Do Forum users have the ability to mute and/or block other users from appearing in their feed? If not, could this feature be included on a development list? The mute/block functions were a very needed addition to iNat, and there are circumstances where they could help with problematic Forum interactions as well.
Appreciate your consideration on this.
Yep, Discourse supports muting and blocking people. Go to their profile page and click the “Normal” dropdown button thing on the right hand side, and you can choose to either mute them (no notifications) or ignore them (all their forum content is hidden).
This is one of those issues I’m conflicted on. It’s good to provide the option, and there are certainly times when it’s appropriate, but it’s one of those things that can also be used to create a consensus bubble, intentionally or not.
Personally, I prefer to know what’s going on, good, bad, and neutral, but I can completely understand that some interactions go beyond what is tolerable or appropriate for some, and that some people have a way of interacting with others that is offensive and should not be tolerated. There are also people who choose to use said options specifically to in an effort to promote their own bad behavior and to stay within their own bubble of bias and intolerance.
On the whole I come down on the side of providing the option to ignore or mute, but I am always concerned with how the ease of doing that in an online context affects people’s ability to cope with adverse real-world situations where clicking a button to ignore something is not an option.
It’s not an easy thing to parse out. I suppose it’s enough to be glad that people online have the option to do block things they’d rather not experience.
Very much conflicted on this particular issue.
Not sure how this would work. You mean if I don’t like a particular Forum participant I could block them and would simply never see their comments but everyone else would? I get that some participants’ posts might be annoying at times but I just skip over those. Never considered erasing their presence here.
(we/us pronouns) We have PTSD and other disorders that make conflict particularly distressing. We posted on the forum recently to someone, and someone else replied directly to us to tell us our feelings and perceptions on the topic were incorrect. This was a challenging situation for us. We considered removing our comment, not participating in the forum anymore, or muting the person; but a few days later that person’s post was deleted along with all the person’s other posts on the forum dating back months and longer. Unsure if the person removed themself or was silenced by a moderator.
We post infrequently because we do not want to inadvertently antagonize anyone and we don’t want to be in conflict. We are pleased to have the muting tool available, as our threshold for distress tolerance may not be as robust as someone else’s.
If you find a comment distressing, you can flag it for attention.
Dissmissing your feelings as incorrect - is not in the iNat spirit of presume that people mean well
We all need - be kind - the way the world is now.