Current Events > Why do people defend the blocking feature on gamefaqs?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Mr_hulk88 posted...

I absolutely do. What you are telling me has been literally answered twice already. So, since I really don't like repetition, i'll do it once more for the last time, if you repeat the same thing again I'm blocking you.

Absolutely. And I said people can talk behind you back blocked or not, and that you having issue with that is more of a you problem than a problem with the blocking feature.

Perfectly.

And I said it hasn't happened to me. I have been aggressively harassed a few times.

Harassment happens directly. Has never happend to me after I block the person.

Never said it did. I am sharing my experience along with some basic common sense and most people seem to have the same opinion.

The basic common sense is for something like a block feature online is fundamentally flawed in how it can be used. And given the nature of abuse that can happen if you cannot tell people are talking behind you back then you cannot report people. It is an endless cycle if shit talking with or without the feature given the moderation here and how more or less it can be seen as ineffective in a lot of cases. I could put you on block and you would be none the wiser if I started to talk shit about you its that easy.

Baha05 posted...

And given the nature of abuse that can happen if you cannot tell people are talking behind you back then you cannot report people

It hasn't happened to me.

Operating on the assumption that people who block others give a shit what those people say afterwards.

No one does.

Malcrasternus posted...

While I personally don't use the block or even ignore features here I feel they're still good tools to have. I'm still not seeing any solid arguments on how these tools harm more than help, besides maybe hindering the flow of some topics.

The fact this got 300+ posts is nuts.

as someone said in this thread

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/7-site-suggestions/80052702

The block function makes no sense from a design perspective. It disincentives people from creating an account, especially from people who primarily care to read. As a guest user you are guaranteed all publicly accessible content. So for registered lurker users it does nothing but degrade the user experience with little benefit, since there is always that nagging thought of "Am I missing any content?" The logout trick doesn't work for boards with level reading requirements, but those boards are the exception rather than the norm. Even then, most have fairly low reading requirements so a lurker alt is all that is needed to get the full uncensored version of the board and an easy switch when you feel like posting.
The block function also creates a perverse incentive to go the throwaway route. Any account that is used for a long time will eventually accumulate a bunch of blocks, degrading the user experience with time. With throwaways, you'll get a fresh new username and an enemy block reset on a periodic basis. So unless you care for the level boards or certain community boards, having an old account is of little benefit.
The block function is also disruptive in contrast to ignore. All it takes is a "Who posted" and someone quoting it to bust the personal echo chamber to derail the topic or to turn it into some argument. It also can confuse guest users since they are immune to it.
In theory it is supposed to cut down on harassment, but in practice it is a tool weaponized by trolls to degrade the experience of other users or to gatekeep topics via a personal echo chamber. It is a hot mess and the cons outweigh the benefits as the staff have stated years ago. The 180 by the admins makes little sense, given they knew it was going to cause a ton of problems. This feature is also the most controversial and most complained about addition to the site. No other site update has seen that many complaints and problems since its implementation years ago. Overall it is a bad feature to implement. It fails to achieve its stated objective and the cost of degrading the user experience is too heavy.

It makes sense to implement in a forum that allows you to forbid guest users from viewing posts, but not in the majority of gamefaqs.

and as that thread said, one way people abuse it is locking others out of their topics who are showing up the lies the TC is telling. So it becomes a way for trolls to lock out anti trolls who expose them.

ShadowFight2 10 months ago
#91
Disagree, the block function is the best thing to happen to this site. It solved a lot of the harassment and bullying issues.

Anti trolls? You mean. . . normal people?

If a troll is trolling, then it doesn't really matter how effective they are in blocking, their shit is going to stink all the same to everyone eventually.

Malcrasternus posted...

Anti trolls? You mean. . . normal people?

If a troll is trolling, then it doesn't really matter how effective they are in blocking, their shit is going to stink all the same to everyone eventually.

blocking just prevents them from seeing your posts, they can troll others which isnt solving the issue.

a ghost feature where someone you block can see and reply to your posts but their posts are only visible to themselves (guests cant see them either) would probably deter them more.

Well this is a topic lol. It was fun for the first 100 or so posts but the constant reinteration of the same points over and over, when they are addressed, is wearing very thin.

BalloonBattle05 posted...

as someone said in this thread

Citing gwaak.

It's a bold strategy.

DrizztLink posted...

Citing gwaak.

It's a bold strategy.

what do you mean bold strategy?

lol

BalloonBattle05 posted...

blocking just prevents them from seeing your posts, they can troll others which isnt solving the issue.

a ghost feature where someone you block can see and reply to your posts but their posts are only visible to themselves (guests cant see them either) would probably deter them more.

Here's the thing, if they start trolling other people those other people can mark the posts and they can still get modded. One person deciding they are tired of dealing with a specific user that lead them to block the user is not some "get out of jail free" card trolls can use.

You're entire premise is based around people not marking moddable posts which could still happen if the blocked system didn't exist.

Tmaster148 posted...

Here's the thing, if they start trolling other people those other people can mark the posts and they can still get modded. One person deciding they are tired of dealing with a specific user that lead them to block the user is not some "get out of jail free" card trolls can use.

You're entire premise is based around people not marking moddable posts which could still happen if the blocked system didn't exist.

difference is without blocking you will ALWAYS be able to mark a post while now, someone can block you from marking their post.

they can still get modded, but the thread derailing is apparently so bad that the ignore feature wasnt enough to stop trolls, people wanted blocking to deal with them. Which means mods are insufficient enough at their jobs.

Guests are also unable to put trolls on their ignore list, while being is guest is better at reading posts because this way no one can block you

Unironically go touch grass.

BalloonBattle05 posted...

difference is without blocking you will ALWAYS be able to mark a post while now, someone can block you from marking their post.

Good luck blocking the entire board to avoid getting modded.

Wouldnt people experience severe harassment and stalking because gamefaqs mods are terrible, which is why a blocking feature needed to be added?

holy shit your still going?

I never used a record player, what actually happened when a record was broken that made it repeat segments

Error1355 posted...

holy shit your still going?

i think i figured out why a blocking feature was added to combat severe harassment.

The mods here are bad at their job enough that Reddit users complain about them.

https://www.reddit.com/r/gamefaqs/comments/jltm6l/the_moderators_on_the_gamefaqs_sight_suck/

as to why blocking on this site is more trouble, this site is similar to other internet forums such as Discord and YouTube where you see conversations happen in real time and not being able to see a blocked message can mean you miss important context in the middle of what's actually being talked about. Other sites such as Facebook and Twitter mostly have you chat with friends instead of internet users and you dont really have as much of a conversation on this site as you do here. If an internet troll tries to derail your thread, you can just set your settings to private which isnt possible on gamefaqs.

In general, GameFAQs block system is a more bad than good idea and we have it because the mods are bad enough at their jobs that trolls are capable of getting away with severe stalking/harassment and thread derailing easily. What GameFAQs really should do is have high entry requirements so its harder or more risky to ban evade.

i think i've been blocked by maybe 8 people since the feature was implimented. obviously no way to be sure and the only boards i have a firm count on are LUE and 1061, so maybe CE has more than I think. All of the ones I can name, i can also tell you the exchange that prompted the blocking. Most were just due to paper thin skin, at least one because I put too much visibility on how despicable their behavior is, and possibly one or two because I was a dog with a bone over whatever we were disagreeing on (adjacent to but a separate category than thin skin)

I can also confirm that I in no way miss seeing their posts, and in no way give a shit if they are talking about me. To my knowledge they aren't though because if they were? And somebody believed it? Shit I dunno I think it would come up.

BalloonBattle05 posted...

i think i figured out why a blocking feature was added to combat severe harassment.

The mods here are bad at their job enough that Reddit users complain about them.

https://www.reddit.com/r/gamefaqs/comments/jltm6l/the_moderators_on_the_gamefaqs_sight_suck/

as to why blocking on this site is more trouble, this site is similar to other internet forums such as Discord and YouTube where you see conversations happen in real time and not being able to see a blocked message can mean you miss important context in the middle of what's actually being talked about. Other sites such as Facebook and Twitter mostly have you chat with friends instead of internet users and you dont really have as much of a conversation on this site as you do here. If an internet troll tries to derail your thread, you can just set your settings to private which isnt possible on gamefaqs.

In general, GameFAQs block system is a more bad than good idea and we have it because the mods are bad enough at their jobs that trolls are capable of getting away with severe stalking/harassment and thread derailing easily. What GameFAQs really should do is have high entry requirements so its harder or more risky to ban evade.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/5/1/AAfSRzAAEZI_.jpg

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


because i want it to