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GunnarC

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 14, 2014
2
0
I had been looking for a way to block or stop annoying phone calls and sms messages to my iPhone 3Gs. I searched Apple Support Communities, and found nothing useful. Apparently, Apple's newest software allows customers to do so, but my phone does not run this software.

I located and tried out a solution elsewhere, which involved creating an annoyance contact, placing the callers' numbers there, setting that account's vibrations and tones off, and downloading a silent ringtone from iTunes store to assign to that account.

It worked, and I posted a solution to 2 posts where people requested similar information. I was immediately sent emails from other users berating me for responding to an unanswered 3 year old post and one that had already been answered by someone else.

I talked to an Apple Tech friend of mine, who had not heard this solution for older iPhones before. He said posters on Apple Support Communities receive "points" for each solution discovered, which raises their "support levels", or something like that. He said new solution posters are commonly afforded this treatment, lest they win points from the regulars.

End result, avoid Apple Support Communities until you have searched friendly sites, like this one, for helpful information. Apple should do away with the points and levels, as that just gives the trolls and forum sharks something to bitch about. Personally, I have been using Apple products for a long time. My Color Classic, Powerbook 1400, and Newton work just fine :) Thanks for letting me get this off my chest.
 
Last edited:

venom600

macrumors 65816
Mar 23, 2003
1,295
1,098
Los Angeles, CA
I used to jailbreak my phones for exactly this feature. There's an app on Cydia called iBlocklist that gives you very fine control not only over who it rejects, but what happens when a call or text is rejected (hang up, go to voicemail, give a busy signal, send a text or email to the person...) and you can maintain multiple blocklists. With IOS 7's block feature, I don't use it anymore, but it is nowhere near as detailed.
 

Apple fanboy

macrumors Ivy Bridge
Feb 21, 2012
55,046
52,569
Behind the Lens, UK
I had been looking for a way to block or stop annoying phone calls and sms messages to my iPhone 3Gs. I searched Apple Support Communities, and found nothing useful. Apparently, Apple's newest software allows customers to do so, but my phone does not run this software.

I located and tried out a solution elsewhere, which involved creating an annoyance contact, placing the callers' numbers there, setting that account's vibrations and tones off, and downloading a silent ringtone from iTunes store to assign to that account.

It worked, and I posted a solution to 2 posts where people requested similar information. I was immediately sent emails from other users berating me for responding to an unanswered 3 year old post and one that had already been answered by someone else.

I talked to an Apple Tech friend of mine, who had not heard this solution for older iPhones before. He said posters on Apple Support Communities receive "points" for each solution discovered, which raises their "support levels", or something like that. He said new solution posters are commonly afforded this treatment, lest they win points from the regulars.

End result, avoid Apple Support Communities until you have searched friendly sites, like this one, for helpful information. Apple should do away with the points and levels, as that just gives the trolls and forum sharks something to bitch about. Personally, I have been using Apple products for a long time. My Color Classic, Powerbook 1400, and Newton work just fine :) Thanks for letting me get this off my chest.

Didn't you know? Apple have outsourced their support communities to MacRumors! Welcome to the friendly support community!:):apple::)
 

grahamperrin

macrumors 601
Jun 8, 2007
4,942
648
Apple Support Communities (ASC) breakages, and more: thanks, but no thanks

Really?

… other users berating …

… Thanks for letting me get this off my chest.

In the past, there were too many troublemakers. Whether there's still an excess, I don't know.

For me, the beginning of the end was Apple Support Communities permalinks fail when logged in (work only whilst signed out)an extremely annoying bug with the ASC service, I doubt that it will ever be fixed.

2011: preferred alternatives to Apple Support Communities for providing support to users and developers of Apple products and services

"I wish well to the developers and users of Apple Support Communities, but I would like to give consideration to alternatives. …"​

September 2014: Unexpected transient 'Re: ' prefixes at the head (but not in the title) of a topic

Earlier that day, All images missing from thread 6448092 – with the last straw:

"The entire topic has been removed because "it contained information about beta software available only to Registered Apple Developers.".

The screenshots, maybe? Yosemite-style close, minimise and full-screen buttons were hardly a revelation. And the style of the toolbar of Safari was well publicised by Apple. The topic really wasn't about Yosemite, it was about Core Storage (and lack of documentation by Apple).

Ah well, I don't expect to use Apple Support Communities again. Farewell …"​

– and as a cherry on the top, yet another permalink failure (see above) so https://discussions.apple.com/message/26778794#26778794, which should scroll to the end of page two, presents me with the top of page one.

Thanks, but no thanks.

There'll be exceptions, for example https://discussions.apple.com/message/25571841#25571841, but there's no longer an incentive for me to use discussions.apple.com for discussions.
 

Armen

macrumors 604
Apr 30, 2013
7,405
2,274
Los Angeles
I had been looking for a way to block or stop annoying phone calls and sms messages to my iPhone 3Gs. I searched Apple Support Communities, and found nothing useful. Apparently, Apple's newest software allows customers to do so, but my phone does not run this software.

I located and tried out a solution elsewhere, which involved creating an annoyance contact, placing the callers' numbers there, setting that account's vibrations and tones off, and downloading a silent ringtone from iTunes store to assign to that account.

It worked, and I posted a solution to 2 posts where people requested similar information. I was immediately sent emails from other users berating me for responding to an unanswered 3 year old post and one that had already been answered by someone else.

I talked to an Apple Tech friend of mine, who had not heard this solution for older iPhones before. He said posters on Apple Support Communities receive "points" for each solution discovered, which raises their "support levels", or something like that. He said new solution posters are commonly afforded this treatment, lest they win points from the regulars.

End result, avoid Apple Support Communities until you have searched friendly sites, like this one, for helpful information. Apple should do away with the points and levels, as that just gives the trolls and forum sharks something to bitch about. Personally, I have been using Apple products for a long time. My Color Classic, Powerbook 1400, and Newton work just fine :) Thanks for letting me get this off my chest.

Verizon allows me to add phone numbers to a block list on the carrier level and also report certain numbers as spam.
 
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