Ask Lemmy

My blocklist is 30~40 users long. [For reference, my blocklist in Reddit reached 400 or so.]

To keep it short, I typically block people who, egregious or consistently:

• show lack of reasoning, even if I agree with the conclusion
• misrepresent what others say
• take things off context to judge them, even if I agree with the judgement
• vomit lots of "hard" certainty on things that they cannot reasonably know (e.g. the others' emotional states over the internet)
• engage in passive aggressiveness (note that I tolerate some clear hostility, just not pass-aggro)
• show clear signs of sealioning (e.g. "I don't understand" + misrepresentation of what someone else said)
• tell others shit like "trust me" = "I expect you to be a gullible piece of rubbish"

Note that "egregious or consistently" are key words here. Like, I'm not going out of my way to block someone out of a brainfart; this is not some sort of petty revenge, it's just removing from my sight people who I believe to not contribute with my overall Lemmy experience. I also don't take issue when people block me, for whatever reason they might have.

Tankies go straight to the Shadow Realm

I block assholes. It drives me up the wall when someone is disrespectful for no reason. I also dislike those who get unnecessarily aggressive on the first message because the previous comment doesn't align with their views. I'll usually set a boundary and let people correct their attitude. After that, I'll block.

I'm also considering blocking those who make a hobby of subverting the previous comment by twisting people's words and overloading them with something the person did not mean to say, but those are trickier.

I’ve blocked a few bots but I would only block an actual person if they’re harassing me. I’d rather downvote or report people that are saying hateful things.

Ad hominem -> block.

I have 85 people blocked. Most of them for spamming, probably. The rest for harshing my mellow by aggressively being assholes to others or just because I've realized my personal experience is more pleasant with their absence.

I don't owe my attention to anyone. I see lots of comments here about refusing to censor alternate points of view, but that's not it. I can enjoy healthy disagreement, but some folks make some agenda their entire identity and I just get tired of them constantly injecting it into every conversation.

On the other hand there've been many people I've disagreed with, engaged with, found some common ground, and continue to enjoy their presence even knowing we don't see eye to eye. Or, if they post about other things, I just ignore the rants I disagree with. It's not filtering out points of view, it's filtering out people whose presence makes Lemmy a source of stress rather than an interesting, vibrant community. That's obviously very subjective, but it's my block list and my peace of mind.

Not tagging NSFW posts

2

I don't block people because I think it's important to understand that people have different viewpoints and ways of articulating them

You usually block people for good audience sight-lines and sensible character interactions. It can also communicate relationships non-verbally.

And you want to avoid awkward shuffling as they enter and exit the stage.

Blocking is important in film as well, but less so due to close ups, shot reverse-shoot, and editing.

Mostly just tankies, they irritate the hell outta me.

Posting/commenting right wing garbage or tankie “North Korea is a great place” bullshit. Also flat earther crap. Pretty much any insane, out of touch with reality stuff.

• Genocide denial
• Fascism
• Racism
• Bad-faith arguments
• Really really stupid & low effort
• Consistently really really negative
• Vote manipulation
• Spam, CSAM

I've banned 1074 accounts from the instance I run, most of them for boring reasons like spam. Usually between 1 and 10 per day.

My block list has I think 7 people on it. I only block if someone makes my Lemmy experience worse any time I see something from them. Disagreement I am fine with. It's healthy to see other viewpoints, even if I don't agree. (Or if it's an issue of morality, like not viewing minorities as people, a grim reminder that people think like that. Fortunately by the time I see those, someone else has replied on the matter.) Being inflammatory and adding no value to any discussions is what gets you blocked for me. I know I have blocked several spammers, but it appears that their accounts got deleted.

I have blocked many communities though. It's mostly porn. Furry porn, not for me. Anime porn where the subjects look too young... Just don't want to see that. Porn that just isn't my taste. I would just block NSFW but there is some NSFW that isn't necessarily porn that I want to see. (Ex: frank discussions about anatomy)The stuff that isn't porn is just communities that are inflammatory echo chambers.

I browse all because I don't have many subscriptions that are active, so that is why I have so many communities blocked.

I don't block people, even if someone is being stupid I doubt I'd run into them that often again. But of course, if someone was personally harrassing me, I'd block, it just hasn't happened here.

I usually tag problematic users (usually those who constantly discuss in bad faith, are needlessly hostile or rude towards other users, or push dis/misinformation and propaganda) so I know who are repeat offenders with consistent bad behaviour, but I rarely block people unless it's very clear that they have no interest in participating in good faith or are so irritating that I can't deal with them anymore. A lot of problematic users still have valuable things to say and I'd rather not make my feed an echo chamber, even if those people often piss me off with their nonsense. But with some of them it sure is tempting.

I've never blocked someone. Idk why. Maybe too much action for something that doesn't make any big difference.

This isn't meant to judge over people who block others, there could be good reasons like stalking etc.

People that are needlessly hostile, and persistent on continuing their hostility get blocked. I've only needed to do that 1 or 2 times on Lemmy since I already blocked the most overtly hostile instances.

Blocked bots or blatant ads

If you're a massive tool or a spambot I'll block you.

My block list is pretty small and most of 'em are advertising spambots I've encountered. Only, like 3 of them are dicks.

Furries, gay porn, sports, and posts in languages I don't understand.

In my case, most users I've blocked were for shitty behavior. I have zero tolerance for that. If someone speaks to me or others in a way they wouldn’t dare to in real life, I block them instantly. I don’t mind disagreements or different opinions, but I won’t waste time with mean or nasty people.

The second most common reason is shallow, one-sentence replies only meant to fish for upvotes without adding value to the discussion. Jokes are fine, but if you're just echoing what's popular for applause, you’re gone. Nothing wrong with that per-se, but I’m more interested in serious conversations.

Lastly, there are petty reasons. For example, overused phrases like 'fuck around and find out' will get you blocked too.

I haven't blocked anyone individually, but I found blocking hexbear and lemmygrad made an immediate vast improvement.

Saying shit that makes me think they'll be a reliably crazy contributor to conversations.

1. Spam
2. CSAM/defending posting CSAM
3. incessant hornyposting on unrelated topics. Not like making a sex joke a couple of times, but a persistent history of pornbrain comments in non-NSFW communities. It's just annoying.

My blocklist (outside of spam accounts) is like 5-6 people on Lemmy. But it's definitely larger on other social media sites because there are a cesspool of people doing #2 and 3.

I only block one user, because they brought their political topic to unrelated communities, and declared to continue to do so.

Just did not want to keep reading it. The person only has this one topic too, I am not missing out.

I once blocked someone who gave me unsolicited advice on how to cook a chicken.

Spam.

And posting nsfw content without tags.

Here I haven't blocked anyone else than people who fall into those two categories for now.

But I'll block anyone posting illegal and vile stuff. I accept other points of view, but only if they keep it legal and, where pertinent, consensual.

Only if they're very annoying and waste everyones time. And annoying bots. I've changed instances and now my blocklist is only one bot. Usually when I'm offended, it's spam. Rarely someone getting personal and yelling at people. I report that and usually the account gets suspended and I don't need to block anything. I'm not hesitant, though. If someone wastes my time more than once, I don't see any reason to continue with that. But since I only watch my subscribed communities, I'm not very exposed to those kinds of people. And I don't care at all if someone disagrees with me or has some mild behavioral issues. I'm used to that (on the internet) and wouldn't block someone just for that.

I try not to block people, but if you prove to me you want nothing but to put me down with shit you made up in your head about me, that's usually what does it. Also tankie assholes or just people who want to gin up an argument where there shouldn't be one.

I have blocked a LOT of communities because I don't want my feed to be half porn and images of weirdly sexualized anime girls who appear to be children. That shit is insanely creepy and besides not enjoying it, I don't want people who glance at my phone to think I'm a pervert.

I don't. I don't block anyone.

I’m blocking a couple of bots but no actual people.
Though I guess I would block someone if they were being persistently trying to harass me. I can take offensive internet behavior, but not if you’re coming after me as a person.

Hexbear users mostly. About 20 of them harrased me because I said South Park is funny. One guy was even using an alt to insult me on all of my unrelated comments. That was my introduction to Hexbear lol.

Annoying me

If it sounds subjective as shit, that's because it is. It follows my vibe for that day.

I would rather block every shitty post or comment I see. So based on post and not person.

Dickheads saying Harris isn’t left enough so they’re going to go with the orange fascist instead. Just fuck all the way off with that bullshit.

I haven’t yet blocked anyone.

My opinions are formed by choosing the things that survive the gauntlet of disagreement, so that’s one “reason” down. And I haven’t yet encountered anyone who has any other way of hurting me with words, so I haven’t needed to block anyone.

I guess there’s mentioning poop while I’m eating, but those people tend to be family and I can’t block them.

I'm happy to block people. I don't owe anybody my time or energy, if they're tedious and annoying in situation a, they probably will be in B as well.

Its the internet, I just dont care. I'm going to make my experience tolerable and if I can't I'll leave. 🤷‍♂️