Well, almost. I can see to turning to other people to act as a medium for you.
Yes, this is what a rational person would do. However, as far as I am concerned, "block," would likely be used to keep irrational people out of my Hubski experience. As of yet, I cannot think of an instance when I would have used "block" on an actual user of Hubski, but I would for some of the comment spammers. If I were to see that another Hubski user was blocking people frivolously, I would think less of that Hubskier. I might even "filter" or "mute" that user.
There have been some nasty arguments that resolved in mutual filtering. I'm pretty sure the arguing parties talked it out via PM and un-filtered each other, albeit after some time passed to decrease the bitch caliber. I've seen it happen a few times.
Apparently I'm irrational enough to be blocked by rd95 simply for pointing out his trolling; not like it's any big loss to me, but I did find it interesting how quick some people are to block, mute and filter. Is there any way to see who is blocking who? I think it could be nice if it was made public on the person's profile.
i'm curious what benefit people see in knowing who has blocked whom. i find it sort of burn book-esque, but i'm sure there's a good reason for wanting it
It is true, I don't know what kind of concrete benefit would come from it, but I think it could help people navigate the social groups and get a better feeling for who is who, how they moderate their posts, and what types of posts they're likely to share. The profile already shows users we follow, for that purpose, I assume. For example, if a person is sharing a bunch of pro-GMO articles and has a bunch of anti-GMO contributors blocked, I might want to avoid (or seek out, depending on who's who) following that person and engaging in their posts. With the current tools, I don't think there's any way to do it. I suppose it could be used as some sort of "burn book" but I don't think there is any shame in blocking people you don't want contact with. Let it be open and honest, though, so users can see and navigate the social web.
Hmm that's interesting -- framing it as positive social lubricant. That didn't occur to me. I've been picturing it as lines in the sand. Of course there's no shame in blocking people; life's too short to get flustered over internet jerks.