Forum Thread

Well what do you do when you go to someone’s page and you had no idea they blocked you? I’m all for not being stalked but if the person has no idea at first it’s weird. Maybe the person blocked should get notifications. I like helping people but being blocked with no notice makes me uncomfortable because I have no way of knowing what I did to offend the person. Can we get notifications or is that against the tos in some way? Please let me know.

I am suggesting we get to see who has blocked us and it keeps us aware of the people who have a problem with us interacting with them. I can think of both sides and I am open for a discussion since this should be a safe place. Hopefully I explained myself well enough but if not I can try and clarify.

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Thread has received Mod approval and is now open for discussion.

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I don't think this is a good idea for a couple of reasons:

1. The blocking feature is supposed to enable users to instantly halt any interaction with the person they're blocking. The blockee receiving a notification would be an interaction and thus go against what the feature is for.

2. Users don't have to justify themselves to the person/people they block. The blockee is not entitled to a reason for why they're blocked.

3. Notifying blockees that they have been blocked could make the blocker uncomfortable. It might also raise people's threshold of using the blocking feature because they may be worried about antagonizing the person they're blocking because of the block notification. Users should be free to block people without the added anxiety that the blockee will instantly know they've been blocked.

4. Notifying blockees about being blocked could be used to antagonize the blockee by repeatedly blocking and unblocking them to spam them with the block notification. For a more subtle form of harassment, the blocker could just occasionally unblock a user so they can block them again to send that block notification.
-> If the possibility of specifying a reason would be added, that would obviously make the antagonizing potential worse.

5. Knowing exactly who blocked you and when could lead to issues of blockees trying to contact the blocker by other means (other sites they're on, through a different user, or by creating a new account) for the purpose of badgering the blocker for a reason or to unblock them.
-> I know this is a possibility at the moment as well since you'll obviously notice when someone has blocked you. However, that'll only happen if you try to interact with them, so noticing you're blocked could take a long time or you might never notice. If there's a notification, you'll definitely know you've been blocked and it might elicit more of a reaction from the blockee as it's actively informing them of the block as opposed to just stumbling on the discovery that they're blocked.

6. I don't see a reason for us to be constantly "aware of the people who have a problem with us interacting with them." If you forget and try to interact with them, you'll be reminded of it because you're blocked and you can go on your way to interact with someone else who wants to interact with you. Besides, being notified of people who don't want to socialize with you and being constantly aware of it just sounds stressful.

And Finally, blocking is about making sure users can safely distance themselves from people that make them uncomfortable and the blockee's feelings should not jeopardize that.


If you find yourself uncomfortable with the knowledge someone has blocked you, just remember that sometimes people block users for very mild reasons and it doesn't automatically mean you're a terrible person who did something wrong. Just block them back if you need to and move on. (Using the general "you" here and elsewhere in this post, this is not aimed specifically at the suggestion poster.)

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I'm in fall agreement with Finhawk, having a pop up to tell people who blocked them, especially if the person who was blocked or the person who is doing the blocking already know about the contact details of the person outside of the game can also lead to trouble. It's unfortunate but some people would use this either to harass or as an excuse to harass.

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I'll say no.
Since facebook, twitter or any other bigger sites don't do that, why should we wanna see that in PH? :/

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The potential of off-site harassment/drama is too high. Especially with people talking about other sites they're on. There's no way for this site to moderate other places, having the potential to cause issues not just for the user (the obvious problem) but also other sites. They may not even know it's a user they blocked her if that user doesn't talk about it,. meaning people could make throw away accounts to bother or even scam that user on another site.

That's not even taking into account the obvious social media places. I've noticed some seem to be very poorly moderated, and I've seen people making multiple accounts for them. The ease in this day and age of making an account is high, and many platforms that people interact on either have no rules against multiple accounts, really do not moderate it well enough, or even flat out encourage multiple/throwaway accounts.

And not a single thing that could be done here.

I know some of that is worst case, but it's a mix of levels of bad in my post. And there's literally no upside.

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Not needed

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As usual you explained everything I needed to know, Finhawk.
I was just curious because of my own experiences and being confused about it. I wouldn’t be one to seek out others just to bother them. It just confuses me because you already see your blocked and we have heard of the offsite drama posts that could come from people knowing where someone is on social media. It’s a matter of security in my eyes because if you put your links in your profile for example people can find you.

I guess I’m wondering why it matters if people can see other people’s links and I have known friends who had to leave other sites because of this and I just had to ask.

Nothing malicious was intended as I previously mentioned so I understand why it’s a big deal.

Have a nice day everyone and thanks for looking and answering an old member’s question.

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You actually just brought up a different suggestion I think would be great, ChibiTogepi. If blocking a person blocked them from seeing your contact links, that would probably hinder blocked users from following their blockers elsewhere. (And would probably make the blocker feel safer, having the people you block still be able to see all your stuff is not great.) You could post that as a new suggestion or bring it up in the already existing improve the blocking system suggestion.

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Thank you so much Finhawk, I appreciate it. I know nothing is more mentally draining than being followed everywhere and not being able to get help from the admin. I am writing on it as I write this. I again appreciate your input.

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It's sad that I was thinking about writing this kind of suggestion too, because our blocking system is so bad.

if the blcoking system doesn't improve, at least the admin should make this one. yes, it's a bad idea. just as bad i can see the feeds of people who have blocked me. :-/

(for easier finding type "Arrokuda")

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Id say to let us know who amd why someone blocked and being forced to give a reason for blocking. Mainly because its really easy to block someone by accident and not realizing so having to put a reason would stop that from occuring often. ( But no notification just a separate block tab)

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This suggestion has received less than 60% support and was moved to rejected.

Total votes: 87
Support ratio: 35.6%

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