For me, then mute function is to be used in pretty rare circumstances. If I encounter someone that is spamming in comments I will mute them. If someone has offended me by being racist, sexist, or otherwise appalling by my standards, I will mute them. However, if I encounter users that I think are muting people out of spite or too liberally. I will likely unfollow that person because I know they're shutting out potential ideas etc. Like BB said , duplicate posts are allowed on Hubski to help prevent someone not being able to take part in a discussion on a particular article. -my two cents on muting. It's not a perfect system, but it's getting better all the time. We are open to suggestions. I think some people are using mute the way I would use hush.