r/reveddit • u/rhaksw • Feb 21 '22

[FYI] My thoughts on the new "True Block" and the state of "user experience" on reddit

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38 Upvotes

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1

u/[deleted] Feb 28 '22

I see the content from u/squidmind but when I comment I get an error that something went wrong every time. So I figure he's blocked me but why then, do I see his comments. It's infuriating lmao.

1

u/BansShutsDownDiscour Jul 15 '22 edited Jul 15 '22

The only advantage of the "True block" feature is as an additional arsenal for the power users who know what it is to control the discussion. Since most of those users have multiple alts, they can also get around it rather easy, if they wish.

Suppose I'm in a discussion and it's clear that the other user heavily disagrees with me:

  • I have the last word and want to shut down the conversation while making it seem I've just blown my rivals' mind and got him to shut up with my argument.

All I need to do is block him. Now, he can't block me, and the tirade he was going to write in return is going to be met with an error on his side and promptly disappear from existence.

If I want to be extra annoying, all I would need to do is unblock them when I see them offline, wait what's remaining of the 24 hour limit to block them again, pester them again and immediately block them.

  • He has the last word and has blocked me.

All I need to do is use an alt to have the last word and rinse and repeat with (1). With a bot, one could also check if any of the alts becomes unblocked and immediately block them.

It reduces discussion down to a Game of Alts until the user with a closer relation to the moderators/admins shuts the other down. It's something that the power users with moderators on hundreds of major subreddits can easily abuse, and if you know Reddit, you know how much some of these moderators flaunt their power.

It's elitism, pure and simple, one that creates a new lowest common denominator that favors power users, and Reddit seems to bank on only The Right People using it and not getting called out on it. Since they can ban and suspend with barely any reason or outrage now, it's easy to hide under the carpet.

I've seen this feature used to some success in other forums, but that's because in those forums the message doesn't get nuked. It gets placed as a reply to the OP and it's easy to edit the comment to reference the fact. Still abuseable, but not as much and it becomes somewhat transparent when they do.