There may be an age or generational explanation for this, but I especially notice this behavior on Reddit while not nearly as much here on Lemmy (though maybe that’s also a mater of implementation).
It seems many are so quick to assert overly-confident positions, but then hit-and-run with some smarmy remark at even the slightest challenge, then quickly block. Like, not even crazy stuff. Just basic, civil disagreements. I can pretty well predict when it will happen, and it always feels like such a petty ego-sparing fingers-in-ears denial thing to do, and to me if anything shows they were not very confident in their views being challenged.
I think I’ve only blocked a handful of people over a decade who were actively spamming, stalking, or spewing extremely hateful rhetoric and I just reported them simultaneously. You have to cross a pretty extreme and irrational line for me to do that.
The reason I ask is to see if I’m missing something; to better understand the mindset of those who do.
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Life is too short to deal with weirdos treating lemmy as their blog. Some are overzealous but you have to curate your own space on federated platforms
Agree with this. I don’t shout my opinion and then block, but I definitely block a lot of users who just have really intense views they want to share, and communities I have no interest in, and over the last couple years my curated space is a reasonable mix of memes, news, and not to extreme of views, and it’s nice.
I’m 31 now but I’ve always been pretty quick with a block button, i don’t mind people disagreeing with me, but some people are just overly aggressive and I find life’s better to just not care about them and block.
I also block trolls because you know don’t feed the trolls.
I have blocked more in the last year than I have in the last 20 combined. There are far, far too many people arguing to troll, arguing in bad faith, threatening, or insulting that will do everything they can to bait you, derail your argument, DM you with insults, etc.
It’s probably because I’ve become far more critical of anti-science, shitty politics, and shitty people, so I’m sure that’s part of the reason, but nonetheless I don’t have the time or patience anymore to waste on the pigeons knocking pieces over and shitting on the chessboard declaring victory, so I block them.
I also have been blocked outright when presenting any objectively factual rebuttal. Facts are often strictly disallowed in the narrative, particularly political and anti-science ones. People don’t want their flow of internet “likes” interrupted.
I’ve got better things to do than read a load of horseshit from bad-faith weirdos, so I block them. No point engaging with them and reading their opinions makes my day measurably worse.
I haven’t blocked anyone on this account, but it’s new.
On my last one, I think I blocked three users. I believe all were basically trying to flood a community so that it was unreadable (one, IIRC, was just posting the same large Simpsons or Futurama image repeatedly throughout a thread to try to stop people from talking).
I used to agree with you. Ever since I started just blocking anyone that was being annoying my experience on the web has been great.
I used to disagree with you, but i was new to Lemmy. Thanks for sharing
If you are talking about banning people in debate, Then you are not being fair. Any criticism can cause annoyance to some people, even if criticism have pleasant wording
I never said anything about a debate
Honestly, turning inwardly to my family has been great. Especially given the political climate and my general disappointment. Finding “your people” is quite pleasant. Tribalism is sort of ingrained into us at a primate level, I suppose.
Still, I guess I try to strike a balance when all possible because I know the traps of building one’s own silo and the consequences that can have.
Im not advocating for you to turn away anyone that disagrees with you, just those that are annoying about it.
As I get older I value my time more and more, every second spent reading or talking to some asshole online is a second I’ll never get back.
I don’t think I ever blocked anyone on reddit, but I’ve been pretty block happy on lemmy. Mostly because it’s a smaller community. With reddit, it was easy enough to unsubscribe from the big popular communities and focus on my niche interests and rigorously modded communities like askHistorians. That way I mostly saw stuff that was genuinely interesting to me. And if someone was annoying, they were just one voice among thousands.
Here on lemmy, there’s not enough activity to be overly selective, and I actually enjoy the casual vibe of asklemmy, showerthoughts and nostupidquestions. While I’d never visit their reddit counterparts, here the community is small and it feels more personal. But this also means that there’s the occasional poster who I’d rather just not have to see. So, to keep my time on lemmy enjoyable, I block them.
I don’t really think it’s a big deal, I don’t even think it’s a criticism of those posters. It’s really just that the content of their posts / comments are something that doesn’t add value to my experience. I’ve blocked well-intentioned, but obviously teenage, users because I’m not interested in their personal life questions (but they’re entitled to ask!); I blocked someone just for posting too many moth memes when I was getting sick of that fad.
I’m pretty sure I’ve never blocked anyone for disagreeing with me or my beliefs, but if someone seems like their trolling, or simply has such poor social communication skills that they are coming across that way, I’ll block them. I generally look at users history and check if I’m likely to miss anything in the future. But invariably, the type of user I consider blocking generally has a bunch of dumb, negative or uninteresting comments and posts.
I have done this a few times, for me it was just that I was writing a reply and 80% through I realized that I didn’t want to argue any more, so I blocked the guy after posting it, just so I wouldn’t get any more crap to deal with.
Views, positions have gotten more extreme and cemented at that. Probably due to algorithms of “traditional” social media, that focus on them to raise clicks. (This trend to extreme positions and freaking out on the slightest trigger is also noticeable in real life behaviour, imho.) I sometimes block folks because I know there will not be a frank exchange of views but pure hate, extremism.
Plus spammers.
If someone isn’t convinced by a reasonable explanation, they aren’t worth engaging with.
You find this out pretty quick when trying to interact in good faith on the internet.
People don’t like being forced to engage with belligerent reactionaries.
I block the moment I realize someone is a troll, or worse. No exception.
Like already mentioned, life is way too short to waste one more second of it with those people desire to be as harmful as they can be or with their constant need for attention and validation.
Edit: typos
I think there’s far fewer genuine trolls than people claim. Someone being an asshole because they had a bad day? Not a troll. Someone deliberately pretending to be something they’re not in order to rile up people for fun? Troll.
Most of the time, you’re blocking your brethren on their worst days. Which is your right, but don’t pretend that just cuz your brother is warty that they’re a troll.
I think there’s far fewer genuine trolls than people claim
Most of the time, you’re blocking
Based on what data?
Is it on my list of blocked persons that I don’t think I have shared with anyone? Or on your overall knowledge of humanity in general, or maybe on the careful study of the average user of the Fediverse? Or have we discussed my decision process and how I decide to block a troll or a nuisance? Or is it, I think it is more likely that, based on the fact that I may have used words or expressions in a manner that does not please you, or that may even be incorrect?
For that last possibility, even not knowing where I may have been wrong, I’m pretty confident I can already apologize as I’m not a native English speaker and constantly do mistakes. I would also appreciate if you could tell me what sentences are concerned, so I can learn from my mistakes.
If that is the case, would you feel better if I used the word morons or assholes, instead? Or do you think I should always make a complete sentence? Because to me at least, it’s simpler to use a single word to describe a type of behavior, and even more efficient to use a word everyone should be able to instantly vaguely understand, instead of using a full sentence. I’d rather write ‘I block trolls’ than write‘After checking their behavior, post history, proportion of helpful/contributing content versus not so positive content, frequency of each, their choice of vocabulary and the way they deal with contradiction, I will block those persons that I qualify as trolls but are more exactly excessively obsessed with constantly arguing, proving other wrong (and proving themselves right), creating fuss and drama and triggering emotional reactions when it’s not needed’.
(which, btw, may give you an insight on what criteria I use to decide who is a troll and who is not)
Back to the point.
Someone being an asshole because they had a bad day? Not a troll. Someone deliberately pretending to be something they’re not in order to rile up people for fun? Troll.
How can you tell who they are and are not? I certainly can’t.
So, that’s just your opinion. What’s interesting is to realize that this could also be my own opinion (we all have our bad days, hard to disagree with that) but in any case this would still just an opinion. Not knowledge.
Your opinion is absolutely fine, obviously, but it’s just that: your opinion, aka a gut feeling. So, I hope you won’t get mad at me if I tell you that your gut feeling that I’m being wrong is unlikely to convince me that indeed I am wrong, and should start revising my decision process.
What I don’t consider ‘just an opinion’ is how I feel when I’m confronted to people that constantly/regularly/too often feel it’s ok to share their bad days with the world, or think it’s ok that they want to have some fun (at least, what they think is funny, not sure they would be as ‘open’ to allow what they themselves would consider offensive) by triggering reactions from their reader… A reader which happens to also be me.
but don’t pretend that just cuz your brother is warty that they’re a troll.
If I get this right, when I say I decide to block anyone I don’t wish to read anymore, calling them a troll I’m pretending something about them and I do it wrongfully because I don’t really know them?
(That may surprise you but I would agree if I was doing that, which I am not. Because how could I know them? I’m not even sure I know myself after 50+ years trying. But I also thought I made it clear the only thing I was saying is that I did not want to be pestered by them anymore, that it was my choice to block and ignore them not a call to blame them. Like… Don’t you have a door to your home, a door with a lock? I sure do. What is it for if not to prevent anyone from entering uninvited? It happens I select very carefully the few people I invite to our place IRL as well as online.)
But then, you telling me that I’m wrong, based on even less evidence than me calling them trolls since 1) you don’t know the persons I blocked and 2) you don’t know how (nor how often and how quickly) I get to this decision, this isn’t pretending anymore but it is you stating as a fact that I’m wrong and being a bit too ‘judgmental’ toward those persons, and too quick to block them?
So, like I said, no hard feelings, but I think I’ll stick with my method for the time being. As imperfect as it is, and it is imperfect, it works well enough to let me experiment an almost completely drama/anger/hate-free experience online, help me waste as little of my time as possible, without preventing anyone else to enjoy it. Which is exactly what I want.
And if you’re wondering, no, us disagreeing is not enough for me to even start considering adding you to that blocked list. Far from it, I appreciate being reminded I should chose my words more carefully ;)
Jesus, what is all this? skimming it looks like half of it is a treatise on epistemology. you’re really going to focus on the data?
I’ve been on the fucking internet too, that’s the data. I’m speaking from my own experience in the shared world we’ve been in, like everyone always does. we at least are clearly on shared spaces.
so like, unless the trolls are all in your DMs, can we skip the text walls about data and skepticism and uncertainty principles??
The rest of your reply seems fairly good spirited but I’m not eager to read it when we start off with paragraph after paragraph of “what data”
I’m not telling you not to block people, I would recommend you double check what I wrote next time before spouting off like that. I said something closer to “you shouldn’t call them trolls”. I dont see you engaging with that point anywhere…
I almost forgot:
I would recommend you double check what I wrote next time before spouting off like that. I said something closer to “you shouldn’t call them trolls”. I dont see you engaging with that point anywhere….
Thx for the suggestion. Allow me then to offer you one suggestion too: before deploring someone does not answer your point, you should start by reading the answer they have given, instead of ‘skimming’ through it.
It’s too long a reply for you to be bothered to read? then don’t say a word, that would be fine too. Let me help you, here: you may wish to read the 3rd and 4th paragraphs (maybe also the 2nd one.).
Like I said, thx for the suggestion, and have a nice day.
Jesus, what is all this?
you’re really going to focus on the data?
The rest of your reply seems fairly good spirited but I’m not eager to read it
That’s called an answer, and yes I will focus on data. It was indeed shared in a good spirit. You’re more than welcome to not give a fuck about my answer, quite obviously. Have a nice day.
Counterpoint- why hasn’t blocking been more common?
I’m a millennial, so I’ve basically grown up with the internet. Blocking has been a feature on basically any website, app, etc. that lets you interact with other people for as long as I can remember.
And I’ve never been afraid to use it. I’ve blocked probably hundreds of people across countless platforms over the last 2 decades or so, and I think my Internet experience has been better for it.
When I was in school, and I assume still to this day, one of the big things that always seemed to have people’s feathers ruffled was “cyberbullying” and other sorts of online harassment.
Now I’ll admit, somehow I ended up a reasonably well-liked, maybe even popular dude, (no idea how my weird, antisocial, probably-autistic ass pulled that off) so I was never really the target of it myself.
But it always baffled me how people let it be a thing. A whole lot of those problems always seemed like they could have been solved by just hitting the block button.
Not all of them of course, but a lot of them. Blocking someone of course doesn’t stop them from talking about you to someone else, but at that point a lot of it can just be out of sight and out of mind.
Back when I still had a Facebook, I had probably half of my town blocked because they were always posting dumb shit in the local groups. I had a bunch of businesses blocked because they spammed advertisements everywhere. I had actual friends who I hung out with IRL blocked or at least unfollowed because they flooded my feed with shitposts. Half of my family was blocked because I just didn’t want to deal with them on social media. I preemptively blocked people I work with or otherwise knew casually because they don’t need to see what I’m doing online.
I have never blocked any one on the internet. And I probably have been in online conversations for longer than you have been alive.
I find it so strange that people do that. We learned in the 80’s that people are probably liars and there are trolls. So just ignore them.
Turns out a lot of people may have something that gets you annoyed while at the same time have something worthwhile to say about a different topic.
And how are we ever going to learn from each other if we just block each other all the time?
last I checked I had over 220 users blocked. now it’s probably 250.
I block people who are willfully ignorant or trolls.
Like another commenter said, polarization and cemented, frequently extreme, views. You’re not going to change their mind on anything, but they’re constantly trying to change your mind on everything. I consider them shills and hit that block button.
I also block people who are here “on a mission” for whatever cause. Social media has enough activists, and even if I agree with them, I’m still thinking “will you shut up, man?”.
I also block people who intentionally take others out of context as an excuse to attack them or inject drama into every interaction. There’s plenty of that to go around, and thankfully, there doesn’t seem to be a limit on the number of blocks I can issue.
Basically, I’m not here for drama or activism or circle-jerking any political cause or to suffer immature edgelords. I just wanna talk about cool stuff with rational people. Blocking helps separate the wheat from the chaff in that regard. Anyone who has a pattern of making this place unenjoyable gets blocked
