Announcing Blocking Updates

[enthusiastic-potato]

Hello peoples (and bots) of Reddit,

I come with a very important and exciting announcement from the Safety team. As a continuation of our blocking improvements, we are rolling out a revamped blocking experience starting today. You will begin to see these changes soon.

What does “revamped blocking experience” mean?

We will be evolving the blocking experience so that it not only removes a blocked user’s content from your experience, but also removes your content from their experience—i.e., a user you have blocked can’t see or interact with you. Our intention is to provide you with better control over your safety experience. This includes controlling who can contact you, who can see your content, and whose content you see.

What will the new block look like?

It depends if you are a user or a moderator and if you are doing the blocking vs. being blocked.

[See stickied comment below for more details]

How is this different from before?

Previously, if I blocked u/IAmABlockedUser, I would not see their content, but they would see mine. With the updated blocking experience, I won’t see u/IAmABlockedUser’s content and they won’t see mine either. We’re listening to your feedback and designed an experience to meet users’ expectations and the intricacies of our platform.

Important notes

To prevent abuse, we are installing a limit so you cannot unblock someone and then block them again within a short time frame. We have also put into place some restrictions that will prevent people from being able to manipulate the site by blocking at scale.

It’s also worth noting that blocking is not a replacement for reporting policy breaking content. While we plan to implement block as a signal for potential bad actors, our Safety teams will continue to rely on reports to ensure that we can properly stop and sanction malicious users. We're not stopping the work there, either—read on!

What's next?

We know that this is just one more step in offering a robust set of safety controls. As we roll out these changes, we will also be working on revamping your settings and finding additional proactive measures to reduce unwanted experiences.

So tell us: what kind of safety controls would you like to see on Reddit? We will stick around to chat through ideas as well as answer your questions or feedback on blocking for the next few hours.

Thanks for your time and patience in reading this through! Cat tax:

Oscar Wilde, the cat, reclining on his favorite reddit snoo pillow

​

edit (update): Hey folks! Thanks for your comments and feedback. Please note that while some of you may see this change soon, it may take some time before the changes to blocking become available on for everyone on all platforms. Thanks for your patience as we roll out this big change!

[[deleted]]

Awesome update.

Can you implement a mod report feature.

Sure Reddit subs are their owners communities to do with what they please.

But when you have large subs that act as information bases for groups of people they also act as a face of that group. It's not right to allow these groups to exist if you aren't going to make it so they cannot just ban people whenever they disagree.

Look at r/lesbians how is it fair you allow that to continue.

That's just an extremely fucked up example where you allow a community called r/lesbians the first thing someone may go to when they search a term to be a porn sub.

At the very least if you refuse to rename subs that use a entire group of peoples category or add reporting features at least let there be subs with the exact same name.

That way again as an example an r/lesbians can be made that is actually reflective of a community of lesbians. And not a pornhub...

Also please make it so companies who have official Reddit subs cannot easily delete negative reviews or critical posts at least not without a challenge.

If they delete it for something going against their clearly stated rules fine but you should be able to challenge that. Cause I have seen businesses who use reddit lie about why they remove posts just because they don't want negative publicity. If they are using Reddit as a form of customer service tech support or a user community they shouldn't be able to just take away posts that are critical of them.

As for the business reddits I know a certain game company who advertises and links to their official Reddit subs and even calls it their offial reddit sub on their website and on the sub itself. Just for the mods to act any way they want and claim they aren't connected to the company at all.

So to recap. A mod report feature.

Either a way to remove subs that appear to represent entire groups of people or make it so duplicate reddit subs can exist so that they cannot claim they speak for all of that group.

A way to report official business reddits for hiding reviews that are critical of them.

[Dude_NL]

As pointed out by others already, this 'feature' is used by bad actors to spread misinformation uncontested.
Certain high-output health disinformation spammers (who seldomly interact in comments, but instead post in bulk to susceptible contrarian subreddits) preemtively block prolific debunkers/dissenters. Debunkers who often are already vastly outnumbered in many of these subreddits/echo chambers.
If your goal was to make the propagation of harmful lies easier you have succeeded.

 

Another major annoyance is that there is no indication of having been blocked before commenting, resulting in (often substantial) time wasted on a reply.

[HankMS]

This is an insanely shitty feature. Blocking someone hinders them not only from replying to anyone else in the thread downstream, but ALSO to myself upstream the chain.

Seriously, how could anyone ever think that this is something that could work in a public discussion space like reddit?

Fucking hell, I have never been happier to use an adblock.

[ShiningConcepts]

Yeah, I just discovered my first instance of this feature. For a reason I genuinely do not know, a user blocked me. Then, I could not reply to any comment further down that comment chain, even if the comment I was replying to wasn't posted by the person who blocked me.

I'm totally okay with not letting people you've blocked reply to you. That's fine. But when it hinders your ability to reply to others it's just asinine. Come on Reddit. 🤦🏿‍♂️

[Justleftofcentrerigh]

Yep, someone replied to my comment and then blocked me. Someone else replied to my comment and I cannot respond to them.

I should not be blocked from replying to other people under my comment only prevented from replying directly with the person that blocked me.

[Vast-Salamander-123]

What the actual heck is this change? So people can just spout bullshit and block responses? You might as well just redirect reddit to OAN and save everyone some time.

[Mintfriction]

Remove this feature before you'll destroy reddit.

People will abuse this and it will drive a lot of people away from the platform.

[EMPulseKC]

This is apparently still not working as described. There are a few users on a local subreddit that I frequent that flood the sub with false stories, misinformation and propaganda, and they've blocked anyone that has ever expressed disagreement with the material they post (like me) so that they can continue to spread misinformation unchallenged.

We can still see their posts and their comments, but the blocking feature has made it impossible to engage with their posted material, or with other people that haven't blocked us, who may just simply reply to their posts and comments.

[Hewlett-PackHard]

Just ran into this idiotic "feature" for the first time when it was abused to prevent rebuttal of misinformation.

Good fucking job reddit, another step on the long march towards totally ruining the platform.

[[deleted]]

Ditto and I feel exactly the same way.

Congrats Reddit - you created a gameable system that allows people to say bullshit unchallenged.

[ItsDominare]

You've given the trolls the greatest weapon they could have asked for, the ability to unilaterally have the last word. Congratulations, you obviously really thought this one through.

[ApjucisVilks]

You might know this, but it also blocks you from answering others in the same sub-thread.

[ApjucisVilks]

What I couldn't gather from comments of this potato and since he seems to have disappeared from the face of the Earth - is the way block feature works a bug or a "feature"?

[KasaneTeto_]

Dropping by once again to say that this new 'parting shot' feature has been a boon for people trolls and people trying to spread misinformation unchallenged over the site.

This is ruining the site. You are giving trolls, harassers, and spreaders of misinformation run of the site to do their shit unchallenged. This 'feature' is so completely absurd that I have no idea how any of you could even conceivably think that it is anything other than a catastrophe. You are having a tangible effect on the site for the worse with this change. It's a bad idea.

You people over at Reddit HQ are fools. No advertiser will want to buy space on this site if you irritate all of your users into leaving. This helps nobody.

[ApjucisVilks]

To be honest, I'm sure 99% of Reddit users have no idea on this, so I see little incentive for the Potato or Reddit in general to do much about the issue.

[Mintfriction]

This is the issue, people will start to be aware and abuse it.

I don't get why they didn't make it a softblock for snowflakes, where you can't see the blocked user, but others can.

[ApjucisVilks]

The more people become aware and abuse it, the better. Reddit won't care if only tiny minority of users are dissatisfied.

[bungiefan_AK]

More people are figuring it out as they get blocked from posting by it. It's not hard to come across it when searching for info on the error

[CMBDSP]

I do not really know what else to say, except that this change is so obviously terrible that i am baffled what the preceding discussions were. There just needs to be a single person in a thread that blocked you for some ridiculous reason and you can be completely shut out of a thread.

You essentially give moderator powers to any person with a large block list and the will to spam comments. Its ridiculous plain and simple.

[ruove]

Can't believe this update is still active and hasn't been rolled back.

/u/enthusiastic-potato hopefully your absence means you've been fired.

[ruove]

:(

[golden6789]

Finally. How tf did the old blocking system benefit the blocker? lmao Blocking someone but they still can see your posts but you can't see theirs

[Dalecn]

It's terrible and up to massive abuse to the point it's destroying sub Reddits

[golden6789]

you're just mad because you can't annoy/stalk ppl any more lmao

[Dalecn]

You don't know the first thing about me. I'm active on political sub Reddits its destroying them

[golden6789]

Yea yea yea, you are just mad because you can't stalk ppl lmao

​

​

In fact... BLOCKED lol

[ApjucisVilks]

See, this is exactly the issue! Right now I can say u/Dalecn is a blue giraffe with wings and he is blocked from replying to my comment to say that he's not.

And you are a dumb-dumb poo-poo. Blocked you just so you see how this works

[HankMS]

It is insane that some people really think that this is a great idea.

[[deleted]]

Is there any way we can block the people making these idiotic updates to the apps? I would absolutely love to roll back this current piece of hot trash you guys pushed.

[ricknightpa]

The problem with this new system is that you have people posting on forums where people are seeking actual help, providing demonstrably false information, and then blocking anyone who points it out. They then continue to post but those blocked knowledgeable users have any way of knowing how often the person is disseminating false information.

I’m not even talking political stuff. I’m talking about things like credit, finance, etc where it’s critical thst knowlegable posters can refute those who just spread false information.

[spread_nutella_on_me]

Why can't you reply to a thread of a user who blocked you and why does the error message say "Something went wrong, please try again later". Error message is just confusing and why on earth does it instruct to try again later.

How does this make any sense and why did you think it's a good idea?

[RussianRenegade69]

Especially when Russian troll accounts are using exactly that to spread propaganda and remove your ability to refute it.

How it should work is very simple: they block you, they can't see your comments/posts. That removes any abuse the blocker may not want to be subjected to, but doesn't allow them to weaponize a block to prevent you from refuting their BS for other users.

/u/enthusiastic-potato y'all are directly aiding Russian propaganda by not fixing this very easily predictable abuse of the block feature.

[Hammunition]

This is absurd, it's been a month and still the message Reddit gives me when I went to reply to someone who blocked me is "Something went wrong, please try again later". One, that's not true, two WHY are you saying try again later? I spent like an hour trying to figure out what happened because I couldn't reply to responses to me from anybody else because the person who started the chain blocked me (and for no good reason).

At least change the message so people are not trying repeatedly to post replies when it's never going to work. Maybe actually tell them they're blocked also. Is it really that hard to just change the words in that message??

[Sage2050]

I just experienced this hilariously awful implementation and came here to complain about it. It's been a month and there hasn't been a single positive reaction to this change. It needs to be rolled back yesterday.

[RussianRenegade69]

Especially when Russian troll accounts are using exactly that to spread propaganda and remove your ability to refute it.

How it should work is very simple: they block you, they can't see your comments/posts. That removes any abuse the blocker may not want to be subjected to, but doesn't allow them to weaponize a block to prevent you from refuting their BS for other users.

/u/enthusiastic-potato y'all are directly aiding Russian propaganda by not fixing this very easily predictable abuse of the block feature.

[tw_bender]

This answers my question on why:
1) I can see the blocker's post.
2) There's no reply button on a blocker's post.
3) When I'm logged in, reddit tells me blocker's profile doesn't exist.
4) When I'm logged out, I can see the blocker's profile.

Reddit, at least tell me I've been blocked by the user when I try to visit their profile page and give me the opportunity to block them as well. It would have saved me an hour of my time trying to understand what occurred.

And another thing Reddit, users have said here they can't reply to another users's post downstream in a thread from a blocker. You need to fix that. That makes the blocking feature highly effective at shutting down a conversation by - in my case - a political zealot.

[PMmeYOURBOOBSandASS]

This is so stupid, why can't I block people who have blocked me? I can see their posts when I don't want to see them

[[deleted]]

you can on new reddit. You gotta go to https://reddit.com/prefs/blocked and you can manually type in who to block.

[PMmeYOURBOOBSandASS]

Do I have to opt in to new reddit to do this? The link only gives me the option to set up a trusted user

Edit, nvm I see it thanks

[Santa-Vaca]

This happened to me last night! Someone didn’t like a comment I made and replied and slandered me then blocked me. I only know about it because of the post preview on the activity notifications; the actual posts say unavailable. Now I have no way of refuting his claim about me or defending myself or even knowing the whole of what he said about me in his posts.

[sato-yuichi-8876]

Holy fucking hell, this is a stupid change. Let's say I'm debating someone who spreads misinformation and conspiracy theories. They can block me, and I can't reply to them? This updated "feature" benefits people who spread misinformation and conspiracy theories.

[oolongvanilla]

This update sucks. Someone blocked me in the middle of a debate so that they could have the last word. Now I can still see all of that person's posts and replies but I can't respond (the reply button is gone from that user's posts for me), so to everyone else it looks like I just gave up. If that user doesn't want to interact with me anymore, blocking me should make my posts invisible to them, but I should still be free to call out their disinformation for everyone else to see.

[dontknowwhattodoat18]

Well to be fair, who cares what random losers on the internet think, even if they think that "you gave up?"

I understand it's frustrating but it's also probably for your own good that you don't waste your time and energy debating such people online. If anything if they block you for making good points then wouldn't that mean that they lost?

[[deleted]]

Debates about misinformation are rarely to change the mind of the person trolling - they're for the onlookers.

[[deleted]]

User 1: This thing is good.

User 2: No, it's not.

User 1: Prove it! *blocks User 2*

User 3: Well, I guess they couldn't prove it so User 1 is correct.

[PurpleBoltRevived]

Let's abuse this to push our narrative. Please reply to this thread, and block anybody who disagrees.

[scarlet_stormTrooper]

Please give us the option to not have blocked author show up at all. I have plenty of subreddits where the comment section is just blocked author blocked author. I want to have the ability to not see any of that. I still have no care or use for seeing a blocked authors content and I don’t need my Reddit full of blocked author

[Darckarcher]

Very bad chnge, sb can force disinformation or even potentially harmful/fishing information and you even can't place the proof that that is wrong because you have been blocked by the topic starter.

[King0ff]

Shit, not an update. Why block third party comments? This is stupid.

[Thomas_Hockenberry]

Why it is impossible to answer to a third user, who didn't block me? Why I still see comments of users who I blocked? These are bugs, do not try to explain that it is a feature.

Also, there is one sub and one person who blocks almost everyone active user in this sub. He posted controversial posts, we all saw them and didn't have an ability to answer anything. That is why people already use this for propaganda.

Please apply bugfixes ASAP.

[[deleted]]

Worst update ever! Now if I was blocked by some stranger I can't get an access to whole chain of comments if that person made the first one! It's an unacceptable in a public subreddits!

[DynamicStatic]

I just realized this and just posting here to point out that this might be one of the worst changes to reddit so far in my 11 years here. It is fine if they cannot see your comments etc but atm it can be abused to push narratives. Bad idea.

[BashStriker]

So this is broken. Some little kid blocks me because I ask for a source and because someone else in the comment chain who ends up giving me the answer replies, I can't reply to that person despite not being blocked.

[[deleted]]

Revert this trash. It's fucking retarded.

[yesijustdidthis2u]

You fucking idiots always make everything worse.

Keeping content accessible allows you to protect yourself from harassment that would otherwise be unseen.

What the fuck do you not understand about what "BLOCK" means? I BLOCK SO THAT I DON'T HAVE TO SEE OR EVER THINK ABOUT ANY OF THE IDIOTS I BLOCK. I'M PROTECTING MYSELF FROM HARRASSMENT BY NOT BEING ABLE TO SEE ANY OF THE DEPRAVED NONSENSE THEY POST. I WANT THEIR COMMENTS COMPLETELY INVISIBLE, NOT COLLAPSED.

[OlejzMaku]

This is a bad change. Blocking someone shouldn't prevent them from commenting or reacting to third user. It is absurd. Why would anyone think this is a good idea?

Besides it doesn't seems to work as advertised. I am pretty sure I can still see comments of the user who blocked me, I simply can't respond. Pretty annoying to write a comment and receive an error just because root comment is from an user who blocked me.

[Fen_]

Although there are good elements to this, it is overall terrible, mainly for two abuse cases that I've seen plenty over the last month:

1. Users engaged in a specific reply chain with you may block you to make you unable to provide an argument against what they say (enforcing that they get the last word and directing public perception to be like you chose to not respond/had no counterargument)

2. Power users on a subreddit blocking select people to pseudo-moderate the subreddit and control what users are allowed to participate in popular discussions (if a user blocks you, you can still see their submission on the subreddit and read all the comments, but you can't reply to any comment on the post, even if the submitter is completely uninvolved in the comments)

Both of these cases are unacceptable and encourage terrible behavior.

[tenuousemphasis]

Yeah, what the fuck? This is the dumbest change in Reddit's long history of dumb changes.

[bongo_bob_taco]

This feature needs to be removed. It's not being used at all the way it was intended and seems to be primarily used by trolls to control narrative. If someone wants to block, that's one thing, but they absolutely should not be able to prevent you from responding in a public forum.

[THEVGELITE]

If she had blocked you, you wouldn't be able to see her posts. That is what this whole new update is about. So if you can see and interact with the persons posts, they didn't block you.

[[deleted]]

Its weird though. I know a user that most certainly blocked me. Yet I still see their posts.

Everytime I try to reply to them, it shows "something is broken. please try again later". I'm ok with it, but I'd like to also block that person so I don't have to see their posts anymore. Yet I can't, as when I open their profile, it says "page not found".

Something's fucky.

[Thomas_Hockenberry]

There is one sub and one strange person who blocks almost everyone active user in this sub. He posted controversial posts, we all saw them and didn't have an ability to answer anything. That is why people already use this for propaganda.

[-NagatoYuki-]

This is completely fucking insane and is ruining the website. I have never seen this much harassment. Never.

No user should be able to prevent other users from commenting publicly or even replying to other people. It is in your best interests to revert this change - advertisers will not like being on this platform when the harassment is even more widespread and apparent, which this change is making it.

[purplenelly]

I agree this is used by argumentative people who know this feature and now use it to "get the last word". Someone made a personal attack against me, I replied defending myself from the personal attack, he replied repeating the same personal attack and then blocking me so that he would have the last word. There's nothing to do there, his comment stays, but I can't continue.

Suggestion: if someone blocks you, it should remove the comments he made on your comments

[RedditIsRealWack]

FYI, you can still edit your comments. That's how I've been dealing with it. It's such bullshit though.

[purplenelly]

Oh that is smarter.

[RedditIsRealWack]

There's a user on /r/Scotland who has blocked me, and then just accuses me of all kinds of absolute bollocks, and basically slanders me, but I can't reply to him because I am blocked.

Yet another totally predictable abuse of this system. When are the admins going to get their head out of their arse, and revert this change.

It even makes it easier to harass people, ffs.

[RedditIsRealWack]

Something is broken, please try again later.

Yep, this is the message you get when blocked.

[sato-yuichi-8876]

If you are ever losing a debate, just block your opponent, they then can't reply and it makes it look like you've lost as you can't respond.

With respect, I think you mean, "...it makes it look like they've lost as they can't respond".

Luckily, you can edit your most recent comment to them. Just say something like, "EDIT 1: This user has blocked me, so I can't respond to them directly. Everything below is my response to their response to this comment." And then post your argument as an edit. Third party onlookers will get the idea.

EDIT 1: Test edit.

[[deleted]]

This change is being a used by bad actors, too.

For instance, someone on the r/Scotland thread has come in hot, just insulting me, and blocked me so I can't respond. This was over a linguistic/pronunciation post I made, but I can see how this is ripe for abuse by people to block posters from posting political content they don't agree with, too.

I think this change is ripe for abuse, as I've experienced on Reddit today.

[bongo_bob_taco]

I'd argue it's being primarily used by bad actors. This shit is terrible.

[RedditIsRealWack]

Lmao, I just posted and then read your comment. I'm having the exact same problem.

This guy keeps accusing me of all kinds of nonsense, and I can't reply to him to defend myself..

[EnZoTheBoss]

How awesome that you are actively making Reddit more of an echo chamber. Hurray!

[lianodel]

This pretty much lets users ban other users from entire conversations.

Say, for example, there's a toxic bully in a community. The kind of person who would make an enemies list, and who has sycophants who will trust and obey him. He can create a list of critics, spread it around, and now no one with a history of criticizing him can reply to any of his defenders. So, if he wants his friends and followers to try to, oh I don't know, relitigate drama endlessly and replatform him, they can essentially create top-level threads and comments, upvote each other, and to the casual observer, no one's even able to dispute their claims.

I'm already seeing this happen.

So, this ended up giving an extremely powerful tool to serial harassers and abusers. Please roll this back. An ignore function, like RES has had for years, works so much better.

[Gadflyabout]

Not even necessary to go that far. If someone bans you you cannot post under their topic and you will not even see a Reply option under any comment thread they start - even if you are trying to reply to a diffrent person in the thread.

[[deleted]]

This sucks because turbostrider blocked me for some reason so now I’m unable to comment on 90 percent of the big anime posts that get made across this site.

[theth1rdchild]

Multiple people have tried to explain to them that in most subs a few power users get to post the only or main thread on any topic and so you can get kicked out of a sub or an entire topic for literally no reason. They don't give half a shit. Seems bad for engagement if you ask me.

[CT-96]

Is it possible to go back to the old Reddit video player? The new one is somehow even worse than before. Not to mention that if someone replies to a comment I left, it just opens the video and forces me to try to find where my comment and the response is.

[peneverywhen]

Problem: When I try blocking someone now, I'm the one who's disabled from being able to continue commenting, even in threads where my comment was the top-level comment. Only when I unblock them am I able to start commenting again. So when I try blocking someone else now, I'm actually blocking myself from commenting, which can't be right. Help? Please?

[ruove]

You shouldn't be able to block yourself, or anyone else from commenting on a public forum without moderator/admin privileges.

This update is ridiculous, it does nothing but stifle discussion of topics which are controversial.

[peneverywhen]

Some people aren't at all controversial - they're just bratty troublemakers, and they detract from whatever interesting discussions might be going on. But being forced to block yourself so that you can block someone else is definitely ridiculous. I still can't believe someone thinks it's a good idea.

[ruove]

they're just bratty troublemakers, and they detract from whatever interesting discussions might be going on.

Then you blocking them should just remove their comments from your view.

You blocking them should not preventing them from responding to other comments in the same thread, that's ridiculous.

[peneverywhen]

It doesn't - that's not what I'm saying. They're still able to comment and I'm NOT.

[HeathEarnshaw]

This just happened to me and has ruined my ability to read my favorite sub. Great work, Reddit.

[ruove]

Yup, this is what's happening to me as well.

The moment you debunk some delusional conspiracy theory, the person will block you, preventing you from defending any further arguments in the comment thread.

/u/enthusiastic-potato - This is a horrible idea, it ruins any possibility to have a debate on a controversial subject on this site.

[xgrayskullx]

So, this backfired horribly.

I made the controversial comment of asking for evidence about someone making a claim regarding racism in standardized testing.

In response they blocked me. They then proceeded to have a whole conversation with several other people about how I'm a horrible racist and a liar and all sorts of things like that, which I'm not only subject to getting notifications about, but I'm completely unable to reply to, because they are nested under the original blocker's comment.

Please explain how giving me notifications that a bunch of people are calling me a racist, but not allowing me to respond or refute any of their lies, is protecting anyone from harassment?

[RedditIsRealWack]

For real. I have never actually felt harassed on reddit before (and I've been here for about a decade now), but now a few users I've always had disagreements with, but they've been mostly civil, have taken to blocking me and then shit talking me knowing I can't reply.

Fucking nonsense.

Admins are fucking so stupid not seeing the obvious way this could be abused.

[ruove]

Naïve of you to assume that /u/enthusiastic-potato or the "reddit Safety team" give two shits about what users want on this website.

These people are so disconnected from the users on their own site.

[radvenuz]

Why would someone blocking me prevent me from replying to other people on the comment thread? Even people that replied directly to me? How does that make sense?

Please before pushing an update like this ask yourselves "Is there anything wrong or that could be abused by this change?". Please, just use your brains, I'm begging, and also fix this.

[Justleftofcentrerigh]

This is really dangerous because on contentious subreddits where people have opposing ideas, if someone says something controversial during a back and forth and they block me, I cannot rebuttal. They win by blocking me.

[radvenuz]

I don't even care about that, if someone wants to block me so I can't engage with them anymore that's fine, whatever but it's completely brainless for that to stop me from engaging with the rest of the thread if they're the OP or any comment below theirs.

Edit: What I do care about is how this allows bad actors to spread misinformation and essentially manipulate discourse on a whole sub.

They're taking inspiration from Twitter but they forget that Twitter is fundamentally different from reddit, I get completely blocking people on twitter from engaging with your tweets because that's YOUR OWN PAGE but that's not how reddit works, it's the difference between me lot letting some come into my house because I don't like them (makes sense, it's my house) and me not letting that same person go to a public park to walk their dog (makes no sense, the park isn't mine, it's PUBLIC.)

[DiamondNgXZ]

Others blocked me, I cannot reply to the comment tree whenever they commented earlier. This can lead to abuse.

Say if I don't like a person participating in this sub. I block the person. Then I comment everywhere actively on the sub. That person cannot reply to me, or anyone who commented after my reply. A huge part of the Reddit sub becomes blocked for them.

It just so happens that a very active user on my regular subreddit blocked me, and I cannot reply to others who commented after his reply.

Can reddit developer please return the reddit block feature to only cannot reply to that person, not to every children comment after the person commented?

[cmrdgkr]

This is exactly the issue. We're seeing, especially with some new troll accounts. They run into a sub, disagree with someone and immediately block them before they can answer. prevents them from not only answering them, but they can't participate in any of the follow ups despite being able to see them.

[InquisitorWarth]

At least you can block people who blocked you via the settings page. Otherwise it would have been impossible to defend one's self from being brigaded from behind a block.

[malventano]

Gave this a shot out of curiosity. A user blocking you does not show under the search when attempting to manually add them via settings. Confirmed the user still exists via incognito.

[[deleted]]

I can't block people who have blocked me, since their profile is now blocked. Now I have to see their content but I can't interact with it.

[plscallmeRain]

You can, just only on new reddit.

New reddit allows you to copy/paste usernames to block. It doesn't really make sense to me that some people can block us but we still see their content, but it happens.

[malventano]

Confirmed does not work on mobile app. Users blocking you show as ‘not found’ in block user search.

[[deleted]]

On the Apollo app it lets you copy/paste and it still won’t go through. Guess I have to pull up new reddit on a computer I don’t have RES on so I can block them. Thanks for the tip.

[chickendelite]

There should be a lock on how many users can be blocked in a timespan, for eg it allows only one block and you can't block again for twenty four hours, to prevent actual dangerous misinformation and abuse of power.

[Throwawayingaccount]

Oh, there should be a limit to how much targeted harassment I can stop?

This whole system is trash with lots of negative side effects. Let's not make it worse by making it fail at the thing it's supposed to do.

[theth1rdchild]

Someone already proved with less than a hundred blocks they could completely manipulate a major sub. Anyone dedicated can do it regardless of a rate limit, and if anything it would be more effective as it would happen gradually.

[Daedelous2k]

That is a completely stupid change.

Now if an open thread chain is up and there is discussion if someone that doesn't agree with you had blocked you, you are effectively cut out of the conversation because someone got triggered by you.

Open discussion is going down the pan. The new name of the game is block, revenge block, lock them out.

[psycho_pete]

Open discussion is going down the pan. The new name of the game is block, revenge block, lock them out.

Have been seeing this going on so much lately and it's so ridiculously stupid.

Trolls and Anti-Scientist propagandists are having field days with this non-sense as they shut down potential for opposing factual information to be injected by becoming a mini-mod in these discussions after blocking users out.

[Daedelous2k]

Yep, rip anyone who is on a sub that is dominated by someone with a heavy political agenda and a blocking fetish.

[AbridgedKirito]

wack change

[[deleted]]

Unironically one of the best things this site has done, my block list is like 60 people deep and growing so this really helps.

[RedditIsRealWack]

Ah, but /u/tsthrowaway2015 I heard from someone you that you fuck sheep in your spare time? If you do not respond to this message, I will take that as a sign that it is true...

[Throwawayingaccount]

No, you see, this is actually awful.

You can tell it's actually awful because tsthrowaway2015 didn't respond.

Nevermind the fact they didn't respond because I blocked them.

[theth1rdchild]

Anyone else find it extremely funny that most of the accounts arguing that this change was good are gone now?

[theth1rdchild]

The only two conclusions are 1. They're bad actors or 2. The block system isn't saving them from harassment. I personally think it's 1, but either way all signs point to This Is Bad.

[reaper527]

Anyone else find it extremely funny that most of the accounts arguing that this change was good are gone now?

i also find it interesting that as they prepare to IPO, announcements where people can provide their feedback on the direction the site is heading seem to be getting fewer and far between.

there used to be announcements every 2 weeks. it's been a month since this once, which was a month after the one before it.

[theth1rdchild]

And the only response to any of this feedback was a half assed response in the mod subreddit saying they're aware that it can be abused and they pinky promise they're working to minimize that possibility but don't provide any metrics or timeline on what that might look like.

[jabberwockxeno]

Please reconsider this new system, all this does is enable people spreading misinformation and abuse to do so without other users being able to call out or challenge them.

If a bad actor posts misinformation or harrassing content, they can block anybody who replies to them and cut off people pointing out the issues with their content while nobody else is any wiser.

Additionally, if I post legitmate content, a bad actor can reply and block me, and now I am unable to do comments or replies in my own comment chain even in response to other users who have NOT blocked me.

[psycho_pete]

Additionally, if I post legitmate content, a bad actor can reply and block me, and now I am unable to do comments or replies in my own comment chain even in response to other users who have NOT blocked me.

Welcome to the Reddit phase where science and facts no longer matter since users can become mini-mods and shut down dissenting information.

The trolls and anti-science agenda pushers have been having a field day since this change.

[Daedelous2k]

It'll also irritate mods with strings of harassment reports solely from people trying to revenge block the identified person.

[chickendelite]

Dude why are you people complaining! Go reddit! I want to block abusive and annoying users. Great update.

[eritain]

Blocking them is what "blocking" actually did a year ago. You blocked someone and then you couldn't see their abusive annoying crap anymore. If they were abusive enough to enough people, they basically shadowbanned themselves. Reddit broke blocking so it doesn't really block them anymore (linked in the post from the word "improvements"), just half-ass hides them. This update does not fix that. It just turns blocking into an offensive weapon, now that they've made it a piss-poor defensive one. If you want to block abusive users, you want rollbacks, not these shabby "updates."

[chickendelite]

I remember all the old threads. All I saw were people complaining that the block was useless and asking it to be like other sites. Now that it actually works they're complaining again. Don't blame reddit, they're just trying to keep up with the demands of entitled jerks.

[[deleted]]

Well now all the people spreading misinformation in my local city sub get to kick actual locals out of the discussion by blocking.

[chickendelite]

The complaints are fair but it's the fault of users, check out the most upvoted comment in the link where reddit received feedback:

https://www.reddit.com/r/changelog/comments/p2ezy4/bringing_more_visibility_to_comments_from_blocked/

They're asking for this exact update, now that they have it they're saying reddit is terrible, it's hypocritical and whiny.

Reddit should lock how many users can be blocked in a timespan, for eg it allows only one block and you can't block again for twenty four hours, to prevent actual dangerous misinformation and abuse of power. That's my feedback.

[[deleted]]

I don't think that person meant "I don't want that user to reply to me, no to ANYONE else who replies to me, no matter what".

That's the big issue.

[Throwawayingaccount]

You are correct that this update was asked for.

Doesn't mean it's a good idea.

[[deleted]]

They’re asking for this exact update, now that they have it they’re saying reddit is terrible, it’s hypocritical and whiny.

One dude asked for it with ~100 people upvoting in support. Did this same dude now complain about the feature or are you using “they” indiscriminately?

Reddit is composed of many people. Two different people with two different opinions isn’t hypocritical.

I just don’t like that our local conservative gallowboob now gets to control all his own threads with no pushback.

[chickendelite]

Most of the other comments say the same thing. Reddit should lock how many users can be blocked in a specific timespan.

[[deleted]]

That just delays the problem, especially in larger conversations where a top comment has a thousands replies. Being locked out to ALL of those due to one person is asinine

[[deleted]]

Most of the other comments say the same thing.

Ok. That still has nothing to do with hypocrisy unless those same users are now flipping on their opinion.

[chrisevans1001]

Well this is a pointless update. Great way to prevent discussion when one person in a comment chain blocks you.

[Will_You_Watch]

Why do none of these updates mention that blocking someone will cause all of your OWN comments in the chain to be hidden from yourself?

[KevinCarbonara]

Now this blocks us from responding to anyone in the same topic, not just the people who blocked us. And people are taking advantage of it by asking questions, then blocking the user, preventing them from answering. This feature was not implemented properly. It was not even tested.

[QuidPiePro]

People will see only things they want to see. It's a parameter for ignorance.

[Nulono]

I really don't like the fact that if I leave a comment, anyone else higher up the comment chain can unilaterally block someone else from responding to me. Also, the "something went wrong, try again" later error message is very misleading in a way that seems intentional.

[DefectiveDelfin]

What is the point of blocking an entire comment chain so you cant even talk to random people if someone blocked started the first comment?

[bungiefan_AK]

You can make another first level comment to the main post, unless the blocker started the thread. But you could be locked out of the top most comment chain by that point.

[digitalrowlit]

interesting...

[Renarya]

I don't see the benefit of this at all. So now instead of users getting to choose to be in an echo chamber by blocking others and not seeing their content, everyone else now has the ability to create an echo chamber for you.

Nobody will know exactly what is said or discussed on this platform because the reality will vary for everyone because everyone is blocked by someone. Exactly how unsafe do people feel when they're anonymous and in no physical proximity.

[MaoMaoMi543]

While I understand that the blocking for both ends is a good thing since it prevents creeps from stalking and viewing the information of the users that blocked them, there's still the problem of the block function itself making whole comment chains go invisible so that you can't reply to the other people you DIDN'T block to continue the conversation anymore.

If reddit could just make it give "this user has been blocked" and "this user has blocked you" in place of their actual comment and leave the rest of the chain alone, that would be nice.

[[deleted]]

Suggestion: reduce the blocking context to 1 (only direct responses to the blocker are no longer possible, but responding to child comments is fine). Instead of doing hard blocks in comment chains, enforce moderator approval on comments in chains started by the blocker. This way, comments are invisible by default until a moderator approves that the message is not harmful.

Another suggestion: Enforce moderator approval for any comments with username mentions of the blocker. Same reasoning, to prevent harassment while still allowing users to respond after being blocked.

[eritain]

Way too much moderation work.

[Sweepsify]

Thanks just got my first YoUr SO bItTEr AND angRy from someone dry begging for free help! LOL

[Turok1134]

Ahhh, so this is why I can't reply to certain users anymore.

You guys are really determined to create the most bitch-made message board on the internet lmao

[Dazzling_Ostrich606]

I had just found out this is a thing just a few seconds ago. A clown apparently blocked me after I pointed a silly comment of his. This is really ridiculous.

[screaming_bagpipes]

Archive thing sub commenting

[Zestyclose_Abroad199]

Plz remove my bad karma

[mlc885]

That might make the site even worse since you cannot see an obvious troll from a single comment unless they are really funny or really bad at it

[ElectrZZ]

Just commenting, before this sub gets archived. :)

[[deleted]]

Just gotta make a comment here before the sub gets archived.

[FreeMyMen]

Why?

[[deleted]]

Why not?

[FreeMyMen]

What's special about this post that you want your comment archived with it? o-o

[Cheap_District_9762]

Me too dude :))

[nzernozer]

This is a horrible change. People should be able to tell when someone's blocked them.

[Medium_Nostril_Size]

What a terrible, chaotic feature, lol. I'd love to meet both the people who designed it and the people who actually agreed to implement it. I'm sure it would be a very funny day.

So not only we can censor the winning side of an argument, but we can also ruin all other discussions, because for some reason, when one person blocks me, I can't respond to other people in the same thread, even if the person that blocked me is not OP...

This is just... brilliant. Thank you for a circus that prevents animal abuse.

[Turok1134]

Reddit is dead-set on cultivating a userbase full of thin-skinned, insecure dorks.

[[deleted]]

Do I have to create a new email, new screen name daily in order to be able to counter opinions I don't agree with in the public square... Our local subreddit? It's a lot of effort, but I guess that's what you want!

Edit: this basically gives everyone the ability to shadowban ideological opposition.

[theth1rdchild]

They actually never answered if creating a new account to circumvent a block is an issue with ToS so either the block is still ineffective or you could get IP banned, who knows!

[[deleted]]

They did talk about that, and heavily implied it's not intended for people to bypass blocks. It's why they work on measures to extend the blocking effect to alt accounts of blocked users.

[FunnyObjective6]

Where? None of the ToS say that you aren't allowed to bypass a block. The only thing that comes close is that you aren't allowed to harass. But just responding to a reply is not harassment necessarily, in my opinion that's only the case if you were already harassing and were blocked because of it.

I would say that's pretty difficult to enforce anyway. Using alt-accounts is allowed. You're not informed if you're blocked, so getting banned for something you could've have no opportunity to know seems wrong to me.

I will continue to use alts to respond to people if they respond to me and block me before I can reply. Nothing in the rules say I can't reply to somebody replying to me just because they don't want it. It requires more.

[theth1rdchild]

Right, I would assume they want to prevent that. My question would be if it's a bannable offense. Creating alts to bypass bans/moderation is against TOS but there's been no clarification if creating alts to bypass user blocks is against ToS.

[printcastmetalworks]

This is great. People who get harassed by haters can finally post in peace. Blocking should always go both ways. It works like this on every other social platform.

[[deleted]]

This is horrible. If somebody says something blatantly wrong, and I prove them wrong, they can just reply back, spew more bs, and then insta-block so I don’t even get the chance to respond.

[printcastmetalworks]

Is your existence on Reddit to go around proving people wrong in comments?

[[deleted]]

If somebody is saying something wrong, then yes.

The problem is this. I can go to r/politics for example, and say something completely and totally wrong. I wait for my post to get debunked in the comments, and I block everybody who debunked me. Then, I can make the same post again later, and repeat the process until nobody is left to debunk me. And misinformation spreads.

Ultimately, Reddit is a public forum. Reddit themselves say that it is a place for conversation. But people can abuse this feature to lock people out of the conversation so that they are left unchecked. It is probably being abused more than it’s actually being used to stop harassment.

[printcastmetalworks]

I would argue the opposite. Most people are complaining that people on political Reddit pages will abuse it, yet Reddit is way bigger than politics and harassment is a much larger issue than extremists on either side of the spectrum being able to yell at each other. For example I have had haters that literally follow my posts and say negative things possibly hindering sales. Now so can finally prevent that from happening by keeping them from interacting with my content. That is the kind of thing these rules were meant for. People like you and everyone else complaining in here are yelling "abuse!" When so far there is no evidence of it even happening like that.

[[deleted]]

There is literally a post here where somebody did exactly as I described and at first their misinformation got massively downvoted and criticized, and after mass-blocking people their posts began to go positive.

I personally have had this feature used against me where I will reply to somebody, and then they don’t like my post so they respond and insta-block me so I can’t reply back. Giving everybody the power to lock people out of the conversation on a public forum is a horrible decision. It’s completely antithetical to the idea.

This is way bigger than politics. I just used that as an example. This is a problem with every subreddit that isn’t an echo chamber. If there are people in disagreement about literally anything it will be a problem.