SocraticGadfly: Muting vs blocking vs reporting on various social media

September 19, 2019

Muting vs blocking vs reporting on various social media

Here's how I decide when to do either of the actions above on the social media in which I am involved, and what if anything to say about it.

By my involvement, I mean, I am on Facebook, Twitter, this and other blogs that I run, and Quora. No desire at all to be on Instagram, and Pinterest doesn't interest me, as non-fiction reading isn't a "pinnable" hobby.

OK, so, here goes.

Facebook?

First, because of Hucksterman's "let's all be connected," you of course don't have a mute feature there and you never will. You can "snooze" a friend for 30 days. You can try, if you have FB Purity as an add-on, entering their name into your filters and see if that blocks them. In my one time trying it ... it sort of worked. But, you can't snooze someone who is not already a friend, so if a person in a group that you're in is being an asshole, all you can do is block them.

I used to be less willing to block, because I thought it was rude.

Now? Fuck Hucksterman. And, if it's more than just assholery, but something like being a conspiracy theorist? I tell them, just before I block them. If they are a friend, and they unfriend me? I post, after I've blocked them, that I've blocked them, with an "@."

Reporting?

Have done so on occasion. Usually not worth it, IMO.

Oh, one other note, because of the way Facebook works? If I tell you, especially on a thread that is either in a group, with an individual with a large number of friends, or otherwise heavily trafficked, that I am leaving the conversation and, because I've been tagged more than once in the thread already, to please not tag me? If you do? Blocked.

Twitter?

Muting is more fun than blocking, first. That's especially when you don't tell the person that you've muted them. I like doing that. I get the last word — on my end — in an argument and I simply move on. On my original primary account, that had a lot more followers (thanks, MAGA heads in general and Covington Catholic chuds in particular for getting me suspended), I sometimes muted friends and later unmuted them.

Blocking? I sometimes tell people I am going to, and sometimes I don't. On conspiracy theorists, my general action is to either mute or block. It used to be block-only, as on Book of Fuck, but I've kind of moved away from that. I need to get back to it.

Reporting? I do that on about 10 percent of people with whom I have ugly run-ins. I NEVER say anything about it before or after, and not just don't say anything to that person.

Quora?

Because of its interactive Q and A nature, blocking and muting work a bit differently. At times, when you'd block on Twitter, you should mute on Quora and vice versa.

Reporting? You can either report the person, or just a question. I report questions for clickbait reasons and report persons for alt-right, alt-right-lite but still with hateful attitude and similar reasons. I also report all conspiracy theorists. Under reason why? Harassment. Specifically? "Harassing the truth." Yes, I actually say that.

My blog?

Comments are moderated. I don't get that many, but I do moderate (I also get some spam.)

When someone is being obnoxious and ongoing-ly obnoxious, at some point I simply cut them off, and I tell them in a comment back that I'm going to cut them off. They then know, or should know, that they have one last shot, and after that, it's my turn.

It IS my blog, and not theirs, after all.

What gets you in trouble with me?

Being an unrepentant conspiracy theorist, first and foremost. I don't care if you're a fellow Green or other leftist. Ditto, if you're Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, etc. By unrepentant, I mean, continuing to believe in the fact of contrary evidence. And it can be any serious conspiracy theory: 9/11, Seth Rich, JFK, chemtrails, antivaxxerism, etc.

Other things can, but that's the biggie.

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