Today we are implementing a new moderation option: Block.
Block toggles on the hush, filter, and mute moderation options. In addition, you and the blocked user cannot PM each other, or reply to each others comments.
Like our previous moderation options, block is individualized. However, block should be considered a last resort, and it is intended to be used only when other moderation options have failed.
We would prefer not to have any moderation tools on Hubski. However, as in real life, constructive conversation is based upon a mutual agreement whereby participants are taking part willingly. Thus, people should have the option to avoid conversations that they do not want to be a part of.
The decision to implement block was not made lightly.
I am more pleased to present our second update. Comment threads are now collapsible.
At the top of any comment tree, you will see a '—'. Clicking the '—' will collapse that comment tree.
As always, feedback is much appreciated.
mk, there should be a "-" at the top of this comment thread, but there isn't for me. Ive reset my browser. I'm on Safari. (I know...). EDIT: Nevermind. I found it. Pretty subtle. But that's cool.
mk hates the dark.... ;-) joking aside, there are a few little things about "dark" that are a little buggy, but I figure the admins have a lot of bigger fish to fry. I just keep a little list of things and every now and then when it feels slow, I throw a few of the "back burner" things at them.
Excellent. You should take it a step further and create some sort of "restraining order" function that forbids the blocked person from commenting in a third-party thread if you've already posted there. I know you can already hush users and their comments will sort to the bottom of the thread, but it's not enough. People have the right to feel safe in any thread, not just their own, and currently this right is being denied. I also think there should be a site-wide word filter that prevents certain words from being displayed, regardless of who wrote them. Even if I can no longer see a blocked user's comments, someone else might mention his nickname in passing and ruin my day. There's still a lot of work to do to make Hubski a truly friendly, positive and open community, but this is a step in the right direction. Thanks, Hubski team!
Grendel : member for: 64 days
galen : member for: 372 days
I try to imagine a post as a cocktail party. If I am hosting the party, the people that are there are those I will tolerate. However, if someone at my party doesn't see the qualities that I do in my old high school buddy, then they shouldn't have to suffer his conversation. But, if my buddy starts getting in people's faces and going on about how the world is ruled by lizard people, or is just being a dick in general, then I'm going to show him to the door. Maybe there will be a house party down the street that will appreciate him more.
Implying the world isn't ruled by lizard people.
> I also think there should be a site-wide word filter that prevents certain words from being displayed, regardless of who wrote them. This could be cool if it's more of a map than a filter. For example, I don't like the number 7; I'd like to have all instances of 7 replaced with "over 9000"
I would like to make a design/feature suggestion regarding collapsible comments. I like reddit's better -- you can collapse the parent as well. Why not put the little - mark directly to the right of the +! to maintain stylistic symmetry, with the additional benefit that you can collapse the parent comment as well? It'll look way prettier and give us more options. EDIT oh mk's gone now ... insomniasexx
Let me voice the dissent. I prefer to keep the parent uncollapsed, because it helps me know which threads I've already interacted with. It's the way most every reddit app works, and it's really the way I wish reddit itself worked.
I agree. I don't really care where the UI element goes, but collapsing a thread should collapse the parent too.
I really like the idea of being able to block someone's PMs like this, but I'm not sure I agree with how it was implemented. Hush, filter, and mute have a good thing going for them, they are ACL based and you can individually choose which features for each user you wish to apply to different users. The way that block is worded: Makes it a little less consistent in design terms. If I wish to for example, block a person's PMs because they are just being annoying and flooding me with messages, but in general are a decent person, that should be something you should be able to block without hush/filter/muting them. Also I think there might be instances where you in fact disagree with someone strongly and want to hush, mute and block, but not filter their posts because they might actually share interesting things. These are just two examples off the top of my head, but the simplicity of the design of ACLs in general are better practice IMHO. It gives more power to the user that way. So my suggestion would be: That way if someone wants to block, mute, filter, and hush someone, they just check all four boxes. It doesn't remove any functionality of the new feature, it just adds some granularity to the feature and keeps the existing features and design consistent on the site.block: hush, filter, mute, and {user} and I cannot PM or reply to each other
hush: sort {user}'s comments to the bottom of threads
filter: remove {user}'s posts from my feeds
mute: {user} cannot comment on my posts
block: {user} and I cannot PM or reply to each other
That's a fair point. Part of the reason why I chose to make block inclusive is that I really would like to see the functionality only used in rare circumstances. I would hate to see people using block as a common way of customizing their experience. By making it inclusive, my intention is that the decision to block a user could not be made lightly.
Seems like a lot of agonizing over the decision to introduce a feature which amounts to "Now you can check one box instead of three, and also prevent something that no one was complaining about." I do not mute any active users. What's the point, when I have to count on everyone else also muting them to keep them from annoying me? It's like voting. I am not interested in controlling anyone else's behavior. I just want to control my experience. I would prefer an option to not see comments from people who annoy me. Collapsible comments is a great addition. I still have to scroll through the tree to see if there are any recent comments, though. Adding a timestamp to the collapse marker (showing time since last comment in the entire tree) would be ugly, but perhaps it could be added as a tooltip?
Yes. There were complaints. Just not public ones. It became a big deal behind the scenes, and no one should have to tolerate legit harassment. The option was to make PM unavailable to muted users, but that has been hashed elsewhere, and people seem not to like the idea (due to having the option to try to resolve differences out of the public eye). This was an alternative, nuclear option."...prevent something that no one was complaining about."
The only difference is, when someone is muted, they can't respond to any of your threads, but you can still PM and talk to each other in other threads. With blocking, there's no PMing and there's no ability to respond to any of their comments in any thread.
I don't care where the troll comments or what they say. I am not interested in trying to control their behavior. My proposal is to make it easier to ignore trolls by concealing their comments.they can't respond to any of your threads
Great, but my posts make up a tiny fraction of the content I consume.With blocking, there's no PMing
That's the conceivably useful new feature I didn't see anyone clamoring for.no ability to respond to any of their comments
I missed this. So the troll has to wait for someone else to comment first, then they can comment. Or they can comment parallel to my comment.
I would prefer an option to not see comments from people who annoy me.
This is essentially the "hush" option, right?
no hush just sorts to the bottom of the thread. idk about other people but i like to go to the bottom to see what thoughts people might be missing. i think wasoxygen is saying it should look like the removed user didn't comment at all
i think wasoxygen is saying it should look like the removed user didn't comment at all
Then Hush people and just don't go to the bottom. Geez.... wasoxygen sure is needy.
That doesn't work. 1. "To avoid seeing something, stop scrolling as soon as you have seen it." Too late. 2. If thenewgreen says something awesome, then jerkface replies with something stupid, thenewgreen's comment and the stupid reply will be at the top.just don't go to the bottom
That is true. Though, it's not likely that thenewgreen will ever say anything "awesome."
As an additional request insomniasexx, mk, can I have an option in preferences to automatically collapse the comments made by the people I have blocked.
Good idea. Added to the shortlist for post-vacation features/bugfixes.
Also if possible have PM block separate from comment reply block.
Blocking a person + no PMs means no chance for recuperation too :(
Mute used to prevent PMs. The work-around was to find a mutual friend and get them to intercede on your behalf. This is why me and ghostoffuffle are not only speaking again, I've mixed two of his songs.
Yes, this is what a rational person would do. However, as far as I am concerned, "block," would likely be used to keep irrational people out of my Hubski experience. As of yet, I cannot think of an instance when I would have used "block" on an actual user of Hubski, but I would for some of the comment spammers. If I were to see that another Hubski user was blocking people frivolously, I would think less of that Hubskier. I might even "filter" or "mute" that user.
There have been some nasty arguments that resolved in mutual filtering. I'm pretty sure the arguing parties talked it out via PM and un-filtered each other, albeit after some time passed to decrease the bitch caliber. I've seen it happen a few times.
Apparently I'm irrational enough to be blocked by rd95 simply for pointing out his trolling; not like it's any big loss to me, but I did find it interesting how quick some people are to block, mute and filter. Is there any way to see who is blocking who? I think it could be nice if it was made public on the person's profile.
i'm curious what benefit people see in knowing who has blocked whom. i find it sort of burn book-esque, but i'm sure there's a good reason for wanting it
It is true, I don't know what kind of concrete benefit would come from it, but I think it could help people navigate the social groups and get a better feeling for who is who, how they moderate their posts, and what types of posts they're likely to share. The profile already shows users we follow, for that purpose, I assume. For example, if a person is sharing a bunch of pro-GMO articles and has a bunch of anti-GMO contributors blocked, I might want to avoid (or seek out, depending on who's who) following that person and engaging in their posts. With the current tools, I don't think there's any way to do it. I suppose it could be used as some sort of "burn book" but I don't think there is any shame in blocking people you don't want contact with. Let it be open and honest, though, so users can see and navigate the social web.
Hmm that's interesting -- framing it as positive social lubricant. That didn't occur to me. I've been picturing it as lines in the sand. Of course there's no shame in blocking people; life's too short to get flustered over internet jerks.
To discuss post vacay: This is how I originally set up collapsable comments. I think I had to redo the organization of the comments / info / etc.
Here's CSS for stylebot or whatever. Change the background color to whatever you want (I'm on spring). It's borked when it's collapsed though. This s all I can do for now. .togglesubcom {
color: white;
position: absolute;
cursor: pointer;
margin: 13px -7px;
background-color: #EBC400;
padding: 5px 3px 8px;
line-height: 0;
}
Personally, if someone blocked me, I'd still like to see the conversations going on, even if I'm unable to respond. Being blocked and muted are hard enough shutouts as it is. Why make it worse? Edit: At the same time, if I block someone and see over time that their behavior is changed, I'd be very willing to unblock them. If I can't read their posts, how will I ever know that that's happened?
Fair point. I guess there is no perfect system. My problem with blocking is it goes beyond "personal moderation" when I can now control the experience of others on the site. If it were just me hiding someone's comments from myself it doesn't affect anyone else.
I'm a bit apprehensive about the block, as I can see it being abused. I don't think I'll ever use it myself personally, as it really feels like overkill. I like the ability to collapse and uncollapse the comment tree. That'll make sorting through comments a bit easier, especially in places like Pubski where there can be multiple discussion threads branching off of one comment.
Hmm, it does seem like the most overkill option, but I hope that in practice it will only be used for anti-harassment. Past that it doesn't change previous mute functionality, and "freedom of speech" topics usually don't extend to unwanted, private communication.I'm a bit apprehensive about the block, as I can see it being abused. I don't think I'll ever use it myself personally, as it really feels like overkill.