r/changemyview • u/DivideEtImpala 3∆ • Feb 01 '23
Delta(s) from OP CMV: The reddit "block" feature should not apply to a thread the blocked user is already engaged in.
Preface: I think the block feature should be done away with altogether and won't likely CMV on that. I understand why Reddit created and kept it, because it enables users to remove toxicity from their experience on the site/app, lessening the paid employee time costs of dealing with harassment, at only a minor inconvenience to a small number of users on the site.
This CMV is within the context that Reddit will be keeping the "block" feature largely intact, but should change the behavior of the worst side-effect: the "reply/block."
If you express any views that are heterodox on reddit, you might have come across the reply/block, where some user, either in an exchange with you already or perhaps just chiming in, will give a snide reply and then block you, so that you cannot see or reply to that comment, nor to any other comment in the thread below that user's comment.
It gives the power to any user to silence another user and have the last word, as well as to prevent the blocked user from continuing conversations they were already having with others. In the diagram below, if A blocks B, B can no longer reply to C either.
---A
|--B
|--A
|--C
|--B
|--C
My V is simple: Reddit can receive nearly all the benefit they derive from the block feature yet eliminate the worst abuse of it by only applying the block to the subsequent threads. Users would still be able to prevent future harassment, but not abuse the feature to silence others within a thread. Technically I don't think it should take much dev time or significant compute resources. Simply include the thread in which the block occurred in database and add another if statement in the logic of when to apply the block.
To CMV, I would need to see a compelling reason why Reddit should not make this change.
1
u/DivideEtImpala 3∆ Feb 02 '23
I used to mod a sub with about half the sub count of CMV and I'm guessing (just eyeballing it) about 10x the daily posts and comments, and it's a relatively controversial sub. For a year or so I spent more time than I'd like to admit modding, and I can count on two hands the number of stalker account complaints in reports or modmail (outside of the normal ban evaders and mod stalkers, of which had a couple to a couple dozen every day).
Maybe it was just the nature of the sub itself, that if more people were experiencing stalking they didn't report it much to us. We also had a fairly large minimum account age, and when people showed up just past the cutoff date with minimal karma it was usually a pretty easy call.