Probably, I think it's an option that people should have available. It can be tricky on sites of this style though, because you can't always cleanly separate the blocked user's content from other...
Probably, I think it's an option that people should have available. It can be tricky on sites of this style though, because you can't always cleanly separate the blocked user's content from other users'.
For example, say that you block a user. You probably want that to mean that you don't see any of the user's comments, but what about the replies back to their comments? It's weird to show people replying to a comment that you can't see, but it can also be weird to hide (potentially large) discussions just because someone you have blocked was involved in them. I don't know that there's really a "correct" solution for situations like that, they all have strange aspects.
Something that might work: a comment from a blocked user could appear behind something a bit like a spoiler tag. You could see it's there, and you could see the conversation around it, but you...
Something that might work: a comment from a blocked user could appear behind something a bit like a spoiler tag. You could see it's there, and you could see the conversation around it, but you would specifically have to take an action to be able to read the blocked comment.
Edit: and maybe child comments of a blocked comment could be optionally collapsed by default.
That's definitely a possibility, but again, hard to be certain. In my experience, "soft" blocks like that aren't very effective. In some ways they actually end up drawing more of your attention to...
That's definitely a possibility, but again, hard to be certain.
In my experience, "soft" blocks like that aren't very effective. In some ways they actually end up drawing more of your attention to posts by blocked users by giving them special treatment and making them stand out. People are also generally terrible at resisting the temptation of things like "you've blocked this user, but you can click to view their comment anyway", and will end up revealing a lot of them out of curiosity, which effectively ruins the block.
Like I said though, I don't know if a truly good solution exists, I think they'll all have pros and cons.
Maybe there's not even a need to hide or block comments in Tildes groups. Maybe blocking/muting could be for direct messages, comment reply notifications, & username mentions only? That'd...
Maybe there's not even a need to hide or block comments in Tildes groups. Maybe blocking/muting could be for direct messages, comment reply notifications, & username mentions only?
That'd eliminate a lot of abuse methods (not that such people should be on the site in the first place), while also retaining the desired traits of not making blocked users' comments stand out.
Problem is, sometimes blocking isn't to prevent abuse, sometimes it's just a certain user who isn't technically violating any rules but you just don't want to deal with them.
Problem is, sometimes blocking isn't to prevent abuse, sometimes it's just a certain user who isn't technically violating any rules but you just don't want to deal with them.
This is my experience. I used to frequent a toxic place and blocked a lot of users. But i could see their posts if i clicked on a button or if somebidy quoted them. It's worse because this makes...
This is my experience. I used to frequent a toxic place and blocked a lot of users. But i could see their posts if i clicked on a button or if somebidy quoted them. It's worse because this makes you curious and the effect of the toxic things they are saying feels worse.
Yes, with the "small text" (not sure what to call the text that lies in the comment header bar, which serves to display the first snippet of the comment when collapsed now) reading "This comment...
Yes, with the "small text" (not sure what to call the text that lies in the comment header bar, which serves to display the first snippet of the comment when collapsed now) reading "This comment is from a user you have Blocked." Very convenient, and if you want to see it, you just expand it.
Another concern I have with muting users is that they could respond to you, and you'd never know. If somebody were spreading misinformation about you directly under your comments, you'd have no...
Another concern I have with muting users is that they could respond to you, and you'd never know. If somebody were spreading misinformation about you directly under your comments, you'd have no chance to defend yourself or clear the air.
The stronger version of the block would be to prevent them from replying to you at all. But I'm sure that also opens up opportunities for abuse (troll somebody, then block them so they can't reply).
Hubski does this on multiple levels. It never hides the comments/posts: you can still see them, in all cases. When you hush someone, their comments are filtered down on every post (and comment?...
Hubski does this on multiple levels. It never hides the comments/posts: you can still see them, in all cases.
When you hush someone, their comments are filtered down on every post (and comment? sounds like it, but haven't tested). When you filter someone, the same happens to their posts.
When you mute someone, they're unable to reply to your comments or comment on your posts.
When you block someone, it's all of the above – hush, filter, mute – plus you're unable to PM each other.
If you mark clearly which comments are from the muted/blocked users, you give the opportunity to make a clearer choice: whether to engage or not engage.
I personally don't think it's a good idea. This site wants to promote discussions and opposing opinions. Even if somebody is a kind of an asshole you can't deal with reading their comments (as...
I personally don't think it's a good idea. This site wants to promote discussions and opposing opinions. Even if somebody is a kind of an asshole you can't deal with reading their comments (as long as there are no insults) ?
If it's an obvious troll or racist, then the moderation can take care of it for everybody. But choosing to build your own little "safe" space where you only see what you want can keep you from growing.
I know it's a feature intended to be optional, but as soon as you make it available, the social dynamics within the site can shift. It can become like reddit where there's kind of only one way you're allowed to think.
Life outside is full of conflicts and it's messy at times. We accept and learn to live with that fact there, why can't we do it here ?
Sorry if there's any misspellings: the keyboard I'm writing on is malfunctioning. Whatever it will end up being, I hope it will include options. So the default behavior would be 'don't show...
Sorry if there's any misspellings: the keyboard I'm writing on is malfunctioning.
Whatever it will end up being, I hope it will include options. So the default behavior would be 'don't show anything from this user', but you could say 'I want to see this guy's comments but not his PMs' and 'Just minimize this guy's comments (still show me his PMs), since he's just boring, but THAT guy, he's a douchebag, so hide his PMs and don't even give me the option to see his comments'. In general I think, the more options, the merrier. Of course, there should be some default modes for those who won't bother, but I certainly would.
As for how to show blocked comments, I think it could look just like a regular comment, but by @blocked_user and it would show "You blocked comments from this user". If you want to include the "Show comment" button, it would be there instead of the Vote Label Bookmark Reply buttons. It's not eye-catching, but you wouldn't mistake it for anything else.
I might even like the ability to block someone for a time period, say a day or a week. It would be nice to be able to say "I've had enough of this person today, but I don't want to miss what they...
I might even like the ability to block someone for a time period, say a day or a week. It would be nice to be able to say "I've had enough of this person today, but I don't want to miss what they might say later."
I suggest making these bans temporary (maybe 6 months at most). That way you don't end up with a fragmented community. Also, if you notice a user is blocked by too many people, you could always...
I suggest making these bans temporary (maybe 6 months at most). That way you don't end up with a fragmented community.
Also, if you notice a user is blocked by too many people, you could always ban them.
Probably, I think it's an option that people should have available. It can be tricky on sites of this style though, because you can't always cleanly separate the blocked user's content from other users'.
For example, say that you block a user. You probably want that to mean that you don't see any of the user's comments, but what about the replies back to their comments? It's weird to show people replying to a comment that you can't see, but it can also be weird to hide (potentially large) discussions just because someone you have blocked was involved in them. I don't know that there's really a "correct" solution for situations like that, they all have strange aspects.
Something that might work: a comment from a blocked user could appear behind something a bit like a spoiler tag. You could see it's there, and you could see the conversation around it, but you would specifically have to take an action to be able to read the blocked comment.
Edit: and maybe child comments of a blocked comment could be optionally collapsed by default.
That's definitely a possibility, but again, hard to be certain.
In my experience, "soft" blocks like that aren't very effective. In some ways they actually end up drawing more of your attention to posts by blocked users by giving them special treatment and making them stand out. People are also generally terrible at resisting the temptation of things like "you've blocked this user, but you can click to view their comment anyway", and will end up revealing a lot of them out of curiosity, which effectively ruins the block.
Like I said though, I don't know if a truly good solution exists, I think they'll all have pros and cons.
Maybe there's not even a need to hide or block comments in Tildes groups. Maybe blocking/muting could be for direct messages, comment reply notifications, & username mentions only?
That'd eliminate a lot of abuse methods (not that such people should be on the site in the first place), while also retaining the desired traits of not making blocked users' comments stand out.
Problem is, sometimes blocking isn't to prevent abuse, sometimes it's just a certain user who isn't technically violating any rules but you just don't want to deal with them.
This is my experience. I used to frequent a toxic place and blocked a lot of users. But i could see their posts if i clicked on a button or if somebidy quoted them. It's worse because this makes you curious and the effect of the toxic things they are saying feels worse.
Maybe having the blocked persons comments automatically minimised, like for the noise tag?
Yes, with the "small text" (not sure what to call the text that lies in the comment header bar, which serves to display the first snippet of the comment when collapsed now) reading "This comment is from a user you have Blocked." Very convenient, and if you want to see it, you just expand it.
Another concern I have with muting users is that they could respond to you, and you'd never know. If somebody were spreading misinformation about you directly under your comments, you'd have no chance to defend yourself or clear the air.
The stronger version of the block would be to prevent them from replying to you at all. But I'm sure that also opens up opportunities for abuse (troll somebody, then block them so they can't reply).
It's a tough one.
Sadly, I think this is necessary to prevent abuse, I have had to block people on Reddit before.
Hubski does this on multiple levels. It never hides the comments/posts: you can still see them, in all cases.
When you hush someone, their comments are filtered down on every post (and comment? sounds like it, but haven't tested). When you filter someone, the same happens to their posts.
When you mute someone, they're unable to reply to your comments or comment on your posts.
When you block someone, it's all of the above – hush, filter, mute – plus you're unable to PM each other.
If you mark clearly which comments are from the muted/blocked users, you give the opportunity to make a clearer choice: whether to engage or not engage.
I personally don't think it's a good idea. This site wants to promote discussions and opposing opinions. Even if somebody is a kind of an asshole you can't deal with reading their comments (as long as there are no insults) ?
If it's an obvious troll or racist, then the moderation can take care of it for everybody. But choosing to build your own little "safe" space where you only see what you want can keep you from growing.
I know it's a feature intended to be optional, but as soon as you make it available, the social dynamics within the site can shift. It can become like reddit where there's kind of only one way you're allowed to think.
Life outside is full of conflicts and it's messy at times. We accept and learn to live with that fact there, why can't we do it here ?
Other possible definitions of blocked:
Sorry if there's any misspellings: the keyboard I'm writing on is malfunctioning.
Whatever it will end up being, I hope it will include options. So the default behavior would be 'don't show anything from this user', but you could say 'I want to see this guy's comments but not his PMs' and 'Just minimize this guy's comments (still show me his PMs), since he's just boring, but THAT guy, he's a douchebag, so hide his PMs and don't even give me the option to see his comments'. In general I think, the more options, the merrier. Of course, there should be some default modes for those who won't bother, but I certainly would.
As for how to show blocked comments, I think it could look just like a regular comment, but by @blocked_user and it would show "You blocked comments from this user". If you want to include the "Show comment" button, it would be there instead of the Vote Label Bookmark Reply buttons. It's not eye-catching, but you wouldn't mistake it for anything else.
I might even like the ability to block someone for a time period, say a day or a week. It would be nice to be able to say "I've had enough of this person today, but I don't want to miss what they might say later."
I suggest making these bans temporary (maybe 6 months at most). That way you don't end up with a fragmented community.
Also, if you notice a user is blocked by too many people, you could always ban them.