Topic: Changes to our 'Block User' feature

Hey everyone,

Most of you are probably already aware that we have an 'Ignore User' feature across all Hookshot sites. This feature allows you to effectively hide/mute another user, so their posts don't appear for you. This is fairly widely used and for a variety of different reasons.

Shortly after adding the 'Ignore User' feature we introduced the ability to 'Block' another user that you already ignore. This meant that if you blocked someone, they wouldn't be able to see your posts either. There were a handful of situations where this was the best way to resolve differences between two users, hence the feature being added.

However, unfortunately, since we introduced the feature it has been used, in our opinion, too frequently and sometimes inappropriately which has caused other issues within the community. This is especially true when all posts on our sites are public to non-logged-in users, meaning it was easy to circumvent this measure anyway.

We've now reached a point where we don't believe the feature is being used as intended and therefore after discussing with the team, we have decided to change the functionality. You will still be able to block another user, but you will need to request a block to be applied and it will require approval by our community admin team. When applying for a block, we want to understand your reasoning so that we can see if the matter can be resolved in a better, different way that doesn't affect the flow of the community.

We believe that 99% of situations will be resolved by us simply enforcing our community rules, or by someone 'ignoring/muting' another user, and we will only approve block requests as a last resort measure.

Because of this change in approach, we have removed all existing blocks across the sites so that we can start afresh with this new approach. To be clear, all existing ignores will remain in place, just the second step 'Block' has been removed.

As always, we are committed to fostering a community that is tolerant of others, even when they have different views. Ultimately we are a united community with a love for video games.

We will continue to monitor the usage after these changes and see what further changes we believe will help us achieve that goal.

Thanks!

@antdickens good stuff 👏

Massive W. Thank you for this and for listening.

As I said on NL, that is awesome!

Many users just abused that feature Ignore is good enough!

Glad the higher-ups finally did something about this. We've alienated too many good people as is with this nonsense.

Ignoring is a good function and should stay. And it should be enough 99% of the time.

Kudos to you guys for listening to the community. Some members on here went out of their way to use this feature and it really spoilt it for others who had often done nothing to deserve the block. Let those that want to cripple their experience carry on doing that by using ignore.

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

Ah that is good news, glad the concerns raised by the fam were considered by the admin peeps.

Great news. Thanks for listening to your community.

Good job guys

It a good job I still can't see any posts from @kyleforrester87!

@JohnnyShoulder 😉

Great job lads, already apparently got people whining about seeing my posts again 👍

Great, just when I thought it was safe to post again.

@Thrillho I was thinkin the other day, we've not seen you on here for a while. How you been?

I only ignore people that are very unreasonable. However I have used the block option several times when it has become apparent that there is never going to be any kind of amicable outcome. Why should those people be able to read what I have to say as they have already proven they are not interested in finding a common ground where we can agree to disagree. So now I have to ask permission to block somebody who "I" find to be undesirable to converse with and somebody else has to decide if its acceptable for me to block them? Thankyou for taking away my ability to decide for myself..

@Northern_munkey actually a little surprised by your take buddy. I’ve always considered people willing to block on forums a bit mentally-weak and overly attached to their own subjectivity… but from our occasional interactions I’ve found you fairly grounded, open and objective. Starting to think my assumption about the type of person who would block is incorrect… and overly harsh.

Well, hopefully this won’t push you away from the site as I regularly enjoy your posts.

@colonelkilgore I've only used it as the last resort. I find everybody on here to be very reasonable and the discourse I have with everybody is what makes pushsquare the only form of social media appealing to me. If I've exhausted all possible forms of trying to find a way to resolve a difference of opinion amicably then it leaves me no choice but to use the block option. Sometimes we have to accept that it's better to cut off some people completely as harsh as that may seem. These people are very rare here in all honesty.

@Northern_munkey yeah I totally agree in regards to Push Square being a place for reasonable discussion and debate, long may that continue 🍻

@Malaise same on many levels mate… particularly the enjoyment I get from reading the posts of people whose opinions couldn’t be more diametrically opposed to my own. It’s one of my main sources of comedy 🤣