,) but good moderation isn't a substitute for blocking either.
Maybe call the feature user filtering.
My disagreement with your amount of fear of "echo chambers" aside for now, things that one should get banned for and things that one should get blocked for are not one and the same.
Generally users don't get banned for things they do elsewhere in their lives unless they're somehow bringing that activity with them, but there's an endless list of things that someone can do outside of ~ that could make another user rightfully want nothing to do with them. I already know a user on ~ who has wronged me elsewhere in my life and who I should not be held to seeing and interacting with. Without getting into details, I'll say that it's something that, if brought here, would very much be ban-worthy. Of course, we can't go on witch hunts and ban people on accusations about things that didn't even occur on ~.
Why not give an option to deal with that? Back to "echo chambers," it's no more severe than having the option to unfollow a group. And frankly I can't see it as anything but laughable to limit features that increase the safety and usability of a website because some users could, if they really wanted to, block everyone who they disagree with and create an echo chamber for themselves. Like yes, a user could create an experience for themselves which may be sub-optimal in your eyes, but it's such a far off over-use of the feature that would, at the VERY worst, harm only that user...and we want to hold back entirely reasonable uses just for that? Someone has to either deal with seeing their abuser, for an extreme case, or leave the website...because someone might curate their content more than you want them to?
Further, though at this point off topic, I don't see a problem with blocking people you disagree with, even though I don't think it would run rampant. This is such a mature way to break off a conversation or disagreement that I wish it happened more! Hell, I should start doing it. A feature that lets you cut things off and say "You know what, this is over. I'm not going to sling shit or take the shit you're slinging." and have that be enforced should be the gold standard for internet communication. It's so weird to be against this. Like I'm supposed to disengage or stay away if a conversation can't happen or go on without it turning to shit, but the tools to do that are suddenly echo-chamber creators? It's so silly! "Block and move on" shouldn't be a replacement for moderation, but there are so many situations that moderation can't cover without having "nazi mods" that blocking and moving on solves quite well!
Plus if the goal is to avoid "echo chambers" for all users regardless of what they want, why do we have any options at all? Why can I unsubscribe from ~science? Why are we letting users create anti-science echo chambers? If we trust users so little to not create their own echo chambers, then ~ should be a curated list of content that you have no way of influencing.
It's such a ridiculous concern that can be used to get in the way of nearly any improvement to a website like this.
My main counter to that, if trying to have good conversations is the issue, would be that if someone is so uninterested or mad at you to block you, the conversation that would occur without it probably wasn't going to be the best. In ~ terms, it would probably be something that would fall out of the realm of civility and just get really toxic and maybe deleted.
Also I'm sorry if my last comment was too accusatory or dismissive. I do think it's a bit of a boogeyman that can justify really bad decisions and directions to take sites like this, but I understand that you're just concerned with the quality of the website going forward just like I am.
I don't think you'll stop echo chambers happening. Especially when the average description of the site is "High quality community site that believes sites are responsible for being full of assholes and will moderate strongly to prevent it" will appeal to a particular audience first and foremost.
The crowd that's going to appeal to is a very particular crowd of people and they will come here in droves. This will establish echo chambers and that won't be shifted easily at a later time.
I think that's ok too. It's not something you can stop so it's better to just embrace it and accept it. We can't attract all people equally in equal amounts, we never will be able to. Focus on what we're good at.