If things start feeling too toxic around here, remember that the 'block' button is your friend and always there for you.

I get it. There's some real jerks around here. Whether they're constantly argumentative, downright rude, always acting in bad faith, just plain trolls, overly opinionated on every subject, have the social skills of a Nausicaan, or whatever - the Fediverse is growing, and it's bound to attract toxicity in one way or another.

This post is mostly a PSA for anyone who's feeling like leaving because they're tired of dealing with things like that. I've been there several times myself, I know exactly how you feel, and I'm tired of seeing good people harassed off the platform.

Just remember that blocking is a very powerful way to stay in control of your experience. Be it a set of users, me specifically, a list of keywords, a whole community, or an entire instance: if it's causing you nothing but stress, hit that block button and see if that improves your experience here. Unlike the alien site, there is no limit to the number of entities you can block; you're in control.

Another thing to keep in mind is different instances have different vibes, and the experience can totally differ depending on the instance's moderation and federation policy.

In conclusion, your experience here can be what you make of it; don't be afraid to just block the parts that stress you out. You're not "creating an echo chamber" as everyone likes to say (often in bad faith) -- you're just taking care of yourself.

120 comments

Also, voyager lets you tag users which is a godsend.
If I notice someone who is unnecessarily rude, dodgy opinions, bigoted or something, I add a tag, and if I see it is constant repetitive behaviour, I’ll block them.
- Thunder too, installed it specifically for user tags!
  
  I hope they bring that to Lemmy overall, it will make for a much better experience for everyone. Mobile is really hard to mod from.
  
  I never realized that Thunder has something for it, because there is zero UI for it as far as i can see. There is just the list in the settings that you can manually add people to. This doesnt do anything however... I expected the label to show up next to the username or something but it just doesnt.
  
  Boost has user tagging as well.
  Only issue is the tag and report dialogs look exactly alike and multiple times I've unknowingly clicked report in error. I'm kinda surprised I never got criticised for abusing the report function when all I've written is "pro-russia" or "idiot"
- I recently had someone I already had tagged as "racist" replying to me with some misogyny, clicked on his profile and found him defending the R slur. Because instances are smaller, it's actually feasible to message instance admins when there is someone like that too.
  
  Okay I am gonna bite. What is the R slur?
- You can also track aggregate up and down votes per user! You're a solid +13 for me, you're cool.
- I'm on Thunder and I just labeled you as "taught me that users can be labeled"
- it does? i don't see that option anywhere.
  edit: of course the second I comment I find the option lol
  second edit: hit the settings wheel at the bottom. its on that page.
  
  Huh? Could you kindly tell where the option is? I can’t find it?
- Why give people a second chance to hurt you? Just block away!
  
  One comment does not a whole commenter make! I've had a few cases where someone acts poorly on one post, but is usually a conscientious and interesting commenter. Personally, I want to see more conversation, so I'm hesitant to ban people, but if your math is different, that's fine!
  
  Because then I can't downvote and report them for future harmful behavior.
  I do tag them so I know not to engage.
- How do you add a tag? I'm on voyager and can't see the option. Sorry for my ignorance!
  Edit. Ignore me - someone asked and answered further down the thread.
- Boost too

Filters are nice too, if you're here for escapism rather than news.
- Currently, only lemmy apps support keyword filtering. But on lemmy 1.0 we're going to get proper keyword filters :DDDD
  https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/pull/5263
  
  Wait, were not even on 1.0 yet?
- I'm only here for politics about to put "puppy" on my filter
  
  honestly too much cute shit weirdly ruins it, like loops is all peoples pets and im over it
  
  Better put owl and cat on there too while you're at it
- I tried filters on other platforms, the results weren't that good. Yes, you blocked a word, but people often use images with text for some reason, and filters don't work with them.
- Your filter list is very similar to mine. Makes a hell of a positive change.
- Musk agree with this, filters work wonders.
- How do you do this - I think I need this

I'd add "report" to that advice. If somebody is outright being jerks, that is probably against your instance's rules — and if it isn't, there are plenty others to choose from.
Blocking helps you, but reporting people (or instances) that are just here to troll will help others.
- I read all reports on my instance (i get reports on our users and from our users, too; so i see quite a lot) rest assured, all your reports actually do something.
- True. If it's report-worthy, absolutely. But there are certainly accounts that aren't violating any rules but can still be a source of stress. Those are often the "rules lawyer" type who knows exactly how to stay right on the line without crossing it.
  Counterpoint is that if that person is finally banned, they're 9 times out of 10 just going to spin up a new alt and start back up with the same shtick. If everyone just blocks them, they're just shouting into the wind wondering why no one's taking their bait. I dislike how Reddit had "shadow bans", but I can see how they would be effective when used surgically.
  
  Temp bans (a couple of days), work too. If they're actually trolling, they usually won't come back. Then just temp ban the next alt if they do, repeat.
- I agree with this 100%. The mods can't get rid of the bad guys if they don't know about them. There are very few mods for relatively big communities, help them out if you see something going bad. They might not agree with you, but it's still good practice if people aren't following the rules.
- Agreed. I report bad behavior where I see it. I've only blocked one person, becausen they took a downvote as a personal attack and started DMing me.
- You're very right. Blocking when they are being an asshole is just putting your head in the sand. It might feel petty but remember that others are probably also impacted by their shitty behaviour.

I know for a fact I'm opinionated, and don't have problems sharing them.
Please, by all means, block me if you think seeing my comments is adversely affecting you. I'd rather be ignored by someone than make their day worse (unless they're actively trying to make others miserable, but that's a separate discussion)
The fediverse has definitely gotten a little less hostile after blocking a few things.
And remember you can jump ship to another instance at any time! I've hopped a few times but for now my instance is filling my needs without much drama that I am aware of.
- I quickly went over your comment history of the last 30 days and you have almost no downvotes. You are a wholesome person and I'm glad you are here!
- I think it's less about having strong opinions and more with how those are expressed. But either way, you're here with a good attitude, and that's appreciated.
- Same!

The biggest toxicity comes from the tank triad. I have blocked them and now it is peaceful.
- That's like the "install uBlock Origin" first step as far as I'm concerned lol.
  
  Yup. Learned it the hard way. My first account was with lemmy.ml and it got banned because of criticizing China. I consider myself leftist and the amount of censorship the tank triad do to ensure China numba wan is mind numbing.
- Who are the tank triad?
  
  Lemmy.ml Lemmygrad Hexbear
  Basically the 3 far left instances that will enforce the discourse to be Marxist and anti-west.
  Most instances are defederated from the latter two but not the first because that instance is run by the main Lemmy devs (who are communists)

I never thought I needed to block any user, because, you know, I'm a big kid and I can handle any of the dirty words. Turns out, there are just reavers out there in space with their cores exposed just letting the hatred and radiation wash over them. I have all this empathy and I know they were once people and maybe they can be redeemed, but no. They are reavers. Block and move on with caution.

I have blocked 264 users, 9 communities and 4 instances and it's made Lemmy much better for me toxicity wise. Whenever a debate gets toxic or someone starts just insulting or discussing in bad faith or I just get a bad vibe from them - I block.
- I'm with you in spirit if not numbers. My experience with hexbear users led me to blocking the whole instance, and I regularly block people I don't even converse with based on how they treat other users or other topics. If someone has such a bad take on topic A, I don't care about their possible opinions on topic B and C in the future.
  I get the argument of echo chamber isolation, but most of the things I'm willing to block people over are also things that I won't be changing my mind about because of a forum post.
- You've been here for year and blocked 264 people, I mean this in the nicest way possible, but ever consider the problem is not the people you block? I think i've legitimately blocked maybe 20 people in my whole entire online life (I'm almost 40), most of it spent on platforms like Reddit.
  But then I have a high aversion for echo chambers and only block obvious trolls, mostly to keep them from blowing up my notifications. I feel it's much better to just not give random strangers on the internet the power to actually affect your mood.
  
  I have a high aversion to echo chambers because I too am a human same as everyone and find people just agreeing with me grossly unstimulating and seek out takes opposite to mine to understand them, deconstruct them and apply them to my own views either to refine/change them with a newly gained perspective or to argue against the opposing view.
  I blocked all of those people because they are just unsalvageable people in my view. I was discussing the finer points of relative drug danger with some guy in a thread, talking about hypothetical lethal dosages for ht-2a classical psychedelics, and the guy was bringing up "Woodstock" and "brown acid" and how he "heard of a guy" etc etc.
  There's no point discussing anything ever with a person like that, it's clear that we think along such different lines the differences are irreconcilable, like trying to convince someone not to be a bigot or disprove someone's belief in religion/conspiracy with evidence and reason, when they just believe in that stuff, they don't think about it and weren't reasoned into it.
  
  Blocking them actually is removing their ability to affect your mood 😌

I've blocked communities and instances that don't speak English, ones that have absurd ideological basis (anarchy supporters), and occasionally people who just say really dumb things, a lot.
I vastly prefer encouraging blocking over censorship/moderation. If someone is being an asshole, having the ability to say it, vent those feelings for a moment, then readjust is a catharsis that's been nearly outlawed especially on platforms on like TikTok.
Obviously not everything should be permitted and everything has its limits, but the internet seems to over correct things into a passionless husk of forced friendliness. To shove people into forming a facade that feels like a shrinking cage. Sterile.
Curating my own experience has been invaluable and I highly encourage it.
- absurd ideological basis (anarchy supporters)
  I am not a community but can you please add me to your list
  
  This wasn't an open invitation for everyone to out themselves but sure, take care.
- Blocked for calling anarchists absurd.
  That is a dumb take and you could look it up on Wikipedia if you cared and iota to read many influential anarchist authors e.g. Kropotkin or Grabber, but trying to prove wrong every wrong person on the internet I'd never have time for myself so I'm moving on.
  
  Obligatory this isn't an airport you don't have to announce your departure joke.
  I've never shyed away from arguing with anarchists but this is already resolved so thank you? The enlightened anarchist simply has no time for the meager law loving peasants.

Additional PSA to admins not running a "universal free speech" instance- if you see someone someone being obnoxious it's probably annoying your users just as much as is is you. Don't put the onus fully on users to curate their experience. The Fediverse needs our adults in the room!

In conclusion, your experience here can be what you make of it; don’t be afraid to just block the parts that stress you out. You’re not “creating an echo chamber” as everyone likes to say (often in bad faith) – you’re just taking care of yourself.
We really, REALLY need to de-stigmatize blocking people. Bad-faith concern trolls have successfully convinced people that "choosing not to interact with someone" is akin to censorship and also bad for us because what do you MEAN you don't want to be disrespected by a complete stranger? Are you creating an echo chamber by preferring to be with people who are nice to you?!?!?!?
Like. No. Fuck off. That's not how it works in real life. We're not friends. We're not even co-workers for me to be stuck having to be polite to you even if you're an asshole.
You're a complete stranger and you're saying rude shit at me (or even at other people with me bearing witness), at best I'll walk away because I don't need that shit, at worst I'll call you a wanker and hit you in the face.

Im a big believer in block. I think its better for people to peruse all and block communities they are uninterested in and you should totally block users you don't like. To me it should be like real life. Don't hang with folks you don't like. My hope for the fediverse is instances that only remove things to stay out of legal trouble and communities that only block things that are unrelated. I want all the big tools to be at the user level. Bottom up.

I’ve yet to block anyone here and the only one I had blocked on Reddit was Gallowboob.
- Well that's a name I haven't heard in a long time.

Make sure to also report the people you see being toxic, astroturfing, or downright attacking users. Many instances have policies against this and reporting them will increase the likelihood they'll be dealt with, in some cases permanently.
This is something that should be discussed more since blocking is not a moderation function that makes the platform better, it's a tool for people to pretend the problems don't exist. I'm not a fan of pretending issues don't exist, especially since I'm a mod and that would be insanely counter-productive.
- Oh, yeah, that goes without saying. Report anyone whose behavior warrants it. I'm just mainly reminding people that blocking can be a way to take control of your experience. It took me a while to fully appreciate the block button and get over my FOMO (in the earlier days of Lemmy, blocking even a few people would cut down the amount of content drastically; thankfully that's no longer the case).
  Semi-specific (but still intentionally vague) example for "block" candidates are some accounts that even the mods are like "Look, I don't like them either, but they're not breaking any rules". But, in general, just don't be afraid to block what or whoever stresses you out.

By all means, use the block feature to remove stressors if it helps.
For me personally, unless someone is actively haranguing me in DMs I'd rather not block them. Sure people can place comments that get me riled up. Or sometimes they seem downright hostile. Maybe they're having a bad day, you can't say. But it goes both ways, if I'm tired or having a bad day I could be misinterpreting people's comments and blocking them for no reason.
If a comment is so bad/rude it becomes rule-breaking I'd rather report it and have a moderator tell them off, it might be a valuable lesson for them or if they are repeat offenders the mods can dish out appropriate punishment. This keeps the instance and community in question healthy.

Is it the people that are toxic? Or is it the world or a living in right now?
- toxic people made the world toxic which in turn made more people toxic

That’s one of the benefits of the smaller community here too, the block button actually feels like it does something. If you’re frustrated by comments that add nothing to anything or are fishing for drama etc, a short commitment to blocking repeat offenders really improves things quickly

Yes and no.
I am a big fan of block buttons and use them quite liberally (if someone responds to me in a manner that makes it clear they have no intention of having a conversation? I never see them ever again).
But the problem is that it only blocks it for the user who blocks them. So harassment is still a thing and now even fewer people are likely to flag it for moderation (to the extent that works).
There is obviously room for abuse but I am a firm believer that any block feature must be bidirectional. If user A blocks user B then A and B can no longer see each other or interact. Which would be a fundamental lemmy feature which makes things difficult.
But "just block them" is good for people who are annoying. Not for people who are abusive. And while the latter isn't SUPER common on lemmy, there are still a good number of people who respond to the simplest of things with "Fuck you you fucking moron and you should go kill yourself"

Thanks for reminding the people arguing with me, personally im going to just let them deal with me

I have blocked a few communities which I have really enjoyed. I think there is definitely a different but freeing experience to be in charge of curating your experience instead of algorithms doing it for you. It's more work but the freedom is nice but making the constant choice feels hard.

Thank you! I try to exercise caution for myself of am I just off put by this or is this truly uncessary behavior, and I'm glad the option to judge for myself is available.

I found that a total of like 5 people post basically all of the lemmynsfw stuff. Once I blocked them, it almost all went away. Pretty sure the internet is nothing but bots now.
Also, if you're on the internet expecting all sunshine and rainbows -- leave now. The internet is not a place for that. Everything now is rage-bait designed to get more clicks, and the internet has always been the wild west with major hostilities all the time. It's not a good place to spend your time if you're looking to relax.
- Everything now is rage-bait designed to get more clicks
  IMO the greatest strength of the Fediverse is the increased number of mods and admins looking at everything. Don't want rage bait? Join an instance that has rules against it.
  
  Nah fuck that. Mods are power hungry fat morons who exert the editorial discretion of a wet noodle. Almost every community in the fediverse is full of this crap. Things aren't removed because they're harmful, they're removed because some mod disagrees.
  There's also the problem with every instance admin having access to deeper internals; I'm waiting for the day people start getting banned for upvoting the wrong thing.
- I just blocked the instance entirely. I'm not interested in seeing porn browsing lemmy, and I doubt the people who made an account on the porn community are posting the most enlightening non porn stuff.
  
  I'm okay with seeing it from time to time - but when my /all would get flooded with PAGES, and PAGES of the stuff with no normal articles in between, I started muting those users.
- Isn't lemmynsfw automatically blocked on LW? I don't see any posts from lemmynsfw.
  
  Nope. They're federated, so no reason they wouldn't show unless you turn all NSFW stuff off.

What I read to do is to call them out, report them, then block them. They need to know they’re being mean.

Block users and instances (although blocking instances just blocks the topic posts from that instance, not all the users from that instance).
- Wish instance blocking actually blocked properly. But the main devs know everyone would block the tanky triad immediately and they'd have no one to troll.
  
  Instance blocking works on:
  PieFed
  the Lemmy apps Sync and Connect
  instance admins who can choose to defederate
  someone willing to go deep and make a custom web browser filter (presumably like Ublock Origin I would guess)
  Nothing else works.

have the social skills of a Nausicaan
Play Domjot?

Block is useless on lemmy. They can still cause a nuisance. Just becuase you can't see it doesn't mean it's not there..
- The point of my post is protecting one's own mental health. I'm not here to police the Fediverse. Report people if it's warranted, block if they're a source of stress or make the place unenjoyable.
- It's nice not having to look at Blaze or some of the other trolls at least.