Make user blocks hide the name of the user :maybe:

[Kendama]

Make user block even stronger.

A certain controversial thread started a few hours ago made me think of this. People who follow this forum will know what I'm talking about, but it's only important that moderators and developers do. I won't elaborate.

Right now, when I block a user, I still see their comments as "You can't see this comment because you've blocked [User Name].", right? Well, some people are finding some usernames offensive and instead of sticking my precious hand into that particular hornet's nest, here's a practical solution.

Make it so it shows instead, "You can't see this post because you've blocked this user".

Problem solved. Out of sight, out of mind. If you think User X is a bigot, or User W is an SJW, or User Z has a potty mouth, or whatever floats your boat, it will be possible to not only ignore their opinions, but their very existence. Their freedom of speech rests enshrined, and so does our freedom to ignore them. MDex will look more and more like the Christmas special of Black Mirror, but whatever.

Someone may argue, "Yeah, but what if I want to unblock this user just once to see that comment specifically? I won't know whom to unblock from my list if their name doesn't appear in their message."

Seriously, who ever unblocks users once they're blocked? The decision to block someone is pretty extreme in my opinion and I've got less than a dozen blocks, but once I do it, I don't ever look back. Seeing their names in a comment section of a series I follow won't make me a jot more curious.

But if that's a concern to someone, just add a clickable option in the message: "Show just this once." and that will solve it.

 

[Zephyrus]

We're a big believer in self-moderation. If you don't like what someone says, you're perfectly free to ignore it. The rules we have in place are only to keep the discourse as civil as we possibly can without being Nazis.

(Though some have already accused Forum Mods of being Nazis. ;_

Ultimately, MD is a private enterprise. If we wanted to ban you for using the word "puddle", we could. But we don't do that for obvious reasons.

I quite like this idea and I will add it to the list of things for devs to look at. However, I would like to caution people that if this gets implemented, that doesn't give you free reign to create offensive avatars or usernames. As to what is considered offensive, staff usually discusses this as a whole, but the final decision usually rests with @Holo or @Ixlone as they have the power to change usernames.

Thank you for this great suggestion!

 

[Kendama]

You're welcome. I had an even better idea, then.

To obviate the need for the "Show just this once" option, or to complement it, make the "this user" clickable in the message I suggested. That way, if the reader hovers the mouse arrow over it, they'll be able to see the name of the user and go to their profile to unblock if they're really curious, though I don't know why anyone would want to do that.

 

[Holo]

I like this idea. It would certain solve the problem of controversial usernames.

 

[Kendama]

Glad to help.

About the concern Zephyrus manifested, that people might use this as an opportunity to create deliberately offensive usernames and/or avatars… give it to the community to patrol. Just like comments can be flagged by users, add a button to user profiles: "Denounce username/avatar", requiring a short explanation to be submitted. That way you won't have to cope with threads like the one that prompted me to suggest this, and you won't have to be on the lookout for offenders as other users will do that for you.

And to avoid the denouncing system being abused by people with agendas, set caps to it, like one denunciation per day per user or another period. And if someone does something so outrageous several people denounce them, you may create an auto-block mechanism that if someone is, say, denounced by 100 different users in an interval of 24 hours or less, all of said person's comments are automatically hidden pending a review by the moderators. (But that may be overkill…)

 

[crazybars]

@Kendama

There's a problem with this suggestion though. How would you ever unblock anyone ever again then? It's not like there's a block list on Mangadex you can go through and modify.

You could potentially be left with a ton of "Username Blocked" "This post was blocked" that you can't unblock because you don't know who you blocked anymore. Or rather, you wouldn't want to risk it because you've forgotten why you blocked them so you have an entire list of permanently blocked people that could get out of hand.
=======================================
Instead, how about a separate option for 'Block username' that can be toggled on and off.

 

[Kendama]

@crazybars

Your suggestion is good, it works, too. But there is a list of blocked users in your profile. It's at Social, a tab of blocked people.

And as I said… who ever unblocks someone? It's not as if the blocked person will ever send you a PM and say, "Give me another chance, I've mended my ways." And I doubt you'll ever sit down and think, "Should I reconsider my reasons for blocking User X?"

 

[crazybars]

@Kendama

Oh......Whoops. I did not even know what the social tab did lol.

As for the reconsidering blocking thing, some people just use the block function to block everyone for smallest of reasons, then unblock everyone after a time period who is not on a separate word doc list of users that they plan to block Long term.

 

[Kendama]

@crazybars

"Some people"? That's what you do, isn't it?

 

[FireFish5000]

Direct link to the blocked list for anyone who is too lazy to follow instructions
https://mangadex.org/social/blocked
Edit: Some people just block everyone, and then unblock users as they friend them on discord. People can be weird, its best to ignore the smallest 0.1%, for sanity purposes
*@firefish5000 wonders if there is a limit on the number of users you can block*
Since no one asked, it would take
5 days to block everyone if you block 1 person per second
50 days to block everyone if you block 1 person per 10 seconds
77 days to block everyone if you block 1 person per 15 seconds
171 days to block everyone if you block 1 person per 30 seconds
It becomes a fruitless task at 1 user per 2.95 minutes (new users join faster than you block).
These are all assuming a constant growth rate of ~490 users per day.

 

[firelight]

.

 

[Wolvenworks]

petition to rename everyone with "offensive names" to something silly like "peanut_butter_pancake" or "crumple_mittens". for the lulz