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comment by aidrocsid

It's not just him, though. Say we're in a thread on the #microbiology tag because we all totally love microbiology. zeroFail has just created a thread about microscopic spores. You actually know more about microscopic spores than anyone else on the site. You're actually an expert on the specific type of spore we're discussing and someone's made a grievous error that all the rest of us are happily going along with. Unfortunately zeroFail disagrees with your position on Israel and has muted you, so you can't contribute to the thread.

Do you miss out? Yeah, sure, a little. You don't get to fulfill that impulse to share relevant knowledge that you possess. By and large, though, the subscribers of #microbiology miss out. Instead of having some new factual information now they're spreading some nonsense they read on Hubski around because of your disagreement with zeroFail on a completely unrelated topic.

Not such a big deal when it's only a handful of people blocking one another. If it gets out of hand, though, you can see how the quality of conversation might suffer.





Isherwood  ·  3172 days ago  ·  link  ·  

So if I'm an expert on microbiology, why wouldn't I just make a new post with all the relevant facts and misconceptions?

aidrocsid  ·  3172 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I suppose you could! That brings me to one of the other questions I raised that I haven't seen addressed yet. To what extent is it reasonable to repost things to the same tag in order to get around mute-based barriers to discussion?

Isherwood  ·  3172 days ago  ·  link  ·  

The problem is that we're dealing with the hypotheticals of a future site and for any answer I give you on a hypothetical it's infinitely possible for you to come back with, "yeah, but what if..." that doesn't quite fit the rule.

If you're not sure how something fits into the culture, observe the culture more. Try to figure out why people do what they do and don't worry too much about defining actions for every possible future. Do what you feel is right and if you have a community that agrees, they can follow with you.

I was trying to avoid saying it but, and damnit kleinbl00, lurk moar.

aidrocsid  ·  3172 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Well, we'd have to look at the established pattern of what we've already seen. I don't know what that is because while I've apparently had an account for two years I haven't been using it nearly that long. Has there been an issue so far at all with things like block lists or groups fragmenting?

Isherwood  ·  3172 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Hang around a look

aidrocsid  ·  3172 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Well you've been here for nearly two years already. Have you seen this happening at all?

Isherwood  ·  3172 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Things aren't always as they seem. You out rank me in profile creation date by almost a year.