What do you block people for?

My blocklist is 30~40 users long. [For reference, my blocklist in Reddit reached 400 or so.]

To keep it short, I typically block people who, egregious or consistently:

• show lack of reasoning, even if I agree with the conclusion
• misrepresent what others say
• take things off context to judge them, even if I agree with the judgement
• vomit lots of "hard" certainty on things that they cannot reasonably know (e.g. the others' emotional states over the internet)
• engage in passive aggressiveness (note that I tolerate some clear hostility, just not pass-aggro)
• show clear signs of sealioning (e.g. "I don't understand" + misrepresentation of what someone else said)
• tell others shit like "trust me" = "I expect you to be a gullible piece of rubbish"

Note that "egregious or consistently" are key words here. Like, I'm not going out of my way to block someone out of a brainfart; this is not some sort of petty revenge, it's just removing from my sight people who I believe to not contribute with my overall Lemmy experience. I also don't take issue when people block me, for whatever reason they might have.

Tankies go straight to the Shadow Realm

I block assholes. It drives me up the wall when someone is disrespectful for no reason. I also dislike those who get unnecessarily aggressive on the first message because the previous comment doesn't align with their views. I'll usually set a boundary and let people correct their attitude. After that, I'll block.

I'm also considering blocking those who make a hobby of subverting the previous comment by twisting people's words and overloading them with something the person did not mean to say, but those are trickier.

I’ve blocked a few bots but I would only block an actual person if they’re harassing me. I’d rather downvote or report people that are saying hateful things.

Ad hominem -> block.

I have 85 people blocked. Most of them for spamming, probably. The rest for harshing my mellow by aggressively being assholes to others or just because I've realized my personal experience is more pleasant with their absence.

I don't owe my attention to anyone. I see lots of comments here about refusing to censor alternate points of view, but that's not it. I can enjoy healthy disagreement, but some folks make some agenda their entire identity and I just get tired of them constantly injecting it into every conversation.

On the other hand there've been many people I've disagreed with, engaged with, found some common ground, and continue to enjoy their presence even knowing we don't see eye to eye. Or, if they post about other things, I just ignore the rants I disagree with. It's not filtering out points of view, it's filtering out people whose presence makes Lemmy a source of stress rather than an interesting, vibrant community. That's obviously very subjective, but it's my block list and my peace of mind.

Posting/commenting right wing garbage or tankie “North Korea is a great place” bullshit. Also flat earther crap. Pretty much any insane, out of touch with reality stuff.

You usually block people for good audience sight-lines and sensible character interactions. It can also communicate relationships non-verbally.

And you want to avoid awkward shuffling as they enter and exit the stage.

Blocking is important in film as well, but less so due to close ups, shot reverse-shoot, and editing.

I don't block people because I think it's important to understand that people have different viewpoints and ways of articulating them

Mostly just tankies, they irritate the hell outta me.

Not tagging NSFW posts

2

• Genocide denial
• Fascism
• Racism
• Bad-faith arguments
• Really really stupid & low effort
• Consistently really really negative
• Vote manipulation
• Spam, CSAM

I've banned 1074 accounts from the instance I run, most of them for boring reasons like spam. Usually between 1 and 10 per day.

My block list has I think 7 people on it. I only block if someone makes my Lemmy experience worse any time I see something from them. Disagreement I am fine with. It's healthy to see other viewpoints, even if I don't agree. (Or if it's an issue of morality, like not viewing minorities as people, a grim reminder that people think like that. Fortunately by the time I see those, someone else has replied on the matter.) Being inflammatory and adding no value to any discussions is what gets you blocked for me. I know I have blocked several spammers, but it appears that their accounts got deleted.

I have blocked many communities though. It's mostly porn. Furry porn, not for me. Anime porn where the subjects look too young... Just don't want to see that. Porn that just isn't my taste. I would just block NSFW but there is some NSFW that isn't necessarily porn that I want to see. (Ex: frank discussions about anatomy)The stuff that isn't porn is just communities that are inflammatory echo chambers.

I browse all because I don't have many subscriptions that are active, so that is why I have so many communities blocked.

I've never blocked someone. Idk why. Maybe too much action for something that doesn't make any big difference.

This isn't meant to judge over people who block others, there could be good reasons like stalking etc.

People that are needlessly hostile, and persistent on continuing their hostility get blocked. I've only needed to do that 1 or 2 times on Lemmy since I already blocked the most overtly hostile instances.

I usually tag problematic users (usually those who constantly discuss in bad faith, are needlessly hostile or rude towards other users, or push dis/misinformation and propaganda) so I know who are repeat offenders with consistent bad behaviour, but I rarely block people unless it's very clear that they have no interest in participating in good faith or are so irritating that I can't deal with them anymore. A lot of problematic users still have valuable things to say and I'd rather not make my feed an echo chamber, even if those people often piss me off with their nonsense. But with some of them it sure is tempting.

I don't block people, even if someone is being stupid I doubt I'd run into them that often again. But of course, if someone was personally harrassing me, I'd block, it just hasn't happened here.

Blocked bots or blatant ads

If you're a massive tool or a spambot I'll block you.

My block list is pretty small and most of 'em are advertising spambots I've encountered. Only, like 3 of them are dicks.

In my case, most users I've blocked were for shitty behavior. I have zero tolerance for that. If someone speaks to me or others in a way they wouldn’t dare to in real life, I block them instantly. I don’t mind disagreements or different opinions, but I won’t waste time with mean or nasty people.

The second most common reason is shallow, one-sentence replies only meant to fish for upvotes without adding value to the discussion. Jokes are fine, but if you're just echoing what's popular for applause, you’re gone. Nothing wrong with that per-se, but I’m more interested in serious conversations.

Lastly, there are petty reasons. For example, overused phrases like 'fuck around and find out' will get you blocked too.

Furries, gay porn, sports, and posts in languages I don't understand.

I haven't blocked anyone individually, but I found blocking hexbear and lemmygrad made an immediate vast improvement.

Saying shit that makes me think they'll be a reliably crazy contributor to conversations.

I'm happy to block people. I don't owe anybody my time or energy, if they're tedious and annoying in situation a, they probably will be in B as well.

Its the internet, I just dont care. I'm going to make my experience tolerable and if I can't I'll leave. 🤷‍♂️

Annoying me

If it sounds subjective as shit, that's because it is. It follows my vibe for that day.

I’m blocking a couple of bots but no actual people.
Though I guess I would block someone if they were being persistently trying to harass me. I can take offensive internet behavior, but not if you’re coming after me as a person.

I once blocked someone who gave me unsolicited advice on how to cook a chicken.

Spam.

And posting nsfw content without tags.

Here I haven't blocked anyone else than people who fall into those two categories for now.

But I'll block anyone posting illegal and vile stuff. I accept other points of view, but only if they keep it legal and, where pertinent, consensual.

I try not to block people, but if you prove to me you want nothing but to put me down with shit you made up in your head about me, that's usually what does it. Also tankie assholes or just people who want to gin up an argument where there shouldn't be one.

I have blocked a LOT of communities because I don't want my feed to be half porn and images of weirdly sexualized anime girls who appear to be children. That shit is insanely creepy and besides not enjoying it, I don't want people who glance at my phone to think I'm a pervert.

Only if they're very annoying and waste everyones time. And annoying bots. I've changed instances and now my blocklist is only one bot. Usually when I'm offended, it's spam. Rarely someone getting personal and yelling at people. I report that and usually the account gets suspended and I don't need to block anything. I'm not hesitant, though. If someone wastes my time more than once, I don't see any reason to continue with that. But since I only watch my subscribed communities, I'm not very exposed to those kinds of people. And I don't care at all if someone disagrees with me or has some mild behavioral issues. I'm used to that (on the internet) and wouldn't block someone just for that.

I only block one user, because they brought their political topic to unrelated communities, and declared to continue to do so.

Just did not want to keep reading it. The person only has this one topic too, I am not missing out.

I don't. I don't block anyone.

Dickheads saying Harris isn’t left enough so they’re going to go with the orange fascist instead. Just fuck all the way off with that bullshit.

Hexbear users mostly. About 20 of them harrased me because I said South Park is funny. One guy was even using an alt to insult me on all of my unrelated comments. That was my introduction to Hexbear lol.

I haven’t yet blocked anyone.

My opinions are formed by choosing the things that survive the gauntlet of disagreement, so that’s one “reason” down. And I haven’t yet encountered anyone who has any other way of hurting me with words, so I haven’t needed to block anyone.

I guess there’s mentioning poop while I’m eating, but those people tend to be family and I can’t block them.

Being a bad actor.

insulting and calling what they are doing ‘a discussion’.

Telling everyone else they suck on a game that requires they participate.

Making rude demands of others in a free for all group that benefits themselves only.

Being on the internet whether it’s on a forum, dating site, YouTube or game is for entertainment. We’re each paying for this entertainment too. So if your idea and my idea do not line up for what qualifies as entertainment then we don’t need to be interacting.

I would rather block every shitty post or comment I see. So based on post and not person.

1. Spam
2. CSAM/defending posting CSAM
3. incessant hornyposting on unrelated topics. Not like making a sex joke a couple of times, but a persistent history of pornbrain comments in non-NSFW communities. It's just annoying.

My blocklist (outside of spam accounts) is like 5-6 people on Lemmy. But it's definitely larger on other social media sites because there are a cesspool of people doing #2 and 3.

Bad faith arguments and hatred of any minority. That covers about 99% of it

Being annoying (so, hexbear, mostly), and posting dicks. Tbh I'm not even mad at the dickposters, I just don't wanna see it.

I rarely block people. I find it better just to leave Lemmy communities with problematic/annoying users.. lemmy.world communities are the worst in that sense.

e.g. it might be me commenting in a non-political community about something random and then people jumping in and politicizing the thread and/or anything I wrote there. If I wanted to talk politics I'd join a politics sub, dealing with people that turn each and every post into something political gets old fast. And if the community moderators aren't interested in moderating that shit then what's the point sticking around in that community? So rather than block people I just leave those communities entirely & move on.

You can block people? Well that changes things.

I don't on Lemmy because it doesn't really do anything besides hiding their posts. On Mastodon I block people who are AI trolls, political trolls, reactionaries, and in general people who are hostile. People who are objectively horrible people, sometimes it's because I see them doing it, but other times because they lashed out directly at me. Most blocks on Mastodon are preceded by reports to server admins but I still block them because it usually takes time for people to be moderated.

Trolling, posting disgusting and horrifying pictures in imageai community (nothing to report, just not what I'm there for), and that one person who keeps making new accounts to complain about their life and be hostile to anyone who tries to offer advice or hope.

It's for the church baby, blocked!

There was this French guy posting nudes to every bloody community and filters only worked intermittently.

Like nice cock bro but it got old quickly.

I think my blocklist is about 1/3 spam, 1/3 hatespeach, blatent disinformation and promoting genocide, and 1/3 untagged nsfw. Its a couple dozen users right now.

On my old account it was hundreds (almost all hate-speech, disinformation, and promoting genocide), but Hexbear has been defederated and I've givien up and blocked .ml so I don't run into much of that anymore.

When a co-worker just endlessly stalks you after staring, and being weird and creepy. I had no mutual friends and she kept showing up as someone I might know.

When I remember that it is Guy that post things that ennoys me, it is Time for a block. It doesn't have to be something I'm angry about if the user is active enough in a space I frenquent but their post doesn't interest me, I block them to clear my view.

I'l lucky to never had to block someone because I got on an internet fight with them.

Everyone here talking about blocking for political reasons and bad behavior while I'm over here blocking because you post unfunny memes.

I blocked several users who post far-left memes because they just sucked and weren't even funny in the slightest, they just wanted to get their point across rather than make a funny memr

Constant harassment or spam bots. I don't care if people disagree with my politics or something. I sometimes forget you can block people.

Haven't blocked anyone on Lemmy. Block people on Twitter when a raging bigot is put on my For You. Block people on Tumblr when a raging bigot shows up in my notes or if I see someone post a reader insert fic.

I don't tend to block anyone online unless I feel like they are harassing me. Haven't blocked anyone on Lemmy so far. I think people can be too quick to block others who have different points of view these days.

advertising and ALL CAPS

I block people when I see the porn posts from the same account like every one or two posts in new.

I don't why lemmy.world has so much porn

Beyond the obvious trolls and complete loons, I also block people who never contribute an original comment or post and only reply to other comments in order to "correct" other people or "call them out". Their comment history makes it immediately obvious when they are this type of user.

They strike me as particularly cowardly and obnoxious, because they only want to attack / start something against, and never risk a simple original assertion of their own. Offense being the best defense, etc. They probably think of themselves as verbal judo masters.

IOW, they are basically using Lemmy as fodder for their pedantry. I'm not interested at all in engaging with this type of jackass. Unfortunately there are a lot of them on the internet. My block list is long.

They keep debating and polluting my inbox when I said I won't reply anymore.

Disagreeing with me in a comment.

I will argue into oblivion and keep someone unblocked

I don't block many people except for certain circumstances.

Somethings I might block people for specifically may include:

How kindly they vocally talk about minority people.

Do they they post about certain embarassing things.

Do they post illegal images or content?

Therew others so the reasons are not exclusive to this.

My block list on here is only that stupid media bias rating bot so far. If this place gets like reddit with a dozen idiotic bots butting into every conversation while adding nothing of value, they'll get blocked as well.

Speaking more generally, I block my abusive ex on everything.

Spam/scam mostly.

Mostly racism, sexism, bad-faith arguments, and some religious stuff. I often double-check a person's post history to make sure I'm not just reading it wrong. I also do so to make sure I'm not blocking someone for a single bad day or bad take.

I think younger me would have argued more or tried to convince them of things by showing evidence, but I just don't have the time or energy at the moment; I have a full-time job, a small farm, and home maintenance on the (used) house I moved into 6 months ago.

Only one block due to spam. Even the user name was cheap{goodstype}.

Usually there is no point blocking, you get banned for the stuff I'd block anyway.

I've only ever blocked one person, a former friend who hurt me very badly. I doubt they'd ever try to contact me again anyway, but I needed to make sure that bridge stays burned.

Never blocked anyone

1. Being off-topic - i consider it spam
2. Obscene language if it does happen all the time
3. Hypocrites and people using ad hitlerum or playing on emotions arguments

I don't block anyone because I do not like to shove other perspectives out of view and pretend they don't exist. Also I grew up on old internet where having a thick skin was a necessity.

A demonstration that the person is not interested in a conversation, they just want to grandstand and use rhetoric tricks to feel like they are superior and are strictly aiming to used the conversation as a way to inflate their sense of self worth at the cost of treating you like a human being.

"No way I am reading all that" on a average sized post while expounding their opinion in an equally lengthy paragraph is usually the same start of the end. These people are generally not actively trolling they are just up their own ass. If they cannot demonstrate basic intellectual mutual respect after having this pointed out to them blocking them is both for best of us.

A particular pet peeve is people who quote every bit of a post in sections to refute it. It's lazy and I have witnessed it from people in my life who are extremely narcissistic. Writing your own brief is respectful. Essentially writing over someone else's entire post with red pen isn't. It's not a block, but it's a contributing factor

If it's someone using very bad faith rhetoric like moving goalposts or extreme cherrypicking - basically any stuff that demonstrates obvious trolling I don't block, I counterpunch. My goal becomes making sure you do not leave the arguement with what you come there for.

All in all I have blocked about 3 people. I believe in second chances so someone has to show no signs of improvement after about an average of 7 replies.

Being unnecessarily rude, or arguing in bad faith. Got about a dozen people on my block list.

I blocked two accounts on my instance that kept posting porn without the NSFW tag, as a troll. From the message it was likely the same person who owned both accounts.

People mentioning poly and communism as if its a good thing