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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've not blocked anyone here or on Reddit. I have on Mastodon but only becase the 3 people I have blocked are fucking interminably boring not because of any philsophival difference of opinion or they were rude or some shit.
I tend not to engage too much, it is some random on the internet after all. I am old, I've been doing this shit from IRL meetups of computer clubs, to BBS's where I actually personally knew just about everyone from meet ups, then Usenet and IRC opened the world, then fora, then reddit (because Usenet died) now here and Mastodon..
Im very pro block. I prefer that users can do stuff themselves over moderation honestly. I would like blocking to be reciprical and I have to do a lot of it for communities because the language thing often either seems to not work or my suspicion is the person making the community did not set it. That being said I block few users but tons of communities. The fediverse is not really large enough to subscribe to some stuff and ignore the rest. I block anything I have no interest in or sometimes just because its to niche for me. Things like sports, memes, and communities about like one specific thing like a tv series or video game.
I dunno I haven’t blocked anyone and I don’t know if anyone has blocked me.
Yeah how do you even know when someone has blocked you?
If you want, I'll block you so you can feel included.
Follow-up to this question after seeing many responses (and thank you): What is your default mode for self-doubt when engaging in discussions?
That is, no matter how confident you may be in something, do you maintain an open door, or are your beliefs you block over completely set in stone?
For me, little terrifies me more than becoming the thing I hate; to be clouded by my own cognitive bias; to inadvertently throw myself into an echo-chamber of self-validation. As such I try my best to always maintain at least the slightest bit of doubt in even my strongest beliefs, and to that end to at least let dialogue challenging that come through.
For me, it depends on the context, and how the person responded to the comment.
If the reply had little to no contribution to my comment, that's whatever I can ignore and move on, but if the reply is a clear "I'm trying to siderail this/ignoring what was actually said" or "I'm attacking you directly instead of the topic at hand" then I'm pretty firm in blocking. I don't block for disagreement period, it's when it moves into the unproductive field that I start to ignore or I block.
First, I rarely am fully self-confident about factual matters. I've been around the block a few times but I can't possibly have experienced everything from every perspective or maybe there's an unspoken assumption that another person has that differs from mine. I see that in a lot of code discussions. You have to do this or that is always bad, but they just work in a different industry and what has been true every single time for them has never been true for me.
Second, I never block anyone just because they disagree. I block them because they are being an asshole about it or maybe because I'm emotionally compromised and need to prevent myself from engaging with them. On Bluesky I've created a timeout block list I throw people in when it's me and not them, and I clear it out every so often.
Anyway, sometimes it's just not fruitful or pleasant to talk with some people even if they are good people. I wish Lemmy had something I could use as a timeout like named block lists or block reasons. I don't know who is a spammer, who is an asshole, or who was just on the other side of an issue or post I needed some distance from.
I've blocked a couple of people who just wanted to harp on one thing ask day every day and even though I agreed with them or at least didn't hate them I needed to block them for my blood pressure. I'm not letting any of you fuckers give me a heart attack in the name of civil discourse.
But also, it is doing everyone a favor. I am an AI enthusiast / realist, which means a lot of people who just hate everything AI probably have me blocked. And that's a good thing for us because we aren't constantly bickering about it, but also good for the community because no one really likes to watch people constantly argue, no matter how considerately.
Very well said, and I think that's a reasonable take. A balance between protecting yourself but also not necessarily promoting a self-validating echo-chamber. Temporary blocks are genius.
It's funny you mention the AI thing. I'm no pro or anything but I am a software engineer and was recently blocked by someone for just noting that AI has its uses in the fight against extremist hate and online discourse and that we shouldn't necessarily limit our tool box in the fight against fascism — especially when it's being used against us. That's actually what spurred my thinking about these knee-jerk blocks.
Little bit of a pointer but you can edit your post and title.
Anyways, digressing there. But, I am always willing to hear some alternative takes from different people with different perspectives. The dealbreaker is in the approach. If you cannot come into a discussion, a conversation, a debate or anything without feeling the need to put down someone to prove a point or be self-righteous? You can go fuck yourself and be placed in the blocked bin.
And even so, there is only so much irrational and wild things people do and say that just upsets the vibe with someone or groups to where, blocking can be seen as a way to filter that out.
Basically, I give people one or two chances, and then you're done.
Esp if they cross the line into insults and bad/false argumentation
Social media split and modified people so much they're often immediately feeling threatened and block that out, imo.
I'm quite happy to have had some discussions (!) on lemmy where I or the other person could explain the view or clear the (mis)understanding and both be wiser people afterwards.
Because you can go through your whole life with zero negative social corrections. It's a low trust, collapse of society thing
Cognitive dissonance.
Even when someone says some stupidly egregious shit, or uses thorns instead of th, its way easier to block them than try to understand that however stupid and misguided they may be that there is a person on the other side who may actually have a point somewhere u Herbert the radicalization and between the five brainless they have.
I think blocking is justified when someone actually means you personal physical harm in some way, but that so rarely ever happens.