Blocking keeps my feed nice. See people being assholes? Block them. See a post discussing something I don’t want to hear about? Block them. See a community I don’t want to hear about? Block them. The greatest thing about social media is the ability to never have to interact with someone again at no detriment to them. Blocking is good.
This is a good way to end up with a feed of only people who agree with you. Sounds nice, right?
If I’d done this in my early years on the internet, I might still be a right-wing Christian. Years of not having any good arguments against the atheists I encountered on the internet made a difference.
Same with my political leanings.
Confronting ideas you don’t agree with is a part of life and silencing opposing opinions puts you in danger of getting stuck in ideas that might not make sense.
I block politics in general. If I want to discuss politics, I’ll do it with people in real life (or online with people I know in real life). I use social media mostly for entertainment and “why thing not work no more?” Kind of stuff.
I agree with your sentiment and I have definitely grown and my opinions have changed from the influence of people I have “met” online over the decades. However, none of the people who influenced me in positive ways were trolls, jerks, or snarky smart-asses. I really don’t think anything is lost if you block a lot of those type of people. I actually think something is gained. The amount of time and energy we are allotted to spend in this life are precious.
Default lemmy feed is almost entirely left-wing content. By blocking half of these people it’s still all left-wing content. As a Lemmy user I wouldn’t really proud myself for having a diversified feed even if I didn’t block anyone.
I recently asked for block recommendations to see more content that I can engage with and I had a reply from someone saying that if I was that upset with the internet, I should stop using it.
You can guess what happened next!
I have recommended at times being able to subscribe to a persons block list. Like being so impressed with someone that its like. Hey if they block it then I don’t want to see it. Especially given the spam. I would love all the power to block to be in the hands of individuals. Im generally against defederating or even moderators to some degree. It sometimes feels to me like the people who don’t like individuals blocking stuff get all onboard with it being blocked for people from higher ups.
That is an interesting thought. I do see a potential risk in basing your block list on someone else’s when they hold a position of power or influence, though.
If a popular person want to suppress engagement of a less popular person, they could add them to their block list, prompting their “block followers” to do the same. This could have a bad impact on Lemmy engagement if it was being (ab)used for such purposes.
I try to minimise the amount of individuals I block though. Most of them are bots and I would hate to miss a good post or comment by someone just because they made a bad one elsewhere. Your mileage may vary, of course.
I mean you should be able to unsubscribe the same way as you unblock. Would not be bad to have an override to so you could go through and unblock some stuff. Like if someone signed up for my blocklist they would have a bunch of sports stuff blocked because I have no interest in it.
I’m kinda weird about this - I will block some folks that I feel are toxic, but some folks I put tags on just to see where they pop up. Sometimes I’ve been too quick to judge people, and most times I definitely judged correctly. So I use tags to stage people for blocking, lol.
I wish Lemmy natively supported the tagging feature you mention but I’m otherwise pretty happy with the web interface. I generally keep app downloads to a minimum. Which app do you use, I hear people mention the tagging feature more and more lately.
I use Boost for Lemmy on Android
but some folks I put tags on just to see where they pop up.
So years ago on /buyitforlife, someone posted those super cheap work gloves that you’d legit got thru a pair before and after lunch. That’s why they never sold single pairs and you had to buy like a 10 pack.
Dude gets roasted in the comments, but I RES tagged him “ole softhands” and for years after I’d just randomly see the account somewhere and genuinely laugh out loud.
Ha yeah at one point I did this with shittymorph on Reddit because he kept fucking catching me off guard with his comments as well. I like giving people funny tags also.
I really like ole softhands, I may tag some folks with that in the future in your honor :)
It’s whatever floats your boat at the end of the day. I’ve seen people with unique usernames being super chill in one community, and then appear in another spouting off like they’re two steps away from annexing Poland in another. It’s wild.
I do my absolute best not to block people or communities though. I worry that my account will just end up as an echo chamber for whatever I’m interested in, and I’ll just end up disconnected from the Real World™️, as tempting as it sounds sometimes.
Sometimes seeing and hearing shit that wasn’t top of your agenda keeps you grounded - but it’s an entirely subjective view.
e: community clarity.
Agreed, I’m not out to create an echo chamber, but it’s also not difficult sometimes to see a lost cause just there to troll or spread hate or division. Those get the block hammer. I don’t mind disagreements if they are shared in good faith and are respectful. Those are few and far between, especially right now unfortunately.
I totally agree with you though.
What are you using for tagging?
I use Boost for Lemmy on Android
This sounds like me. I’m struggling to not go block crazy right now since America is fascist And a lot of people are suddenly even bigger know it alls with shitty takes
Why block them when you can just not argue with them?
Because they are wrong. And they need to be shown the error of their ways. You don’t get to 150wpm by being nice and casual on the internet, no sir.
And read those notifications?
Whilst that does create a more pleasant atmosphere, it also creates echo chambers and I believe that’s not a good thing.
I try to only block those who are explicitly being antagonistic, rather than just those whom I disagree with.
It would be great if Lemmy had a way to tag a user, so you could tag a borderline account, then decide after several interactions if they warranted blocking.
I also block several key words, rather than accounts.
I actively search for, report then block spam.
The Lemmy app I use (Thunder) let you label users, if that helps
Also voyager. Got implemented few days ago.
I need tags badly. I used them heavily on Reddit with the Reddit Enhancement Suite.
They helped me call out “great replacement” types more than once.
Tags definitely needed.
I don’t know why people want to have the same arguments with the same people, over and over again knowing it’ll never be productive.
For them social media is just a pvp arguing arena.
I don’t have the energy for that, if someone just doesn’t get something after 3-5 replies I stop replying, if it keeps happening elsewhere or they act like a dick, I just block them.
Why waste your time on something that you know is only going to fail and likely cause yourself aggravation?
Yeah, I know that I’m reasonably articulate.
If the audience isn’t picking up what I’m throwing down, I ain’t here for it.
So you don’t have an echo chamber. But I’m pretty sure you blocked me.
It’s a good tool and I encourage people to use it. Otherwise the asshole filter can start to take over. I’d honestly prefer someone to block me if I annoy them, rather than try to engage me in some snark-fest or pointless argument.
I also think it’s best just to block and move on if someone acts like a jerk. Don’t respond or tell them you are blocking them. Let them shout into the void.
One of the main things I look for is the person’s comment history. If they seldom post an original thought or comment and mostly reply just to be nasty and condescending towards other people, I will block them. They are basically using the people in forums as a bunch of paper targets to snipe at. Once you know to look for them, you can spot these type of commenters pretty quickly.
In highly controversial threads I will often spot new people to block that I did not even engage with.
I’ve only had two people say they would block me. In both cases it was me asking questions about their comment and them getting angry and not having or wanting to give an answer.
I only block when people get personal for no particular reason.
In highly controversial threads I will often spot new people to block that I did not even engage with.
Mod blocking people for making comments they don’t like on another sub vibes here lol
Same goes for downvotes - giving something a downvote is the equivalent of giving everything else an upvote.
So it’s more efficient on time?
Testing this hypothesis on your comment.
I wouldn’t call it my favorite, but I prefer browsing all by new, discovering endless interesting things, and blocking communities I don’t like, over being limited by a bubble of my subscriptions.
If I didn’t use the platform to also read the news and just talked about games or looked at memes, I might do the same. But I’m not going to block instances of “Trump” or “Vance” or “Musk” because knowing what those fuckwads are doing is kind of important.
Blocking assholes being assholes is one thing; blocking someone who isn’t being an asshole but simply disagrees with you is another.
Put it in the frame of real life. Are you going to totally cut off a family member or friend just because they said 1 minor thing you don’t agree with?
I’m struggling, I want to keep informed, but I have realized that seeing this stuff day in and day out while I’m trying to look for a job has really affected my overall mood and I’m afraid that is why I’m not getting callbacks.
I had one person who felt malicious replying weird stuff onto a lot of my posts. Blocked. But the only blocking I’ve ever thought twice about. I wonder if he still does that.
Otherwise I too block everyone and everything I don’t like, just vibe wise. I don’t need to have a great reason
yes. I decided pretty much that if someone tries to pick a fight and just comes at me with insults right out the gate, I just block and move on. no need to drag it out with jerks who don’t show even the bare minimum human respect.
Boost has a filter so if a post has a keyword, it just doesn’t exist. I can just say no, I don’t care to hear about Trump for a month or so, thanks. And not have to leave the politics sub.
Voyager has this too, and I’ve put it to great use recently.
Same, but I really wish it supported user tagging.
It literally got implemented few days ago. Just hasn’t rolled out to stores yet. You can get in on github. Personal score tracking on users is here as well but it only works for votes after turning it on.
That’s awesome. Do you know if there’s an ETA on these features being GA? I don’t know that I care enough to side load out from GitHub.
It supposedly takes a few days so it should be rather soon.
E: the update was 2 days ago
Sweet, thanks kind stranger!
Eternity as well
I agree with it as non sarcasm. Yeah years ago there was the bubble but there is loads of crap now. You have to filter and its up to the individual to do it for good reasons and not just feelings.
I just setup a bunch of keyword and domain filters that made my feed so much more peaceful. There are also a few terminally online/cringe users to block.
