Individual blocks doesn't solve the problem of other people censoring themselves to avoid having abuse lobbed at them. It gives the abusers a heckler's veto forum-wide discussion, and some people just solve this by not participating at all.
Replies
because there's ever been a time when you could just say *whatever* and nobody would get pissed? We've always censored ourselves, forever. But Will's got a thing apparently where he won't block (?) and that is just *letting* yourself be abused. Some people suck! Block em!
sep 2, 2025, 9:32 pm • 16 0 • view
My point wasn't that no one should ever feel the need to censor themselves in any social situation. That's an odd read of what I was saying. There are differences between good decorum and bad decorum and we can make judgments about which is which.
sep 2, 2025, 9:35 pm • 4 0 • view
Well there’s your problem, you have no social skills. You should absolutely feel the need to censor yourself in some social situations. Would it be appropriate to discuss explicit details of your sex life in front of children?
sep 2, 2025, 10:47 pm • 2 0 • view
I think you should re-read what I wrote again. My point *wasn't* that no one should feel the need to censor themselves in any social situation.
sep 3, 2025, 12:35 am • 1 0 • view
Yes and isn’t this the point of block lists or at least preemptively blocking and so on?
sep 2, 2025, 9:43 pm • 0 0 • view
Like if you see someone engaging in disrespectful behavior toward someone else, you can block the former. Of course block lists can help automate this, albeit with other drawbacks. Determine the bounds of acceptable discourse and getting everyone to stick to it is not a solved problem!
sep 2, 2025, 9:45 pm • 0 0 • view
It is necessary to tolerate some amount of speech one disagrees with and is irritated by. Rough and tumble of free speech in the public square. Genuinely abusive speech is of course corrosive to conversation and community and need not be tolerated. But people disagree, strongly, which is good.
sep 2, 2025, 9:48 pm • 1 0 • view
This is in a deep way I think the problem we on the left face — speech codes are always insufficient. I think being able to handle disagreement with grace and being able to detach from abusive engagement are very much necessary.
sep 2, 2025, 9:54 pm • 0 0 • view
I don't disagree with this. I think a health forum culture involves disagreement and some tolerance for dialogue people feel hurt by or are offended by. I also think there is sufficiently hostile interactions, particularly around implied or explicit threats, that require direct censorship.
sep 2, 2025, 9:56 pm • 2 0 • view
If you *like* that sort of interaction, I'm all for forums existing that allow you do that to your heart's content. You should be free to choose it. It's just that in order to have large forums with healthy engagement, you need to stamp that out so it only exists at a low hum.
sep 2, 2025, 9:59 pm • 2 0 • view
For sure, I agree with you there. I think implied and explicit threats are abusive and should not be tolerated.
sep 2, 2025, 10:01 pm • 0 0 • view
Yeah. I don't think those work quite as well as centralized moderation, which leaves us with the evergreen problem of needing good people with sound judgment in charge of your forum's moderation. There is a point of choice here, but that choice is in which forum cultures you participate in.
sep 2, 2025, 9:50 pm • 2 0 • view
I hear your point. Although they don’t work quite as well I suspect that they have some effect and used more widely might have a larger effect on norms.
sep 2, 2025, 10:05 pm • 0 0 • view
The easiest way to solve it is to not have opinion that question some people’s humanity, or blame people for things that are done to them, or insist that left us a responsible for every ill in the world. Because I simply never have this problem. Skill issue.
sep 2, 2025, 10:45 pm • 0 0 • view
I've been a forum mod before. I prefer a light touch, but even I would think there comes a point of where targeted, trollish harassment and threats requires you to kill posts and suspend/ban people. You kill your forum if you let them just dominate interactions.
sep 2, 2025, 9:32 pm • 6 0 • view
The best I can recommend is subscribing to some of these lists. Maybe there's someone who self identifies with a hammer and sickle, or red triangle, or TERF, that has a good opinion, but I'm going to be completely fine missing the 99% that don't. bsky.app/profile/skyw... bsky.app/profile/for....
sep 2, 2025, 11:28 pm • 0 0 • view