Implementing A 'Block' Feature

As someone who is new to this site and genraly polite I feel a blocking feature may not be the right answer. If someone is annoying one for whatever reason you should first ask them to leave you alone and besides if someone is breaking site rules or being rude I am pretty sure the moderators on the site could do the job. A blocking feature would just escalate the problem and cause hurt feelings. So with that said I am against a blocking feature.

Have you read through the whole thread? Most of it is people talking about being able to block their abuser I’m sure most have them have told their abuser to leave them alone but the abuser didn’t and now every time they see their abuser’s name they get a feeling of fear or at least are uncomfortable seeing the abuser’s name it doesn’t matter if you are polite or nice there are people who will be mean to other people just because they can

i agree with all of what you say but there are actuallly alot of people who can't tell their abuser to leave them alone compared to the few who can actually do it. I know quite a few who couldnt so i had to encorage them to do so

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@EliteFourKirika i suggest you read the other posts so you can get a better understanding on exactly why people want this, with multiple reasons. as i stated in my last posts and as someone who was being relentlessly stalked and harassed on multiple sites, even after telling them to go away, this would help out so much because personally it makes me and quite alot of others feel like we cant enjoy pfq anymore because the staff cant deal with certain issues. so it kind of makes alot of us be completly inactive or play the game very very little. a optioion for the block feature that makes it so we cant see anything from eachother will make that fear go away alot. there are other ideas that this block feature should have that will make it alot better than most sites with a block. im sure there is someone who made a post that explains iI

I've expressed my support for a block/mute function before and my support still stands. It's a vital function on any social site. I had ableist remarks and other dismissals thrown at me the last time I tried to defend the suggestion at length, so I'm glad more people are weighing in positively, but it's downright heartbreaking that people are still having to publically discuss their trauma and abuse just to defend their right to determine their own boundaries. That's all I have to say, really. I won't be looking at this thread again for the sake of my emotional well-being, but I hope this pans out.

I agree that there might be people who aren’t able to directly tell their abuser to stop and needed encouragement and that blocking them will give the victim a slight piece of mind about not having to interact with their abuser And I feel like cutechem says it best by summing up why most of the abuse victims want a block feature ( I’m not saying that this is why the abuse victims want a block feature there may be other reasons why )

I take issue with this statement here for a few reasons. First, if someone gets blocked and gets their feelings hurt, it may be beneficial for them to take a step back and evaluate what they did to get themselves blocked. Blocks don't usually happen for no reason, so more likely than not it's the fault of the person being blocked that the block happened in the first place. Imo we shouldn't sacrifice the safety of the people who need the block for the comfort of the people misbehaving, onsite or off. As such, that leads me to the second point. Why do the hypothetical "hurt feelings" of the people being blocked matter more than the actual, literal trauma people who need a block feature face? Furthermore, these hurt feelings are hypothetical. The triggering effect of seeing an abuser's name or account are real and documented. For me personally, there is exactly one user I would like to block. They have not done anything bad to me on this site, but we have some bad blood offsite. Things got messy and I carried that guilt and horrible feeling around with me for literal years before finally breaking my way out of it. I would like to avoid their name and anything to do with them at all costs, and a block feature is the perfect way to ascertain I don't ever have to fall down that pit ever again. Big support.

and even if it hurts anyone's feelings, what are they gonna do? they're blocked. that's the whole point of the feature.

Okay don't harp on me for being against a block feature. I am new so I havent dealt with people like you have mentioned. I am not going to argue as you have posted valid facts proving your points for being for a block feature. For those harping on me not wanting to hurt feelings I can't help it I am a nice person so I kinda hate being mean to people of course I am understanding too so don't snap. I have read posts saying block features have been rejected in the past so I am not going to be for a feature which may end up rejected by the staff.

I fully support this. There's a handful of people who have usernames that are incredibly triggering for me to see because of reasons completely unrelated to them and the ability to hide them from my view would be incredibly beneficial to my mental health. I absolutely love Pokefarm, but it's very difficult sometimes for me to justify being active when I risk causing a panic attack every time I go to click others using clickback or open 10 or when I'm browsing the forums. I defintiely support having the block button not in the same dropdown as the send trade/pm/report stuff and also having a pop-up asking if you are sure and suggesting reporting the person instead. I also believe it may be beneficial and encourage people to only block as a last resort by asking for a short reason why you're blocking them, but that may be too personal for some people. I think it also would potentially be a good idea to have an easily accessible blocklist that keeps track of when you blocked them and ideally also a reason, and even potentially an occasional reminder to review your blocklist and unblock anyone that doesn't need to be there. It may also be a good plan to have a soft limit on the amount of people you can block to try to make sure people are using it responsibly. Another option would be requiring people to either report someone before being able to block them, or to list a reason and have the reason reviewed in the cases where the person hasn't broken a rule. Requiring people to report their abuser instead of being able to just block them and be hidden from them could genuinely have real world consequences that make people just not report them at all, especially if they live with/near their abuser because the abuser receiving a warning or pm/trade/etc ban when they know they're only harassing one/a few people makes it very very easy for them to pinpoint exactly who reported them and why even if staff does their best to protect privacy. I can't imagine that this hasn't happened at least a few times with the amount of people on this site, and it absolutely would go unnoticed because the people being abused know the consequences of reporting the abuser, which can and will let the abuse continue through pms/wherever else on the site. I understand the staff's difficulties in implementing a block option, but it is incredibly harmful to a small group of people. Even if we need a justifiable reason to block someone and even if it needs to be reviewed before the block is implemented, adding a block option is important. Most people will only be blocked if they've done something worth blocking and I cannot imagine that many people will block instead of reporting without very good reason, especially if limits and precautions are put in place. Trying to protect people from hurt feelings does not take precedence to protecting people from actual harm to their mental health. Edit now that I've read the full thread: A mute option and a block option sound best. All of my earlier ideas about a block option are still ideas I like for block, but not mute. The mute option should hide their name and avatar and signature and posts in threads, with an option to show them. Everywhere else their name should be censored the way inappropriate names are. Their about and trainer card should either be blank or in a hide box, and if you choose to open their fields that is on you. Their pms should have the title censored with muted user, opening the content is on you. They should be able to click and trade with you and post in your threads. "Nice" from them should have the name censored. This should not need staff approval. The block option should do most of the above, possibly replacing the censor with BLOCKED or something similar. They should not show up in clickback or open 10 at all. Their trainer card and about should be hidden if you open them from Pokerus. Their name should be censored in wondertrades and Pokemon history. Their posts in threads should be in hide boxes, and their threads should be censored or warn that it is by a blocked user. Your journal should not be visible to them. This potentially should need staff approval. I have a couple solutions get around making it obvious that they are blocked. Their trades should be automatically declined, instead of being unable to trade with you at all. "Nice" should look the same from their end, but either show up as a censored name or not show up at all. Your name could show up to them as censored like an inappropriate name, your signature should be blank, your trainer card could look blank and your about as well, and your farm name and field names could be blank. Your posts and threads could show up to them as normal with your name censored so they can't as easily tell it's you (but this one maybe could be an optional thing when you block them, I don't have a great solution for forums). It's not feasible to please everybody with a block option without interfering with how the site works. I think a majority of people can accept things like the shelter and wondertrade not being part of the block aside from censoring the name, and also know that this is a public site based on interacting with others and it's not realistic to have the blocked party completely blocked completely from interacting or completely from seeing their threads and posts. Having both a mute and a block option should help the block option from being abused, but nothing is going to be perfect. The very small minority of people that will intentionally abuse the block system can be dealt with as they occur and should not be the reason it is not implemented The people that are going to abuse the system are going to do so regardless of what that system is.

Supported. There are some people that I know I don't want coming up in my Pokefarm experience in any form - whether thru the Users Online clicklist or on my own Interactions page. The last time I tried to report someone that gave me such issues, the claim was dismissed, so something quick I can do on my end without involving the moderation team (who may or may not actually take my concerns into account) would be nice.