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If X truly had record engagement, as he previously touted, blocking accounts would not be an issue. I've always had a neutral opinion of Elon, but he often talks out of both sides of his mouth.
 
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We need blocking as some people come on the web just looking to argue. I never respond to those post & will have to leave twitter if that is removed. Too many wachos out there...
I mean MacRumors doesn't have blocking. Are you leaving MacRumors on this observation?
 
Now you're getting why blocking is not useful. 🙂
I don’t disagree that there are folks like yourself who are (weirdly) well-acquainted with the various methods of stalking you’ve described. Fortunately for the rest of us there are platforms that aren’t run by man-children that don’t plan to remove the ability to block the average user.
 
I don’t disagree that there are folks like yourself who are (weirdly) well-acquainted with the various methods of stalking you’ve described. Fortunately for the rest of us there are platforms that aren’t run by man-children that don’t plan to remove the ability to block the average user.

You quitting X instead of trying to argue to save the block feature? Now that's something I can agree on.
 
Now you're getting why blocking is not useful. 🙂
Again, you're arguing blocking isn't useful because people can create another account, while also arguing that muting is useful even though people can create another account. This is contradictory.


I mean MacRumors doesn't have blocking. Are you leaving MacRumors on this observation?
Again, MacRumors has effective moderation, including bans.
 
Hmmmmmmm. Maybe he is rethinking this whole block thing after all.

Screenshot 2023-08-20 145456.jpg
 
Again, assuming I'm a troll, you can block me on X and I'll just switch to a different account. What do you do then? I have tons of twitter accounts (mostly from developing bots for various clients to bypass api limits).
I can easily buy 100 twitter accounts today for cheap using BTC to add to my large arsenal of twitter accounts. Blocking doesn't fix.

A troll would enjoy seeing you being frustrated at blocking every account.
Okay yes, you could be right in this case, but how exactly does Mute solve that issue ? Yes, it’s hard to know whether you were muted or not, unlike when you’re blocked as you’d immediately know it by visiting the profile of person who blocked you, fair enough. But again, how exactly does Mute solve the issue ? If I can’t see the troll’s annoying posts, but I know that they can see everything I post and even follow me, I still wouldn’t be feeling safe at all. Plus that will NOT stop them, even if they don’t know they were muted.
And let’s assume the troll somehow discovered they were muted, what are they gonna do ? Switch accounts. Same issue.

Because that’s not even that main use case of the Mute feature. The main use for it is; let’s say you’re friends with someone for example, but that person posts too much or their posts are annoying. And you don’t wanna block or unfollow them, so you just mute them and their posts won’t appear in your feed. They’ll not even know it when they go on your profile.


The Block feature on the other hand is intended to be used with the trolls, annoying people who keep writing offensive comments on your posts, and it works 99% of the time. I had someone annoying me on Twitter before and I blocked them, they never came back to me with hundreds of accounts or anything. So the point is, it just WORKS most of the time.
The case of the troll with the hundreds of accounts, I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but most of the time only a VERY obsessed stalker would actually do that. And in that case imo, I feel like neither Block or Mute would perfectly work. If I block them, they’d keep coming back to me with their hundreds of accounts as you mentioned, but if I mute them, I just wouldn’t feel safe knowing that I’m being somewhat “watched” by them.
But I’m guessing they could somehow eventually give up when they realize that I keep blocking every account they make. Like they do have to give up at some point.. unless they got nothing else to do in their life other than stalking and trolling people on the internet.

Agree to disagree. Seemingly useful for many people, sure. But not actually useful.
Well, now you’re the one agreeing to disagree here. If it’s not useful for you, just don’t use it. You don’t have to find every single feature useful, but that doesn’t mean it’s not actually useful for other people. For example, I myself don’t find the Twitter Blue subscription feature useful at all (or whatever it’s called right now). Does that mean it’s actually not useful at all for other people and therefore should be removed ? Not at all. I simply don’t use it.

Same case here. You’re free to have your opinions on using the Block feature, but that doesn’t mean it’s not actually useful and therefore should be removed. If that feature was actually useless, why does it exist in almost every popular social media platform/messaging app ? Why has it never been removed from any of the other social media platforms/messaging apps ? Because it’s useful for lots of people, and therefore there’s no reason to remove it.
So removing the Block feature regardless of whether or not you think it’s useful is just a wrong decision. Period.
 
Hmmmmmmm. Maybe he is rethinking this whole block thing after all.

View attachment 2248431
Not surprising at all, he has always been very contradictory with himself lol. I highly doubt he actually thinks it’s useless, like I already mentioned, he was probably just mad at all the people who blocked him 😅
 
Okay yes, you could be right in this case, but how exactly does Mute solve that issue ?

It doesn't solve it as much as a block doesn't solve it. But it certainly doesn't make it worse.
Yes, it’s hard to know whether you were muted or not, unlike when you’re blocked as you’d immediately know it by visiting the profile of person who blocked you, fair enough. But again, how exactly does Mute solve the issue ? If I can’t see the troll’s annoying posts, but I know that they can see everything I post and even follow me, I still wouldn’t be feeling safe at all. Plus that will NOT stop them, even if they don’t know they were muted.

And let’s assume the troll somehow discovered they were muted, what are they gonna do ? Switch accounts. Same issue.

I explained this earlier when I said "Could someone switch accounts and post something that you can see? Sure, but they won't know you muted them unless you told them. So either way, it works.".

Because that’s not even that main use case of the Mute feature. The main use for it is...

The Block feature on the other hand is intended to be used with the...

I'm well aware of how things work. What I said still stands...

Well, now you’re the one agreeing to disagree here. If it’s not useful for you, just don’t use it.

Ok.

You don’t have to find every single feature useful,

Ok.

but that doesn’t mean it’s not actually useful for other people.

*seemingly* useful IMO.

For example, I myself don’t find the Twitter Blue subscription feature useful at all (or whatever it’s called right now).

Okay? Irrelevant IMO.


Same case here. You’re free to have your opinions on using the Block feature, but that doesn’t mean it’s not actually useful

It's really subjective so, I think it's *seemingly* useful for everyone. You think it's actually useful. Agree to disagree here.

and therefore should be removed.

My stance is to have engineers work on something more important than removing block but if Elon wants to remove it, I'm not going to fight to keep it. I'm not actively advocating to remove it.

If that feature was actually useless, why does it exist in almost every popular social media platform/messaging app ?

I mean it doesn't exist on MR. Sure it might not be a platform, but all we have is an ignore button.

Why has it never been removed from any of the other social media platforms/messaging apps ?

It's a lot of work for very little ROI. Like I said, I think engineers are better spent elsewhere developing new features. I'm not actively arguing to remove it, but I sure am not going to argue to keep it.

Because it’s useful for lots of people,

It's *seemingly* useful. Agree to disagree. Period.
 
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You quitting X instead of trying to argue to save the block feature? Now that's something I can agree on.
I deleted *twitter when an attention seeking child took it over some time ago, and was never arguing to save the block feature. Just pointing out how stupid removing it is. And if you haven’t noticed, you’re in the minority suggesting otherwise. Although something tells me that’s probably a badge of honor for you.
 
It doesn't solve it as much as a block doesn't solve it. But it certainly doesn't make it worse.
Okay, let’s say you muted some stalker, and you were fully aware that they could still follow you and see your posts, how would you feel ? Let’s also assume you don’t wanna switch your account to private because of the obvious limitations of having a private account on Twitter/X.
You might think it kinda works, but for me I’d never feel safe just knowing that someone is secretly watching my posts, possibly interacting with them, could be even threatening me but I just can’t see their posts so I have no idea. For me, it just doesn’t work either. In both cases, I’d still feel unsafe.

Well no, I use it to troll the trolls. I'd block them when I know they're typing up a response. Then unblock them to say "what do you mean? I never blocked you". Then I show a screenshot of me muting them and turning on quality notification filters so that if they do switch accounts, they know they probably won't appear in my notifications.

Fun? Yes. Useful, not really.
It's really subjective so, I think it's *seemingly* useful. You think it's actually useful. Agree to disagree here.
Again, Block is useful 99% of the time and it just works against the random annoying people you sometimes happen to argue with. In the case of the stalking trolls with multiple account, neither Block nor Mute are really that useful. In both cases, you’d just still feel unsafe just knowing that someone is stalking you.
But these are your opinions so yes, let’s agree to disagree.

I mean it doesn't exist on MR. Sure it might not be a platform, but all we have is an ignore button.
As the others already mentioned, the moderation here in MacRumors is very effective unlike the moderation of the big social media platforms who rarely even do anything about reports. But thanks to the moderation here, if an account gets a fair amount of reports for being a troll/bot account, they’ll be banned pretty quickly.

But look at Twitter/X, it’s full of bots, scammers, fake “verified” accounts, bullies, trolls, racists everywhere and Elon has not done anything about any of them. This alone says it all.

My stance is to have engineers work on something more important than removing block but if Elon wants to remove it, I'm not going to fight to keep it. I'm not actively advocating to remove it.
It's a lot of work for very little ROI. Like I said, I think engineers are better spent elsewhere developing new features. I'm not actively arguing to remove it, but I sure am not going to argue to keep it.
Well this is only because you don’t find it useful, unlike the majority of us here. I bet you’d be arguing otherwise if you actually found it useful. But again, these are your opinions and you’re free to have them so I’m not gonna argue about that.
 
Okay, let’s say you muted some stalker, and you were fully aware that they could still follow you and see your posts, how would you feel ?


No different than blocking that stalker because the stalker can switch accounts and follow me again (which has happened).


Again, Block is useful 99% of the time

Agree to disagree

and it just works against the random annoying people you sometimes happen to argue with.

Mute works. Even better than block than some cases.

In the case of the stalking trolls with multiple account, neither Block nor Mute are really that useful. In both cases, you’d just still feel unsafe just knowing that someone is stalking you.
But these are your opinions so yes, let’s agree to disagree.

Great.

As the others already mentioned, the moderation here in MacRumors is very effective

Well yes, there is intense moderation. But there's no way for MR to detect new signups from different IPs. If one user gets banned, it's not hard to bypass checks to prevent multiple accounts.

So really, in terms of "stalking", it's not solved by intense moderation by MR so far. Perhaps trolling is minimized but I've noticed plenty of passive aggressive post/sarcasm between the lines which passes the rules but gets the insulting point across. I'd argue MacRumors is moderating too much as they see some posts are insulting when they are really not and discourages others from freely speaking their mind.

Absence of moderation, blocking wouldn't address trolling anyways for the reason given above.

But look at Twitter/X, it’s full of bots, scammers, fake “verified” accounts, bullies, trolls, racists everywhere and Elon has not done anything about any of them. This alone says it all.

Mute them. Very simple.

Well this is only because you don’t find it useful, unlike the majority of us here.

I'm sure majority here think it's useful when it's really seemingly useful.

I bet you’d be arguing otherwise if you actually found it useful.

Okay? If I think it's truly useful, I'd argue it is useful. Yes.

But again, these are your opinions and you’re free to have them so I’m not gonna argue about that.

Great.
 
My first reaction was WTF?! But knowing how Twitter is, now I can see why eliminating blocking makes sense. There's too many posters(tweeters) that try to control the narrative of a Twitter thread by blocking others. Blocking is being used this way more than the legit reasons to block someone. It degrades the experience of Twitter.

YouTube did something similar twice. First it stopped users from deleting replies under their comment. And years later they disabled the thumbs down button for content creators and comments. Users were just taking too much advantage of it for the wrong reasons.
 
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Blocking is dumb. Muting is the way to go. If somebody posts something I should have the right to respond to it. If you don't like the response or any of my responses by all means mute me, to include the original "tweet"er person, they can choose to mute me as well. But in a free speech environment, I should be able to comment on a post meant for the public. If its abusive, there are other rules that come into play that could result in that offense meaning you risk account suspension or termination or even criminal probes if the offense reaches a certain level.

Just the idea of someone making a point, counterpoint, comment, or statement shouldn't give that person to control what responses are valid (in their eyes). Like it or not, Twitter/X is a public forum, so when making a post, you need to understand there are a myriad of views and responses coming your way. Thats the way it should work.

For those saying Musk is running Twitter/X into the ground, I disagree. I find it way more useful and engaging now. Especially the "For you" section. I've found so many more interesting subjects to pay attention to from that.
 
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Blocking is dumb. Muting is the way to go. If somebody posts something I should have the right to respond to it. If you don't like the response or any of my responses by all means mute me, to include the original "tweet"er person, they can choose to mute me as well. But in a free speech environment, I should be able to comment on a post meant for the public. If its abusive, there are other rules that come into play that could result in that offense meaning you risk account suspension or termination or even criminal probes if the offense reaches a certain level.

Just the idea of someone making a point, counterpoint, comment, or statement shouldn't give that person to control what responses are valid (in their eyes). Like it or not, Twitter/X is a public forum, so when making a post, you need to understand there are a myriad of views and responses coming your way. Thats the way it should work.

For those saying Musk is running Twitter/X into the ground, I disagree. I find it way more useful and engaging now. Especially the "For you" section. I've found so many more interesting subjects to pay attention to from that.

You said it better than me. 👍
 
Sure am glad I have never got involved with any of these parasite web groups. They all have as their first demand access to my contacts. A huge NO.
There’s irony in this post you made on a web group dedicated to one sentient company…
 
Similar to mute. Thanks for proving that all we need is mute and not block? 🙂

Have a good one.
Ignore here is a bit more drastic than mute on the platform formerly known as twitter, it’s legit more akin to block

More to the point this is a much smaller and heavily moderated platform, the modmins can handle a vastly greater percentage of problems directly than twitter could even approach back when it had its pre-musk headcount
 
But in a free speech environment, I should be able to comment on a post meant for the public. If its abusive, there are other rules that come into play that could result in that offense meaning you risk account suspension or termination or even criminal probes if the offense reaches a certain level.

Just the idea of someone making a point, counterpoint, comment, or statement shouldn't give that person to control what responses are valid (in their eyes). Like it or not, Twitter/X is a public forum, so when making a post, you need to understand there are a myriad of views and responses coming your way. Thats the way it should work.
What if the comment is just harassment? Or what if it's spreading misinformation? Why does any nobody in their parent's basement have a right to post a "counterpoint" to a peer-reviewed scientist's Tweet?

For those saying Musk is running Twitter/X into the ground, I disagree. I find it way more useful and engaging now. Especially the "For you" section. I've found so many more interesting subjects to pay attention to from that.
That says much more about you and your interests/beliefs than it does about anybody else. Anecdotes aren't evidence. Unless Elon is overriding the "For you" section to not be algorithmically generated.
 
What we really need is a social network that requires users to upload a license/ID and educational background to create a profile.

Then you're only able to follow accounts of people who have completed more schooling than yourself.

Your crazy conspiratorial uncle who dropped out of HS? If you completed more schooling than him, won't have to see any of his posts.
 
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