The reason I added that last part as a "possibility" was that I wanted a discussion about it and not to have it as part of the actual idea. I think you're right about that, it would end up being vindictive.

Also, what do you mean by "people using the mute feature for censorship?" It's kind of an individual decision, I'm pretty sure that there haven't been (or at least I haven't seen) instances of people using the mute feature because they don't agree with people's point of view; educated discussion is part of the reason I keep coming back to hubski. I like having my ideas challenged.

Every time in Hubski's past that we've discussed the mute feature, instances come out of the cracks of the feature being used for censorship and the people being censored are reluctant to come forward about it. A more recent example was this:

I made a post and as you can see it has no comments on it. Grendel PM'd me saying that he thought it was ironic that he wished to make a reasonable disagreement with me about censorship yet the poster had muted him, so he couldn't. The title of the post was actually Censorship, and it was in defense of no censorship at all. I don't really know what his view is as a result, and I wish I did. I like hearing opposing viewpoints, it helps me understand others, develop my own points, and having them public helps others hear opposing viewpoints and prevent sounding chambers (cough reddit cough). Grendel is pretty clearly not a troll, so this is clear censorship of his ideas.

Maybe it makes more sense to also make a mute something that prevents only direct commenting. I know that shout-outs are a way to bypass a mute but how do you know who to shout-out if someone is being censored? I think that only direct comments to someone should be considered something that can be muted. Two layers deep seems a bit excessive. One layer deep (direct comments to your post or your comments) prevents harassment just fine. Anything 2 layers deep would by necessity be trying to prevent someone's views from entering the discussion entirely. A troll that posts on someone else's comment can easily be muted by that person or filtered by others, because at that point he isn't harassing the original person but the person below, which that person would WANT to know that someone is out there like that and he needs to mute them.