The whole concept behind blocking is to avoid confronting differences instead of working through them. I hate the fact that we are able to see people who have blocked us, and I find blocking can be used to handle things in an immature way. Not saying this is true in all instances, but people have a tendancy to take things too personally.

No. Just no. In almost all of my blocking cases, the blocking happened AFTER the confrontation. After very spiteful, angry, unpleasant arguments. After people said things I found gross, and reprehensible.

Some people have anxiety. Some people just want to enjoy a PET WEBSITE without having to see a person they can't stand. In real life, when you don't like someone, you avoid them. You don't engage with them. There is nothing wrong with wanting to enjoy your time on subeta without the threat of seeing someone you don't like in places you want to be in.

And inb4 'well you have to deal with it in real life'. Exactly. You have to deal with it IRL. So why should you be forced to deal with it in your escape? Why should you have to tolerate someone you loathe in a place that is supposed to be fun?

Not sure where people are getting the impression that you only get blocked because the blocker is being immature or not wanting to resolve a problem with you? I've never even spoken to any of the people I've blocked and I have no personal beef with them, but they were making me seriously uncomfortable and made me not want to browse the forums just to avoid seeing their posts. It was nothing I could report (at the time), so blocking was the only way to guarantee not running into anyone I didn't want to see.

I'm sure some people do abuse the block function, but certainly not everyone. And while I wish I'd be just as invisible to the folks I blocked as they are to me, I understand why that wouldn't be for everyone and could cause a ton of problems.

Would be great if anyone could confirm whether or not block notifications are a thing, too; being able to quietly block someone and not make a fuss about it or have them know without checking was something I really liked about the feature. :/

So instead of giving them a chance to cool off and a chance to apologize, you block them from existence? I'm not saying blocking shouldn't exist, but it seems people are too eager to block others from what I have seen.

Most reasons to not like someone are against the rules now anyway. It's pretty much just straight up sarcasm that isn't against the rules any more.

I like blocking because if someone annoys me, even for no rational reason, I can just chose to never see their shit again and it bothers nobody.

You write in haikus? You go on about your Shinwa's Quests all day long? All you talk about is your dog? Your perpetual racist stance makes me want to throw up? Your HA gives me a headache? I don't wanna interact with you, here, poof, you disappeared. No drama, everyone went on their way.

How is that childish?

I've been blocked (a lot) before because people I may or may not have talked to didn't want to see my posts anymore. I don't want to argue with them about the ifs and whats, or apologise, or even alter my behaviour. How does removing blocking help them, and how does it help me when I'm in the reverse situation? Blocking is the drama free way of erasing people from existence and I don't see how that's wrong.

They were not the kind of arguments where apologies were going to be made.

I challenge you to find one website that has any kind of social aspect (be they forums, or being purely social media) that does not have a blocking feature.

This.

tbh a removal of the blocking feature would only lead to an increase in conflict, because not every dispute can necessarily be worked through civilly. i'm not sure why this is an issue being debated.

hell, that's even assuming blocking is a means of shutting down direct conflict, but the only user i've ever blocked on this site is someone i've never interacted with, nor have i had any desire to. "i dont want to have to look at the shit you write" ought to be a valid enough reason, and i'm awfully happy not having to look at what that person writes anymore. 10/10, would block again.

seriously though, are we back to sending out notifications when someone gets blocked? this thread is really unclear about htat.

That is probably a valid reason to block them if the argument was that bad, but it does sound like that kind of thing would go against the community guidelines now.

So you cannot read a topic of someone who has you blocked, yes? Let's say someone blocked me because they didn't like my HA or some trivial reason, then staff happens to post a fairly important message on that thread. I can't read it or gather any context because they didn't like my HA.

I don't think the ability to block anyone will go away, though I think we should be able to read their threads at least. We also don't need any list of people who have us blocked. Maybe disable replies on their threads, disable pings from that person, but we have anti-harassment rules. A list just seems like the site is making a list of people who hate you and there's nothing you can do about that.

I think you should go read about how blocking works, and get back to us

The list of people who have you blocked can help you try not to run into them and accidentally talk to them though. Because making contact is seen as harassment. But if I don't know who has me blocked, then I don't know who to avoid. Since you don't get a notification for when someone blocks you, it's good that you can at least check. No harm done.

Hm I'm wrong about that I guess. I swear at one time that you couldn't read their topics. Maybe it's the other way around? I'm not sure. I don't even see any text on the block page that would tell me how blocking works.

[edit] obviously I didn't read Keith's post in the first page haha. I thought someone had mentioned that was how it worked before though. I am just wrong about that I guess.

Yeah, I agree with a lot of people here. In fact, one of the first things I did when I joined Flight Rising (another pet site) was block someone who was extremely abusive to me and my loved ones in the past and who I found was very active and popular on that site. While I think Subeta's design overall is better, I very much liked how Flight Rising handled blocking. Basically there was a warning on posts that you had blocked that person, and it gave you the option to look at their content if you desired after blocking (iirc). The way the anti-blocking conversation in this thread has gone makes me very anxious, as there are definitely people who play by the letter of the law on any medium, yet will do manipulative, nasty things to people on a person-to-person basis, say things you'd rather not see, or write posts that annoy you. I agree that blocking serves a function and to take this away from people because they "can't be trusted" to use it properly really calls into question how "adult" you actually view your userbase to be imo.

Especially when Subeta prides itself on diversity and such, you have to realize that sometimes as has been stated before, people simply would rather not see certain opinions when relaxing and that hurts literally no one.

Not everyone who holds hatred spews it in such a blatant way that they can get reported for it. I block people because I don't expect or want to be running to staff every time I disagree with someone. And newsflash: I don't want to constantly be arguing with someone for the sake of people who think they're too 'mature' for blocking. People are saying that blocking is childish but it's really not??? It gives you the control and option to end a conversation that might otherwise keep going in a vicious circle. It literally makes no sense to try and force someone to tolerate people they don't like. Especially on a website. As someone else stated: this is not real life. Stop trying to make it such.

I've disliked the blocking feature here since shortly after I joined the site. Someone who I had never interacted with decided to block me for (as far as I know) no reason at all and I got a lovely notification for it. After reading and 's posts I do see the need to keep it in place. My personal opinion on the feature is more concurrent with and 's posts, but if it allows others to have a stress-free environment then it should be kept as is.

Because I think the easier thing to do is to just simply ignore that user entirely, blocked or unblocked.

Skip over their posts when you see their name, or if you start getting agitated over their messages, stop reading and walk away. Vent offline about how that person made you feel, if that sort of thing works for you. Then come back online when you're feeling better and less likely to say something you might come to regret later.

The system can only provide so much; the rest is up to each of us as individual persons, plenty capable of reason, ingenuity, and self-control. Instead of asking the system to handle an issue for you, ask yourself how you can handle the problem at hand.

(harassment and abuse obviously notwithstanding)

The other sites that enforce the mutual block? It's childish, and they SUCK. That's a good reason for Subeta to continue to do the mature thing with its block policy.

I am seriously going to block everyone on site if blocking become mutual, to point out how absurd automatic mutual blocking is.

Also, I'm pretty sure we no longer get alerts when we're blocked by someone.

We do not get alerts if we're blocked, I can confirm that. I was recently blocked by someone I didn't even know had blocked me. Made me a little sad, wonder what I did wrong?

But if you block everyone...how will you get any lifelike doll you're missing? D:

I'm OK with how the block system works as-is, but I'd prefer not to get a notification when someone blocks me, or when I block someone. (And full disclosure--I'm not very active in the site's community, so I basically never block people anymore.) It just seems like a poor idea and might be bad for users with anxiety. If it was me, I'd prefer to check my blocked page periodically and see if anyone new has blocked me, and not be able to possibly discern the reason, than suddenly get a little notification right after I make a forum post or news comment that says someone blocked me. Part of that is also because I associate notifications and the little red numbers on the tab with alerts for comments, people purchasing from my shop, event reminders, etc., and it'd sure leave a sour taste in my mouth if I got one telling me I've been blocked when I was expecting to go to the pumpkin patch or zap my pet again.

ETA: Well, the meat of my post just became pointless, seeing that other users clarified that people don't get alerts when they're blocked. :P Then that said I'm good with the blocking system.

Actually, can there be an achievement made out of the amount of people that have blocked us/people we've blocked? Tiers and everything, and a forum title tied in (it can read, USERNAME "will probably block you").

Then sure, let the mutual blocking continue as Soph says! xD

'Just ignore them' doesn't work in real life, or on the internet. For someone that actually makes you uncomfortable, maybe even make you feel threatened, there is no 'just ignore them'. There's a couple of users I've blocked that posted things I found harmful, reprehensible, and that I've gotten in arguments with and made to feel uncomfortable. I blocked them, because I should not have to tolerate seeing them on a website.

It's nice that YOU can just ignore people that bother you, but not everyone is able to do that. Anxiety, for starters, is a big reason 'just ignore' doesn't work. Maybe someone purposely triggered someone else in to having a flashback. Maybe they did it on accident, and when they found out either mocked, or told the person to just 'get over it'. That's not against the rules. If you report that, you'll be told to just block them. They may get a verbal warning.

Blocking is for the offenses that do not break the rules. Not all offenses are rule breaking.