Blocking someone should remove their replies from your posts, this is the type of safety features we need in the Fediverse!
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@dansup
It'll make people do some authoritarian behaviour. I think the best thing is to put those under a content warning as "OP blocked user" or something like that. This will make things transparent.
And in client side one can choose to not see such warning posts in their feed. This will be a better suggestion IMO.
#fediverse #mastodon #block #policies #relays #methods #safety #fedi #federatedtimeline #Federation #moderation #practices
@vivekanandanks @dansup I must say I can't really picture what that kind of "authoritarian behaviour" would look like. Can you give an example?
@bammerlaan
For example one could create a false information and try to block the comments which dispell it, thus making only fake manipulative comments to exist. The toots will become more manipulative as truth can be hidden in plain sight. So maybe a content warning for the toot will help maintain transparency and help us atleast will try finding the truth
@dansup This is how Bluesky's "nuclear block" works and it's great for silencing reply guys.
@dansup I disagree. But I think if you block someone, you shouldn't be allowed to share or interact with the posts of who you blocked. And you should only be allowed to share your own and edit or choose to delete them yourselves. UNLESS they establish a misuse of the report function, which should be determined by more than one moderator with a place to privately discuss the matters.
There is at least one GitHub request for this.
Eg https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/15631
@dansup Should be optional?
I blocked so many people on Twitter and Facebook, but their older quote are valid and merely giving context.
Blocking people sometimes means "there's no wrong with them, I simply not interested in their post and don't want them to see me anymore."
Since a whole bunch of people replying to this post apparently didn't
1) read it, or
2) understand it, let's parse:
"Blocking someone should remove their replies from your posts"
So
"Blocking someone who replies to your post"
"should remove their replies from your post -- the specific post in question"
and further more they will not ever see any of your posts in the future, and thus not be able to reply to them or any of your past posts
Backgrounder for a couple people:
You may demand your 'right to free speech' (however you phrase it -- 'censorship' if you will), but I demand an equal and reciprocal right to never see a single word you post ever again
@dansup No because this would be censorship
@dansup Let's imagine I post a bunch of antivax nonsense (or fascism, etc) and then block everyone who debunks me. Their replies disappear, only leaving those that agree with me.
Now it looks like everyone agrees with me.
@dansup
LinkedIn was horrible for many reasons (I quit the platform more than a year ago).
But there was at least one thing they did right: for threads/posts you started yourself, they let you delete comments from other users.
I haven't had a need for that here. It'd be a nice option to have, though.
Just an idea (maybe not a good one) - What if blocking someone flags all their responses to the post as "blocked by original poster" so everyone knows this person was blocked. If readers agree that the person was inappropriate, abusive, or just downright toxic they can block them too, and if enough people block them the account is suspended/dissolved.
@dansup Agreed. Pretty much every platform that I am on supports this, including most FOSS platforms. It is a widely support basic moderation tool.
Every time it comes up, you'll get replies worrying about the theoretical risks, but Mastodon is like.. the only place that doesn't do this.
In my mind this is exactly like how Bluesky devs hem and haw about editing posts.
Everything allows for this, and those platforms are fine. We can just do it.
@dansup I kinda disagree here. I get the intention but personal blocks should only apply to your account, not others. (This also effectiviely makes block lists public which Blueskt has shown us to be a major cause for concern)
What you describe should only apply to accounts banned on the instance the OP is on (so they can't see posts and should not be able to reply to them (although this does not solve simply screenshoting/linking but at least prevents direct harassment))
@dansup I get the intention, but with that implementation, fedi becomes a propaganda platform where everyone can post any shit and just delete anyone calling it out as such.
I rather live with unwanted comments under my posts.
@dansup I’m unsure how far this should go. I’m a free speech absolutist but I also respect the right to ignore, which blocking achieves.
A sticky problem. If I was designing something in this space I’d probably leave replies visible on the TL but flag them conspicuously as being from a blocked account.
Messy. I don’t like my idea either.
@dansup That is indeed what you expect. I have never tested it, as in, had no need to block anyone yet. Yes you would think a block should remove all replies made by that person to your posts.
@alterelefant @dansup This is not possible. Their post will not be shown in your timeline anymore but you can't delete messages somebody else has written on his/her instance.
@dnkrupinski @alterelefant @dansup it might be possible to at least purge the local copy, and prevent it from getting federated along with every other reply from the source.
Sure, anyone subscribed to the blocked person will still see the response and probably distribute it along, but it might be nice to have a way to block it at the top level.
@dnkrupinski
Will those replies to your posts still be visible for others who view your posts?
* your post *
* reply by blocked person "
@alterelefant @dnkrupinski I think it should be removed as a reply, but still visible from the permalink
@dansup
A permalink is always final, the reply will still exist, just the reference to the original post should be removed.
I am not quite sure how to enforce such a thing in a federated system? A bad actor instance could still choose to ignore the unlink request and show the cached post in relationship with the reply. In some extreme cases they might even make changes to the software on their end. Such bad actor instances are typically run by ultra right wing oriented people.
@dnkrupinski
@dnkrupinski @alterelefant You can Reject it, which should unlink it from the parent post, this does need support from software, I am working on this in Pixelfed and Loops!
@dansup
You would indeed expect the post and reply to get unlinked. One can not remove a post made by someone else, that is clear. However you do expect the relationship between a post and a reply of a blocked person to go away.
@dnkrupinski