Topic: Getting blocked in the comments.

@-wc- Yeah, when I do talk on this site I avoid offending people with some opinions I have by using respectful language and saying stuff like “in my opinion” and what not.

I haven’t really said any opinions that can be considered controversial since they are moreso opinions I have on video games, but I do know some people might not agree, so I do my best to state that what I am saying is my opinion and that it’s fine if someone disagrees with me or has a differing opinion. I don’t get offended over differing opinions and I like to see the different perspectives everyone has on stuff, like say a specific video game. I can understand preferences people have with what content they like seeing or not seeing in a video game.

@Pastellioli

you know, I'm actually a little amazed by the insistence of others that stating an opinion without the disclaimer "in my opinion" is somehow rude or dishonest. 😂

"in my opinion," the burden of discerning opinion vs. fact is on the beholder, not the speaker. if you can't tell the difference, it's completely on you unless the speaker is explicitly lying to deceive you or misinformed (which to be clear would neither qualify as fact nor opinion.)

that being said, I have started padding my statements with stuff like "just one man's opinion" and "my 2 cents 👍" around here because people ARE so sensitive about it. personally, I think opinions and facts should fly without disclaimer, and the only things that are truly offensive are mis- and dis-information, racism, trolling, et al.

anyway, something I think about sometimes! ✌️

@-wc-
Personally I'm more offended when people throw out those kinds of "niceties" like "you're entitled to your opinion" or "let's agree to disagree". Because to me it just reads as either "I think you're wrong but I don't have the patience to deal with you" or "I know I'm wrong but I don't want to concede that"

The former I get the sentiment but usually the better move there is to just ghost the convo. Which is certainly hard but if you're throwing niceties you're already there and are now just adding noise to the thread. And if it's the latter then.... just have the guts to admit you were wrong

And of course, opinions shouldn't need to be stated as such. It's just self evident that things people say are at least in part their opinion.

But the thing that really irks me is the when people push that they're entitled to their opinion. When you think about it it's really just the lowest of bars to clear. I generally don't care if you're entitled to hold a view, I'm not the thought police. I don't care who is holding it or that you're technically allowed to believe it. What a discussion is for is sorting out if an opinion is any good. That's all that matters

You know I have to wonder. If the said person has blocked so many people then why even bother posting in the forums. I mean who do they expect to reply if they have damn well blocked everyone.

@Tasuki Some people only want to be agreed with and this blocking function gives them the power to eliminate some of the potential criticism/opposition. I call it a creation of a safe bubble.

I had been meaning to contribute to this thread for some time. I'm surprised that I haven't yet as I seem to recall being in the process of doing so, because I did initially point out that we have had a disagreement or two not long before you made this topic, but it must have been such a nothingburger because I can't remember anything specific about it, so it's all water under the bridge where I'm concerned.

There's a fairly prolific user on the site who blocked me at some point. I kept seeing replies to his comments, but assumed that he'd deleted his posts (or been banned?), but his profile appears "blank" to me (I can't view any posts unless I'm signed out), and it eventually clicked. And I've just done a little snooping and found another prolific user who has also blocked me, but I haven't detected any others in the course of my brief snooping.

I don't specifically recall having any spats with them either, but I assume that I've expressed a more conservative view (or two) that they didn't like. Meh. They're both generally quite smug and obnoxious anyway, so it's a little nice to be spared of their unpleasantness, but it's annoying that I'm essentially being penalised just because they're too intolerant of the views of others, while I'm still receptive to theirs, even in the face of their implicit disrespect.

I only ever recall ignoring one or two people in the past, but like you, I end up undoing it after a week or two as it's not my style to "censor" people. In those instances, I guess I just wanted a short break from them because they were getting on my nerves at the time, plus I see no point wasting my time typing up posts that will get removed, as even my most tactfully neutered takes will occasionally be censored, be it here or on another social media platform, so I may be inclined to "ghost" a reply that I consider to have been made in bad faith.

I also didn't realise that there was a difference between ignoring and blocking, but in the case of the two users who I had previously alluded to, they have outright blocked me as I cannot see their posts at all unless logged out.

I have no idea how old you are, but I had more of a tendency to take things to heart when I was younger. I'm embarrassed to admit that some slights still sting a little, and I may feel compelled to rebut. It's funny that the people who so loudly cry "bigotry" are the ones who tend to censor/block others, though as much as I disagree, and, in some cases, even abhor their worldview, I will still hear them out, yet somehow I'm the obstinately intolerant one. Get the hell out of here.

I agree. Incidentally, the number of thumbs downs on a comment used to be visible for a while (but capped at "5+", while there was no cap for thumbs ups), which was only visible for comments other than your own, but you could view them when not signed in. I was tempted, but I figured that it would have been a little too demoralising, so I abstained from ever having a peek. (I'm fairly confident that I've made my share of "5+" disliked comments though )

An echo chamber of one's own curation, if you will.

Incidentally, people who say "to be honest" (as opposed to?), especially to excess, viscerally get on my nerves. I get that it's said rhetorically 99% of the time, but still... I try to catch myself out on saying it as well, though I think I have a tendency to say "to be frank" an awful lot.

And can anybody be a dear and confirm that this is comment #86?

@SillyG I’m checking and yes, what you said is comment #86.

Also, your comment did also help clarify the difference between “ignore” and “block” for me; yeah, I am now 100% sure I got blocked by someone I never interacted with. But, if I did somehow bother him with my video game tastes and blocked me because of that, that’s fine, as I absolutely dislike upsetting people in any way, shape or form. I pretty much have let it go at this point.

If I do disagree with someone or argue with them (which luckily has not happened yet) I really don’t bother using the ignore or block button since I don’t want to be intolerant of others opinions and perspectives, or create an echo chamber for myself.

@Pastellioli Ignore is what "Blocking" would be on a normal forum. The ability to pretty much just remove someone from your sight without really disabling their ability to see their posts. Stops them from getting a reply from a person they don't want, even though the person is free to view and reply to said posts.

"Block" is removing the ability for a user to see your posts at all, effectively disrupting conversation by outright blocking them from commenting or even seeing what you posted in the first place without tabbing out of their account. It's a feature that doesn't really seem like it has much of a use in a forum site, but remains for some reason.

@VoidofLight the person that likely blocked me I can no longer see comments or posts for and only discussion forums he has made. The only places where I can interact with him or see what he says is in forums that intentionally disable the “ignore” feature for users. I feel I definitely got blocked instead of ignored. Your explanations are really helpful when trying to discern the difference between the two!

@Pastellioli I think the forums don't disable Ignore, but disable Block. At least some of the official threads and threads started by the person using Block.

These threads that say that disable both

@Eel Ahh that makes sense.

@skywake

"But the thing that really irks me is the when people push that they're entitled to their opinion."

LOL yes! no one with any facts on their side ever said, "well I'm entitled to my opinion." 😂

good comment 👍👍

@SillyG

"people who say "to be honest" (as opposed to?)"

oh my, yes! 😂 "can i be honest with you?"
lol no thank you? 😆

what about people who say, "no offense?"
fightin' words! 😂

It would be very interesting to see a chart of active users who are the least ignored & blocked. (Active user being, someone who has at least roughly 1000 comments or 1000 posts.)

I would be sad to be blocked/ignored more for the reason of missing out on differing opinions/thoughts. I come here for the pure enjoyment of talking about gaming, nobody here would drive me to not wanting to see what they think, even if we differ on our opinions. But I'm old now, so maybe young me would have thought differently

I actually have next to no experience to what being blocked looks like. I’ve been following these three sites for over a decade, but I’ve only made my account very recently and I’m not sure if I interacted enough to warrant being blocked. I promise Im a nice and friendly individual 😅

welcome, @Yousef-!

@Yousef- You can tell if someone blocks you because you won't see their posts on the site. You will see other users replying to them. It makes following threads hard because you miss points being made and you look like a dummy when you ask a question that's been asked but you had no idea cause you can't see that person's posts.

@Tasuki I think the blocking is made worse when the person that blocks you hasn’t interacted with you before or if you haven’t argued with them that all, since you don’t know what you did that warranted being put on the block list. That happened to me with another user on the site despite not interacting with them at all.