On Lemmy I usually block communities, if they are a drag in any way, like too negative, too weird, too much discussion of violence, etc. Didn’t have to block individuals that much, but in smaller communities it’s sometimes just an individual that makes it a drag, while most users post more pleasant things.

I have been working in IT for too long. First thought upon reading the title was you were obstructing someone’s work.

I just tag the worst assholes and then simply not engage next time.

Blocking is great. I truly wish more people would block. We would be able to all have a more enjoyable experience.

You should become adblocker…

Only disappointing thing is they can still see and respond to my posts, just that I can’t see it. I wish they couldn’t see anything I posted either.

I understand. Lemmy users are divided on that issue because not only can these people see, comment and downvote your post, they can manipulate the situation to their advantage (feel free to use your imagination or search posts about blocking).

FWIW, I hear you loud and clear. Please understand that there are plenty of people in this world who are angry, unfulfilled and can’t/won’t touch grass whose only gratification is to try to make other people miserable. This mental instability coupled with current events is unfortunately unleashed here in Lemmy and you.

Block away and save your sanity. I’m here for the jokes and your memes. If I want to argue, I’ll go to work and get paid. Sadly, you are a volunteer and many people don’t realize that — they seem to think that it’s your job to take their crap. For that, I am truly sorry.

Two of my friends recently blocked .world and had good experiences with users from other instances. Recently, there was negativity in Uplifting News that had to be addressed; a .world mod left because they were burned out; some more drama recurring also at .world instance.

Please take good care of yourself and don’t take &#!+ from any of us!

I’ve never really felt the need to block anyone (except the odd spam bot but I don’t think that counts). I think that might be because I pretty much exclusively browse my subscribed feed which means I basically only see posts that interest me, and I find any bad comments are usually heavily downvoted anyway. And its rare enough that I just ignore it.

You just had a birthday didn’t you? Turned 40? Grumpy old man…

I have blocked hundreds of communities to sanitise my ‘all’ feed, and a few foreign language instances. But only a handful of obnoxious users. The users I’m inclined to block often end up banned anyway

What are your blocking habits?

I made it through nearly two years and eventually caved after I made the mistake of arguing in favor of the truth, supported by video evidence and a fact check from an internationally recognized fact-checking organization only to be told to “fuck off”, a second user said that they enjoyed pissing on my shoe(s) in their personal fight against truth, and some other catastrophically braindead takes. I generally don’t like the blocking approach for opinions I don’t agree with because everyone has differing views and also people have bad days and that’s just life. However, being actively hostile to the truth and being extremely confrontational about it was a bridge too far for me and it was either blocking a few mouldy potatoes in an attempt to keep things tolerable or getting off the threadi/fediverse so I decided to give the former a whirl.

If you do block a lot of people, has that affected your experience?

Thankfully haven’t felt the need to block many, so the only thing I’ve really noticed is that occasionally one of the blocked users comments in the thread for something I’ve submitted (which I don’t get a notification for and can’t see) - but then someone unrelated replies to them and then I get a notification for a comment chain which I can’t actually load. It took me a while to even figure out why I was getting these “ghost” notifications.

I’m more on mastodon and their filter system is so nice

I made a filter for “idiot did a thing” and every time the news has another article about how some idiot whose name is on my list did something again, as they do, because that’s all they’ve been doing for 20 years, I no longer have to read it.

But I still get the little “something was blocked, click here to read it” thing, so it’s very satisfying.

I don’t block often, but I would expect it’s a similar upgrade.

I hardly ever block individual posters, but communities, I’ve blocked 936 of them at the time of making this post. Sports, porn, anime, or furry shit are all block on sight. Plus a handful of randoms that I’m just not interested in.

I’ve finally got All where it’s pleasant to browse. Takes some doing, but worth the effort if you want to customize your feed reductively vs actively seeking out and subscribing to communities.

I block freely. My time and attention and mental and emotional bandwidth are limited resources, and to the extent possible I intend to spend them carefully.

I’d say there could be two styles:

• In one, you want to see the “real” unfiltered Internet, or try to not wrap yourself in information bubbles.
• In another, you make your Internet space more welcoming and inspiring.

Both have their merits, with the first improving your grip on real state of affairs, and the other stimulating you to be productive and positive, and being on the Internet as a place to enjoy life.

Personally, I go with the first, since I’m very concerned about how societal attitudes shift in the world. Granted, Lemmy itself is a bit of an echo chamber, but this is not the only place I hang around.