When we added muting to Micro.blog, there was a discussion about whether user blocking should be added at the same time. My feeling was that Micro.blog is built around public blog posts on the web, so blocking didn’t seem particularly useful, and might even give someone a false sense of confidence that a specific user wouldn’t see their posts. After all, the posts are available to RSS readers and just reading on your blog for anyone.
This is the kind of opinion a programmer would have, though. “Well actually, the post is available anyway if you just drop down to the command-line and type curl and…” I was thinking about this again watching Bluesky scramble to add blocking a few weeks ago. We try to be thoughtful and not reactionary, so this was really something we should have taken care of earlier.
This is all a long way of saying that our initial support for blocking is rolling out this week on the web and the API, and in other apps to follow. Blocking someone will prevent your posts from showing up in their timeline. There may be tweaks and other options added to this later.
Simon Woods Yes! Excellent. This is one of those features that I’ve always wanted but struggle to keep in my memory for reference whenever I talk about whether I would encourage people to join.
💬 John Philpin > “Blocking someone will prevent your posts from showing up in their timeline.”
Shouldn’t it be the other way round?
// @SimonWoods
Anna Havron I think of capabilities like blocking, as analogous to physical home security. Yeah, a determined and knowledgeable person could certainly break into any house… but that doesn’t mean you should shrug your shoulders and conclude there’s no point to having a lock on the door. Thanks for doing this.
Manton Reece @JohnPhilpin @SimonWoods I left out that muting happens too, so you don’t see their posts. The terminology is confusing which is another reason we put off doing this.
Manton Reece @annahavron Great analogy.
💬 John Philpin I still think what you wrote is the wrong way round?
Sherif Soliman @JohnPhilpin I think it’s correct.
Muting: don’t see posts from someone whose posts you don’t want to see.
Blocking: don’t show posts to someone you don’t want to show posts to.
Odd-Egil “Oddzthrash” Auran Thank you. This is a great addition. I haven’t been needing it (because I’ve concluded the same as you did), but I welcome it now, because I think a large degree of the problem is rather random. I think the feature should come with a warning though, as maybe not everyone understands that blocking only works so far.
💬 John Philpin @sherif aahh - thankyou - as wrote - confusing.
Rene van Belzen I wonder how muting and blocking relates to the content warning tag on Mastodon?
Ridwan Jaafar I haven’t had the need to block anyone in M.b but it’s good have this option.
Jean MacDonald @SamHawken Individually, we imagine and relate to our blog audiences differently. If I were to block someone, it would mean that I don’t want to think of how that person would react to my post on the timeline. Yes, they could read it elsewhere and figure out some way to respond, but I don’t want it to be easy.
@annahavron provided the excellent analogy that it’s like home security. 🔒
Todd Grotenhuis will this also stop comments on your blog from them (a current gap in muting)?
Manton Reece @toddgrotenhuis No, but that’s a good idea. We need to fill a couple gaps in muting like this.
Todd Grotenhuis that piece is interesting…not sure if it belongs more with “blocking” or “muting”. But still a good addition 👍
Jarrod Blundy I’ve been curious about this. Is there are way to remove a comment that you don’t want to appear on your blog? I haven’t had the need to, and hope that I won’t, but I wouldn’t want to have to go running to @help in such a case.
Manton Reece @jarrod There’s no way, but there should be. We need a system that is specifically for curating your own comments.
Kimberly Hirsh