Might there be a "block" feature in the foreseeable future Fluther?

I have a greasemonkey script that hides users. But it is really buggy and I don’t care enough to fix it and I certainly won’t make it public until it works without breaking other things.

And no, there is not feature to block users. But I wish there was.

I will acknowledge that there are times when I wish I could block certain people and yes, there have been threads that have got out of hand. I don’t think I would want a block feature in fluther though. I am here to read different perspectives on topics. I don’t always agree with everyone who posts and some people I strongly disagree with. It is up to me what I take on board and what I ignore. If we start blocking those we don’t like, disagree with, are just irritated by, I don’t think it would improve fluther. To me that goes against the whole principle behind fluther.

If you don’t like someone or someone bothers you I think you just have to ignore them. If the problem is severe, flag it and one of the mods will check it out. I think this is one of the nicest communities I have come across on the internet. It is a community though and I know I won’t and don’t like everyone who ‘lives’ here. That is just life.

@Bellatrix :: My real problem is the questions. I don’t really care about comments, but people that post three questions in a row have turned this site to shit. And especially people that slap a question mark on the end of what should be a blog post somewhere. 95% of the political questions are soapbox spouting. They have no desire to learn and they just want you to hear their stream of shit.

Quite possibly @johnpowell. Not sure how we fix that though. Do you have a suggestion for how to stop this sort of thing? I know you are a mod and I know you are all volunteers and already overworked, so any solution has to be something that can be adhered to by members.

@johnpowell What problems does this script have?

Hopefully we’ll get it. I know a lot people do not like me so it might save them a lot of time not having to read questions/answers I post.

@whitetigress Don’t believe everything that you read. There are no “gangs” on Fluther.

As for a block feature, there is no development of the site going on right now so no such feature is likely to be implemented.

I find it easiest to just ignore those posters that I don’t care for.

I am unaware of any gangs, so if there are, they have fallen beneath the notice of someone who is on here far too much.

There’s one or two people here who use confrontational language or hostile tone, stepping up to the line of a personal attack without actually crossing that line and getting modded. I’ve gotten into a few flame wars with such people, but I notice they’ve been keeping a low profile lately and/or have been tempering their comments to come across less hostile.

That said, I wouldn’t want to censor anyone. Let the mods do their jobs of removing personal attacks and, otherwise, let all viewpoints be heard.

Yes, there is a block feature. Your mind.

Just ignore those who bug you.

@jonsblond beat me to it. Except that mine would have been titled “IGNORE IT”.

Oh dear, does that make the two of us a gang?

There aren’t any gangs on Fluther. While there are handfuls of folks who share very similar viewpoints, that doesn’t constitute a gang.

Straightforward answer to the OQ is “no”.

And there are other issues far more deserving of change than a “boutique” item like this.

(such as more functionality on the mobile edition. Flagging, for instance.) Hint hint.

Wait! @johnpowell is a moderator? Like a super-double-secret-spy moderator? That would be awesome! :)

Really though, I understand where you’re coming from @whitetigress. There are some issues with newer members perceiving a clique mentality here and I wish that weren’t the case. You’ll never win a personality argument on the internet; that’s web rule #1, I believe. If you stick around, you may come to actually respect if not like the people you see as overbearing right now.

@johnpowell About what should be a blog post, yeah. I wonder if it might help if like, Fluther implemented some feature where every user could have their own blog? You know, like MySpace had. Or still has. That place even exist still lol?

Yeah, that paranoid description of yours about people ganging up on people cause they have friends…let it go, no such thing is happening, people have better things to do and they don’t care about your or anyone long enough to come up with a strategic plan that they then distribute to their ‘clique’ and go after you…seriously, trust me…people do have friends (like all people) and their friends do care about how they’re treated and maybe some people do troll after other people specifically (can’t remember who it was once…that followed me on every q just to be an idiot, he’s gone from Fluther now) but that’s not the usual way of interacting with others on here. This question about the block option has been asked a million times, it’s not going to happen, it’s antithetical to this site’s point and also, we’ve seen it done on other sites, it doesn’t work and it makes things worse.

A big problem with blocking specific people is that the conversations would sometimes not make sense. It would be as if someone is replying to an imaginary comment that doesn’t exist above. And how would it handle a quip that I posted like this and mentioned @Klavierstein whom you’re ignoring (maybe it would be grayed out like this rather than a link)? But it would be problematic overall.

anyone here remember the gang of 3 lesbians who got the mods to ban a user? good times. lol

@jonsblond

How did I manage to miss that one ?

@Buttonstc I think it was a year ago or so. A former user claimed 3 lesbians were doing their best to get rid of her here. It was interesting. hehe

Well said, @Simone_De_Beauvoir and @marinelife. Once again, we’re seeing the odd notion that one user is all alone and the others are somehow together. We’re not: we’re all here as individuals. Do some people think that we’re a bunch of digitized homunculi who live in the little box in front of them instead of being separate people just like them, with our bottoms in real chairs somewhere in the breathable atmosphere?

I’ve often wished I could automatically hide responses from people whose posts routinely annoy me. I skip them, as a rule, and won’t respond to them directly. But I have to admit that every once in a while I read a comment from one of those users that I just have to GA.

We’re better with the mix of views than we would be without it. If I came onto a site where everyone sounded like me, heaven forbid, I would either feel compelled to take the opposite position or else just run away.

Well with the gang mentality its just that I’m really looking for quality answers. That’s why I try to stay out of the social section because someone can reply with a really bone headed answer done on purpose and it strays away from the original question and get away with it. I’d rather just not have that person be able to see a question posted by me altogether just to avoid confrontation. I honestly just would like answers from a mature audience, hence blocking I think, would be able to weed out what I believe to be aggressive or clown type of answers.

@whitetigress, that is the reason for the existence of the “General” section. Any off-topic, unhelpful, wisecracking, or boneheaded answers there can be flagged.

I wasn’t in favor of the division into sections, but I can see a value to it. Some people never go near the “Social” section, and some people never stray out of it.

But there is no gang mentality.

There aren’t gangs, no, but it is important to recognize that there are cliques, just like the rest of society. People become friends, and then are more likely to defend each other if they perceive an attack, and oftentimes people become friends with the other people who think like they do, so it can seem like an orchestrated attack.

I do not recognize that there are cliques. I have friends in life and on fluther, but I am part of no clique and never have been. Friendship does not imply cliques. Exclusivity is the essence of a clique.

Well, I think by pretending we’re somehow much better than the entire rest of society, we do ourselves a real disservice, because it seems then like we’re just trying to be blind to any issues our community might have instead of acknowledging our quirks and flaws and trying to improve.

Okay, there is at least one clique.
In it are the most clever Jellies lefties, obviously with a healthy dose of wit.
It is a fairly small clique though…, it consists, until now, of one Jelly.

Edit: I forgot there is one other clique…., those of clique-believers…

@Jeruba So you are telling me that there is absolutely no gang mentality/cliques here, and it is all make belief from my part? I am just totally thinking incorrectly?

How immature. Unless someone is really sending you harassing messages every 2 minutes, a block feature is kind of childish. Handle arguments and differences like an adult.

[mod says] @Bellatrix: @johnpowell isn’t a mod, silly.
A blocking feature has been requested many, many times. We’ve gone back and forth about implementing one. If we ever do, it will be in the least obtrusive way possible. Right now, I don’t think it’s going to happen, but you never know what the future holds.

As for gangs… no such thing. People do have groups of friends, to be sure, just like any other place in the world. However, you’re just as likely to see someone disagree with their friend as with any other person on the site.

@whitetigress Welcome to the internet. It’s similar to society in the sense that every forum or website will have some people that happen to think alike. If you gave me a list of your beliefs, I could find a website for you.

@whitetigress And I suppose you think what constitutes a mature conversation is one you’re involved with? Awesome

@whitetigress, the difference between what I said and what you reflected suggests that you have a tendency to put your own loading on things and then attribute it to others. That could be part of the problem you’re perceiving.

Let me restate that for you.

I do not recognize that there are cliques.
This is a statement of my own perception. I do not make a claim to possessing absolute knowledge of the behavior of all flutherfolk. If there are groupings that fit the definition of “cliques” here, I am not aware of them. And I have no reason whatsoever to misrepresent my view.

I have friends in life and on fluther, but I am part of no clique and never have been.
I have never affiliated myself with any group that turns a cold shoulder to strangers and discourages participation by nonmembers. On the contrary, I typically make it a point to welcome newcomers to any group in which I take part.

Friendship does not imply cliques.
I enjoy a warm connection with a good many flutherfolk and a cordial if infrequent or more distant interaction with many more. Some of those are people who have been around for years; others might be someone as new as last week or last night. There is nothing exclusive about this.

Exclusivity is the essence of a clique.
Definition.

Another question about how Fluther should change written by a newb after 10 days of use? Why am I not surprised?

Seriously @whitetigress, this isn’t a great way to make friends.

If you came here to have intellectual conversation, then have it. If you run across someone you’re not fond of ignore them. If they answer your “general” question with a nasty remark, flag it and the mods will look into it for you.

O c’mon now guys. You know what the OP intended and now you want to demonstrate it?
We can defend our community and defend our friends but we’ve all seen threads derailed over minor disagreements that had nothing to do with the subject and can you fault a new person who hasn’t seen the dynamic work out over time for thinking that the clique mentality exists?

@Blueroses I was invited a very long time before I decided to join. I read threads for months prior to deciding to join. I saw no clique mentality then and still don’t now.

Yeah, I think you can or I can, anyway, fault a new person for that.
What’s wrong with just use the site a bit first…, participate in it, with an open view, and then, if one still feels that cliques are present, ask about it.

@Blueroses, I thought what the OP intended was (a) to ask for a new feature and (b) to complain that roving gangs of aggressive people are attacking newcomers. Did I misread? How would you answer the OP’s question, then?

@Blueroses We’re individuals on a website. When I challenge someone or form my opinions, I’m not thinking of what others think or feel (for the most part), I’m simply stating what I think. For example, I have a pet peeve about grammar, not because of Fluther’s standards, but because of my own idiosyncrasy.

My personality and demeanor are the same regardless of what website I’m on. Then there are moods, but that is a different story.

Didn’t we have a thread just a few days ago in which we decided to be more tolerant and welcoming of new members?

@whitetigress I’m glad you’re here, and I hope you stay. Threads in which Fluther is critiqued pretty much always turn hostile, and it’s not representative of all of Fluther.

I denno. Y’all are prolly right.
I mean, god forbid, fluther should turn into a place where just anybody can post a question without sussing out the environment first.
no insult intended to the jelly whose creative language enhances this site

While I don’t think there are ‘gangs’ roving fluther attacking people, I do agree that some threads get totally out of hand. One person takes umbrage at the comments of another (often new member) and then other people jump on board and join in. We really can’t deny that happens. To a new person, that could appear as if a gang of established members have ganged up on a new member and indeed, on many occasions that is exactly what has happened.

Denying this sort of things happens does us no good. Suggesting that the new person’s perception of what is happening is wrong, similarly does us no good. That is how they, as a relative newcomer, are viewing things. Perhaps what we could all do when one individual snipes at another jelly is to individually make a note not to join in. If the snipe is particularly nasty perhaps we can flag it and then leave the mods to deal with whatever is going on.

@Bellatrix Thanks for introducing me to the word “umbrage”.

Very welcome @Aethelflaed :-)

Suggesting that the new person’s perception of what is happening is wrong, similarly does us no good Actually @Bellatrix I’d call that a misperception.

Personally I think what they are witnessing is the “community” we have built here in Fluther.

I believe @thorninmud described the community culture best:

When a collection of individuals gets together and interacts over time, a “culture” begins to form. That just means that the collective settles into a certain pattern of behaviors that represents, more or less, an average of the individual behaviors, or at least those of the more influential individuals. It’s an often informal consensus about the rules governing interactions—what’s welcome and what rankles. This is what we often refer to as the “feel” of the place. It’s why YouTube “feels” so different from Fluther, for example. That culture may or may not become formalized in actual explicit rules that reflect the informal consensus. The formal rules are easily publicized and enforced, but the informal rules can be just as real, and people don’t know they’re there until they’ve tripped up.

Newcomers will tend to pick up on the prevailing feel of the culture. If they have a decent degree of social intelligence and a desire to be accepted, they will modify their individual behaviors to match the overall tone of the place. This is often a sub-conscious thing. As social animals, most of us have a built-in feel for how this works. But some are better at it than others.

@SpatzieLover “Misperception” suggests that there is some objective, real, true perception of Fluther that we should all strive to align ourselves to, instead of everyone having their own unique and valid viewpoint.

I detect an inconsistency between ”everyone having their own unique and valid viewpoint” (which I think is true) and ”Didn’t we have a thread just a few days ago in which we decided <anything>,” which implies a nonexistent unanimity of view.

@Jeruba Just because people have their own unique and valid viewpoints doesn’t mean they don’t also come together in their similarity to create a larger essence. What I was objecting to was the idea that there can be “false” perceptions, and then the implicit idea that there are “true” perceptions.

I beg your pardon. I did think there was such a thing as a false perception. Apparently all perceptions are true. (Except for my false perception that some perceptions are false.)

@Jeruba I don’t believe in an objective reality. Thus, there are no “true” or “false” perceptions, only perceptions.

exclusivity is the essence of a clique

I don’t know a single person who admits to being in a clique, yet we all agree that they exist.

I think we can discard the academic definition of clique to go with the emotional definition. That would be: A group with an understood, insider set of rules, into which, I do not fit.

Really, there isn’t a Jelly I dislike on an individual basis. I can relate on some level to every single one. There is an atmosphere that surrounds this place when bad vibrations are going on and I’d hate to be the newb to wander in during those times.

Yes, @Jeruba we are all individuals, but to say that we aren’t influenced by the tone of people we know is naive. I know you are not that. We do have a communal influence on the atmosphere here.

That said. I hate to fight with y’all. May I invite you to one of @mazinger88’s orgy threads for some angry, make-up lurve?

@Jeruba I agree. I certainly wasn’t one of the ones that ‘agreed on treating this or that newbie this or that way’ because I disagreed with that question’s premise as I do with this one’s – so there is no ‘uniform opinion’. Let me go pass this on to my ilk now. ~

Wow guys what’s with the personal attacks? I think the gang mentality/cliquey thing was just displayed against me. The OP is pretty straight up/black and white. I don’t know why the personal attacks are deemed necessary. Critique I can take, condescending suggestive tone is a turn off. Asking about a block feature doesn’t mean I’m asking Rome to burn down again. I’m out of here.

I have never, in all the time I’ve been here, ever felt the need or even the desire to block anyone. This place seems pretty tame to me, and I don’t even have that thick a skin. It, blocking, just doesn’t seem necessary here, but maybe either my experience or my perception is different than other people’s. The idea of there being fluther “gangs” seems really strange to me.

Anyway, this is my gang, and we advise you to just play it cool, boy.

;- )

[mod says] Please be nice, folks. Don’t make me get my whip.

@augustlan So if I wanna get some, it basically means I gotta flame everyone in here right?

Joking. :)

@Symbeline Yes, you have to be a very, very bad girl to get a whipping. ;-)

@Symbeline You, I’d whip for free. ;)

I’ve read this entire thread through four times, and I honestly do not see a single post in this thread that can be construed as a personal attack on anyone.

However, I have noticed that some people seem to think anyone who disagrees with their opinion is attacking them. That’s a different matter entirely.

Definitely no personal attacks. I’d have removed them if there were any.

There are a lot of groups of friends here. They just hang around together though, never seen much The Warriors type shit going on though. I have friends here. I don’t think we piss anyone off though, at least not really.

@Symbeline – Or you can come to my house :-p

@augustlan – Maybe no personal attacks technically, but some do seem to toe the line that a noob might take as such.

@whitetigress I don’t see any personal attacks on this thread. I see a few jellies disagreeing with each other on certain points, but no personal attacks. This may come across to you as a personal attack, but… your claims that any jellies displayed an attack against you :“I think the gang mentality/cliquey thing was just displayed against me.” is groundless and quite frankly… whiney. We’re disagreeing with you, not attacking you.

Furthermore, I don’t agree with several jellies, on pretty much anything, but I don’t feel the need for a “block” feature. If I don’t like someone, I try to not interact with them. It’s that simple.