Block is my favorite button

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 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'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.

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.

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?

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.

Same goes for downvotes - giving something a downvote is the equivalent of giving everything else an upvote.

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.

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

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?

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.

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.

On reddit, it will eventually break the user experience. (page loading times / errors). Does this site handle the database differently?

Doomers who just respond with negativity

Blocked

trolls who seek down votes

Blocked

Annoying people? Put on notice.

Annoying person on notice annoys me?

Blocked.

Definitely agree. Instead of getting in arguments with people, blocking is so much easier and less stressful.

I'm the same way. I don't block people I disagree with but my tolerance for assholes is quite low. I block multiple people each day and have been doing so for over a year. When I see a thread about Elon or Trump for example I just go in and find all the most toxic commentors there and block them. Again, not because I disagree but because I don't want to see incivil assholes in my feed. If I see someone write mean comments I assume that's what they do and I want nothing to do with them. Currently my blocklist is around 600 users long.

Blocking is for the weak. Subscribe to the content you want to see and (mostly) only look at your subscriptions.

The only things I have blocked are porn communities/instances.