I would like to suggest some improvements to the blocking system. Over the years, I have noticed some serious flaws in Subeta's blocking function. These are opportunities for harassment for those who are active in communicating on site. As a CW releaser, I am no stranger to harassment and nasty posts off-site. Here are my concerns after having using the block function on Subeta from the CW side of things.

The block system is extremely flawed in the forums. Having been blocked by several users and blocked a few others, I am able to view the recent posts made by those who blocked me, and those that I have blocked. I am also able to view posts made by people who blocked me, but I didn't block them. How is it that people I blocked can view threads that I've started, but I am unable to view theirs? A couple of users I know specifically join my ping group again and again after removing them multiple times despite having them blocked. With the way the current system works, these points do not make any sense to me. Even without participating in CWs, these would affect those who use the forums regularly. I would think improving the blocking system would only make users' experience on Subeta a better one.

Being active in CWs, I have encountered those who buy CWs to use for trade fodder or reselling for extremely high prices many times. I know staff cannot enforce official prices on CWs, but the community has this mostly unspoken faux pas on flipping CWs. The community can enforce some rules to make CWs more accessible to everyone. I definitely had a few people buy CWs from both my Cash Shop and User shop only to resell the same CW in a few days. I have noticed the people I blocked are allowed to buy from not only my user shop, but also from my CW shop without consequences. I remember before the CW revamp, blocked users were not allowed to view my CW shop. So why didn't this carry over? The CW directory also has some flaws regarding this, as I am unable to view CWs uploaded from people I blocked, yet they can view my items if they did not block me. I believe it should be carried over since we pay real money to artists and to the site to have our CWs approved. After all, it is custom wearables. I know this is a controversial topic, but I believe that if Subeta's blocking function worked the way it is suggested in this thread, perhaps there would be less drama within the CW scene regarding items. I can definitely say I have items with restrictions simply because I didn't want to sell to someone who was rude to me in the past or to a notorious reseller.

Overall, with the current state of Subeta's blocking function, it definitely made releasing CWs and interacting on the forums less enjoyable. I hope staff will take this letter into considering and improve the blocking function to make Subeta more enjoyable for its users. I also hope the community, in CWs or not, can agree that the current blocking function leaves a lot to be desired. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

[edit] ADDITIONAL THOUGHT:

I also think the block feature needs to be expanded upon, for the sake of the autopricing abuse. A lot of the time, certain users will purposefully price high dollar items, retireds, etc, lower than they normally would, so that unsuspecting users unwittingly autoprice and lose out on profits/sales. So this change would help fix CW flipping, and autoprice abuse.

pinging so people can provide some input and ping their own groups so we can get some traction here.

I hope this picks up traction and open dialogue can happen. I don’t use the blocking function but then again I’m not big CW releaser but do buy CW and do not use as fodder because that would just be inappropriate. MHO.

I’m not active enough to really notice these things tbh but all this seems to make the block function pretty useless. I believe blocked persons can also send you gift boxes unless you do not accept gifts from non-friends. I think that’s pretty messed up and also opens up avenues for harassment.

I agree. Most if not all large sites have functioning block systems, where you're basically invisible to the person you've blocked.

I think a lot of drama this site seems to invite could probably be avoided if the block feature were more sound, and a functioning block system could probably prevent people from leaving due to said drama or harassment.

That aside, I think a website that hosts such a wide range of age groups should have a good block feature for safety and privacy issues as well.

My understanding is blocked users being able to read your forum posts (i.e. if I block user APerson, user APerson can read my posts, but I can't read theirs) is intentional to prevent people from being locked out of being able to read bug posts and similar threads that may have relevant staff responses or event/site feature guides with information in them that isn't explained elsewhere. I don't personally feel that should change, for the reasons I mentioned if nothing else.

Given that, I don't think the CW directory needs changing either. Why shouldn't user A*Person be able to see the CWs I've released/know that I've released them? Maybe they wouldn't be able to buy an item directly from me (I'm personally indifferent about whether someone who's been blocked should be able to buy from a CW shop or not, but hypothetically speaking) but then at least they know that they'll have to find it elsewhere if they want a copy.

As for the user shops, I don't have any strong feelings one way or another. I would just prefer that an error similar to the "An unexpected error occured" banner pops up and doesn't redirect you to a 404 type page, so you can still be on the shop search and just try a different shop (because if this would apply to buying CWs from a user shop, it should apply to all items)

I do 100% support not allowing blocked users into forum groups that you own/create/whatever term though. If they're not allowed to communicate with you, there's no reason for them to be receiving group pings from you

thank you for your support and thoughts!

it's interesting because if I personally block someone, I can't see their directory item/cw shop/releases, but they can still see all of my stuff. It's basically just a willful ignorance at that point, because all the block did was keep me from seeing them, but doesn't stop them from interacting with me. If I don't want anything to do with someone, which includes not seeing their name, I'd like for them not to be able to work around this and still buy from me, buy from my shops, etc. I can't see any purpose for them being able to do this.

As far as the information/site features/replies about bugs and stuff, I can kind of see that, but at the same rate, there are some people who block people because things are so uncomfortable that they would rather not see them at all anywhere on site, and have left because the harassment doesn't stop.

Anyways, thank you for the input!

The blocking system needs a big revamp. I think it's super crappy a blocked user can still find my usershop and make a purchase from it. If you're blocked, I don't want you able to buy my things at all, no matter what. A block should prevent you indirectly making contact with me that I can notice.

And yeah, why can ME blocking someone make their stuff not show up in the directory but they can still see mine? It should immediately prevent them as well from viewing my things. Not wanting to see them doesn't mean I want them still able to see me.

With working with in CW releasing, I understand we can't prevent people from using our items as trade fodder but we chose the better option of it being that if it's seen, we will take a proper course of action. I can't stop a blocked use from buying our releases secondhand but it does feel better to know that they can't get it directly from us. If it's out of sight, it's out of mind. You wanted something so bad, you had to get someone to buy it for you? Not my prerogative anymore but it's allowed.

If someone's being harassed and the other user does things like buy 20 items from their user shop every day so they have to look at their name there (I have an ex who's exactly that petty, but thank G-d he's not here), then they absolutely should be able to block both purchases and social interaction. Particularly if it's a safety issue, like for a minor.

But I also don't want to restrict people from buying my CWs or user shop items forever because they said something in the news comments or a forum post 2 years ago that made me feel that everyone including the general public would be happier if I didn't interact with them. I don't have to like someone to be willing to accept CSC from the sale of a public item.

Having a social block function and a purchasing block function, so that you could activate one, the other, or both, as needed, would be ideal.

--I'm not sure if that's how it works. I'm not sure it matters if you have someone blocked.

There are two people I know for a fact have me blocked. I can see one person's cw shop just fine, but the other person's shop is invisible to me.

I thought, like you, that the deciding factor was that I'd only blocked one of them back.

As an experiment, I unblocked them to see if that was the case, and I still couldn't see their shop. I can't even see their items in the directory.

(I don't know what good hiding things in the directory is even supposed to do. I can still see the items in user shops, on other people's avatars, and on Subeta Lodge.)

I haven't needed to use the block feature (yet), so I can't really provide input...but I'm surprised to hear that blocked users can buy from your CW shop! I thought it wasn't possible for blocked users to see your CWs. :o I remember that when the new CW system came out, someone had mentioned that a certain CW wasn't showing up in the CW directory for them, and then wondered if it was because the CW directory doesn't show you results from people who have you blocked/you have blocked--to which confirmed that was the case:

And several posts later, it was acknowledged how people have shared that they're not comfortable with blocked users being able to buy from their shops:

So yeah, based on all of that, I'm surprised to hear that blocked users don't seem to be blocked from purchasing from CW shops. 😟

I didn't know it is handled like this now. If a user decided to block another user, they don't block them for fun. Certainly, something bad happened before. So it would only be preferable that there would be no possibility to interact. Reading their posts furthermore could easily upset the user who blocked. It is also inconsequential that blocked users can send gifts (if there was a severe quarrel, I could imagine that users send annoying or even disturbing "gifts") or buy from shops (CW, sP, second hand, original CW shop) or offer on trades of blocked users or users blocked by them. I would totally support a revamp of the blocking system when it is outlined like this at the moment.

Hell I’d like this for usershops so the people that are constantly purposely drastically undercutting every day and scamming people can be blocked from buying from the peoples shops when they’re caught.

The blocking system does not seem to be doing what it’s supposed to do right now. After reading about all the loopholes it makes sense for it to be improved / rehauled.

There really is no point if the “block” does not prevent further interaction in all ways :’D Having to remove certain users from a ping group multiple times only to have them rejoin again and again + that they could actually purchase from your CW shop sounds horrible.

Is this true? That sucks if so, because I had to block someone recently because they sent me a nasty gift. What's the point in blocking them if they can just do it again?

Based on the quotes posted above, it seems like a lot of these features were meant to be implemented into the block function but somehow... didn't.

I just feel like blocking should extend to all aspects of the site and not just to hide their forum posts/comments which is what it is doing now. I'm sure none of us block people without good reason and it makes me uncomfortable that someone I actively do not want to interact with is able to see my forum threads -> get pinged to my posts because they can still join my forum group -> go into my user shop or cw shop and buy my items. Like the block feature is a knee high fence, at this rate.

You can report people for sending nasty gifts, even if they aren't blocked. It's right on the page, so people should know better.

And even if blocked users can send gifts through the gift center (it shouldn't let you anyway and that's one heck of an oversight if that's true), it probably counts as circumventing a block anyway.

I'm also on board for blocked users being unable to buy from my shop, CW or otherwise, or join my ping groups. I'm probably going to go through all of mine now. In the very least, until it's part of the system, situations like OP's ping groups be a reportable offense that Staff acts on.

I support this thread 100%. I've only had issues with one person I've blocked still popping up around the site for me, but even one is too much sometimes. I also support the edit made by Ale. It annoys me to use autoprice only to later see that my prices were cut super low because people are trying to scam.

The thing about the block not hiding forum threads from users who have blocked you makes no sense if the opposite is true (the blocker will not see the blocked's threads regardless). If anything, this is something that would very rarely happen, and if a thread is double posted because of it, the minimods or other community members can inform the person? I don't see why everyone needs to accept a lackluster block function for the very rare occasion two people that don't want to see each other have the same bug.

I agree wholeheartedly with the changes proposed. As it is, the block does nothing, really. From the cw standpoint, many people have said they would feel more comfortable releasing items publicly/unlocked in their shops if they knew that the people they have blocked could not access them - as it is, the majority of people get a restriction because the releaser isn't comfortable leaving it open. Blocking being more effective would make the people blocking feel safer and more comfortable in general - after all people don't block each other for no reason.

Personally, I'd like that to work for user shops as well, for the reasons stated above (the undercutting price thing) and others. (editing out the part abt the gifts since it was mentioned by others while i took my sweet ass time writing this)

I've had blocked users purchase from my shops and vice versa (on accident, in my case), how that isn't classified as "interaction" with a blocked party, I'll never understand.

The current block system also takes a serious hit whenever reporting bugs (let's be real, there's a lot of bugs) and "Oh, (USER I BLOCKED) made this already so I'm going to close this thread" becomes a thing pretty quickly. (I've had this happen a couple times, like thank you, I can't see the topic because a user I blocked made it.)

I'm not proposing having a thing that pops up for mods about who has who blocked, that's unreasonable. But there should be a grace period in certain cases before mods decide to lock things up.

Thanks for the ping, Ale. I generally don't bother to look at the site feedback section b/c to be perfectly honest, none of the suggestions really get much traction. I think the site being in a half state of legacy/new is one of the main issues. Several things have been broken for a long time, now. Other planned ideas/activities have never come to fruition.

I saw a thread in the Bugs section about a user that was able to see a CW in the wardrobe but was unable to see it in the directory when they searched for it and it ended up being a user that had blocked them so I wasn't aware that a person you had blocked could still see and buy from your user/cash shops. THAT needs to be fixed! I get tired of seeing people flipping CW's immediately after buying them (never really knew until I saw the complaints about these types) just to make a profit or get some rare item from their WL b/c it takes away from those that truly WANT that item!

Another thing that seems to be a workaround for blocked users is when they change their name. Now I personally haven't experienced the issue but I have read that others have had a user blocked and when they changed their name (which has been quite frequent), any blocking goes away.

As far as forums... I kinda want to agree w/ but at the same time, there's a reason why people try to use the block feature. I mean, I wish I could block people in real life but that's just not the way it works so there's a level of personal responsibility that comes from dealing w/ behaviors and words of others but in saying that, I agree with that most if not all sites have a very well defined blocking feature and this should be an important part of Subeta.

I also didn't know that if you block a person, the only stuff that works was that you didn't see THEIR stuff, and not v.v. :P Maybe I read it along the lines at some point a long time ago and never cared to use it... and I'm also too lazy (or not quick enough?) to see who is undercutting after I do an autoprice.

i'm not any good with words but wanted to throw in my two cents of support for this.

as of right now, the block feature really does seem to be pretty useless... if you can still see the person's posts and they're still able to send up gifts/buy from our shops/etc, what's the point? if a person had irritated/angered me to the point of me blocking them, i'd not only want them to be hidden from me, i'd want myself to be hidden from them too. i agree with Bug's quote in that, for all intents and purposes, we should not exist to eachother on subeta.