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New blocking policy

SW already has the annoying feature where if you report someone's post or comment, it automatically blocks them. Until recently, you could go to your settings and unblock them, which I've always done after reporting someone as I want to keep track of any new garbage they're posting. Now they've changed this where if you try to unblock the person that you didn't want to block in the first place, you get a message saying that "you cannot unblock this person at this time."

I'm not sure what the point of this is. First, they assume you want to block someone just because you reported them, and now they think you want to block them permanently? What's the problem, the mods are getting too many reports? It's not like they do anything about 99% of them anyway.

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LeopoldBloom · M

This policy just encourages users to set up multiple accounts to make multiple reports on the same post since you can’t report different posts by the same person if the site automatically blocks them for you.

Pitchblue

@LeopoldBloom Exactly, all of their downvotes and blocking policies cater to users with multiple accounts. When the downvote thing came in I asked about multiple accounts downvoting one account. They said they were aware of people with multiple accounts. But that was it.

CestManan · 46-50, F

I imagine admins did that because some people run and tattle over every little thing like they are in kindergarten.

"SomeMember did this and then they did that and then they posted this and then called me a booger face and then they stuck their tongue out at me and and and...."

It is one thing if people are directly insulted or what not but some people go literally searching
for things to report.

I would be tired of reading non-stop b*tching and moaning too if I were admin. I would guess they probably get at least 50 fresh reports every day. Just a wild guess.

Think of it like this - suppose you are babysitting a couple kids who will not stop fighting nor tattling on each other. You have no choice but to separate them.

Of course then on SW when people get auto-blocked, they make alt accts so they can keep fighting.

Grow the hell up, people! We are grown-ass adults here!

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CestManan · 46-50, F

@basilfawlty89 That is a good reason to use it but I imagine a lot of reports are more about people just fighting.

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CestManan · 46-50, F

@LordShadowfire The admins are probably well aware of who the true problems are. It is not the users who occasionally slip up like most of us do.

Admins have lives too, they cannot spend every waking moment going through dozens of reports about the same couple incidents. Like when we see threads about "Can everyone go and report this?" so then how many dozens of reports do they have to read through about the same thing?

People who want to go around reporting non-stop are not looking for justice, they are looking for drama. I myself have never once reported anything.

People complain about the way things are ran here and this is why. people should not go into someone else's house and crap on the floor.

Ontheroad · M

This whole auto block issue and their responses to inquiries/complaints speaks (to me) of a couple of things, which in reality all goes to bottom line issues.

One, they need users and the more the better. Two, they need to cut expenses as much as possible, therefore automated systems.

To deal with the real issue costs money and it requires them to take a stance.
Taking a stance will reduce user numbers, which reduces income (user count = advertiser dollars).

So, the bottom line is the bottom line always wins out. Their concern is not for the user, it is a concern for profitability. It's a business, end of.

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Nuno · Admin

@Ontheroad No IOS app? Now that is just plain dumb... in the extreme.

We can't simply just "create an iOS app"... there are many factors and rules that makes it impracticable for us to create an iOS app on the Apple Store.
We'd have already created one if we could. We simply don't have the resources to create and maintain an iOS app, with all the implications that brings to us.

@LeopoldBloom Like no "back" button.

We were about to fix that issue, a few weeks/months ago, and then we realized that the latest version of iOS already provides a Back button at the bottom of the screen, when you add SW to the homescreen.
If you have upgraded your iOS to the latest version, can you please try again and let me know if you see the Back button?

LeopoldBloom · M

@Nuno I have the latest version of iOS on a 13 Pro Max and I can't see the back button on the desktop icon.

I'm more interested in addressing the new policy of permanently blocking anyone I report.

Nuno · Admin

@LeopoldBloom I have the latest version of iOS on a 13 Pro Max and I can't see the back button on the desktop icon.

Thank you very much. I've just tested again and I understand now what misled me to think there was one.

We've just released now the Back button that we had developed a few months ago, that had the purpose to accommodate iOS users.
It should appear at the bottom-left corner, when you navigate on the SW app when added to the homescreen.

If you don't see it, please let me know. Cheers!

markansas

here is another block against me.. i responded to him.. when he was being a ass hole. and when i got back in i can not see him at all.. none of his stuff.

[image/video deleted]

guess he did not like me looking at his past postings .. i do that to see what type of person he was .. so funny.

LeopoldBloom · M

@markansas That guy must have blocked me, too. I can't find him.

But that's an odd post. He's asking what happened to another user who used to "DM girls?" How did he know unless he was one of those "girls?"

markansas

@LeopoldBloom he was being rude to a person i like so i looked up his post and found and made this .. it did not take long.. maybe it was the admin. grin

LordShadowfire · 46-50, M

I've gone rounds with them over this. They have no intention of changing this new policy. In fact, they've removed all my posts complaining about it. I very nearly canceled my account over it.

The following pictures are unedited screenshots of my email interaction with the site admins, in which they explain the reason why:

[image/video deleted]

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iamonfire696 · 41-45, F

@LordShadowfire absolutely ridiculous. There’s a woman here I keep reporting because the stuff she posts is against TOS. She’s not going to stop but now I am auto blocked now and can’t. They just don’t want the reports.

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markansas

@LordShadowfire i dont see what is offense you did in those posts .. however i am not the admin. i like ya tho. mark

markansas

that would explain why i have less people leaving me responces.. if all that it takes to be blocked.

LeopoldBloom · M

@markansas Yep. The people who disagree with you are reporting you, and SW automatically blocks them. Blocking works both ways. They don't see you and you don't see them.

markansas

@LeopoldBloom Kinda takes out the reason for being on sw.. it was a exchange of ideas on both sides.. now it seems dull and not as interesting..

iamonfire696 · 41-45, F

I was reporting an account today because it had pedophile content. 3 reports in and it auto blocks me and I can’t unblock this person.

There was still more to report. This is what I see. Admin doesn’t give a fuck what is going on here. They want to reduce the number of reports so this is what it had come down too.

I wouldn’t block a pedophile account because I can’t keep reporting it.

Basically at SW you can post whatever you like here because it’s gonna live on this website forever because the admins do not care.

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iamonfire696 · 41-45, F

@Darksideinthenight2 unless you are a favourite they don’t give a shit about you either. I had someone make 8 posts about me in a day and they did nothing about it.

The admins haven’t even been around lately.

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iamonfire696 · 41-45, F

@Darksideinthenight2 with that catfish account that was using stolen pictures and posts from Instagram. I sent all the info to Nuno and it took quite awhile to get the reports back and a lot were made.

Adogslife · 61-69, M

The answer would be to stop blocking people.

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LordShadowfire · 46-50, M

@Adogslife To me, Nazi propaganda is just as problematic and disturbing as death threats. Less disturbing, obviously, than content where it's obvious somebody's being harmed or at risk, but there's a category to report hate speech. I presumed they wanted it reported.

Adogslife · 61-69, M

@LordShadowfire I do get your point, but there’s a lot of hate here. There’s abortion hate, Trump hate, Biden hate, religious hate, gay hate, Jan 6 hate, BLM hate… it’s a never ending list.

I just stay in my own lane and and be as friendly as possible with as many as possible. People are going to judge anyway, so I try to keep my feathers unruffled.

In all fairness though, perhaps my feed is really innocuous. I’ve never seen pedophilia or Nazi hate speech on the site. Not even once. That obviously tempers my opinion(s).

LeopoldBloom · M

@Adogslife I don’t block anyone. I report them and they are blocked automatically.

Spoiledbrat · F

I reported someone a few months back and noticed that the post was removed from my feed and nothing ever came of the report.

Lilnonames · F

@Spoiledbrat yup its auto/ated now

SomeMichGuy · M

I think it's likely a liability hedge: auto-block to stop something which might go really sideways, rather than accept exposure to a big lawsuit.

markansas

it makes it easier for them . less work. its not right and it might change again if too many people get blocked and the chat rate goes way down..

TrumpIsFinallyGone · 41-45, M

You shouldn't block anybody. It takes the fun out of annoying your intended audience.

LordShadowfire · 46-50, M

@TrumpIsFinallyGone He's not blocking anybody. The website blocks them for him. Then it won't let him unblock the people it blocks. That's the problem. None of us are voluntarily trying to block anybody.

LeopoldBloom · M

@TrumpIsFinallyGone I don’t want to block anyone, I just want to report them.

BackyardShaman · 61-69, M

Block them all with a gold plated mouse!

bijouxbroussard · F

Maybe they don’t want you to be able to see whether or not they stopped the person from posting such content ? 🙁

Longpatrol · 31-35, M

@bijouxbroussard I wonder if the pedos have some secret Super VIP account then

LeopoldBloom · M

@bijouxbroussard I report a lot of people and rarely get a response that anything was done.

InOtterWords · F

It is annoying but i also get it. There are some visceral people here who gather groups of people to repeatedly report someone's posts.... a the while making snide comments about them in other posts to try and get more people to report and harass in such a way.

I think if it is a friend you can either call out their behaviour or ignore

Or report and face the block.

LordShadowfire · 46-50, M

@InOtterWords Okay, but let's say there's somebody who's written 20 posts in a row, all claiming that the Jews control the media and are trying to replace white people with immigrants. You go through their feed and report the first three, and now you're blocked from reporting the rest of them. That defeats the purpose.

InOtterWords · F

@LordShadowfire i would message admin and ask them to investigate that account

LeopoldBloom · M

@InOtterWords I just wrote the admins to ask them to reconsider their automatic blocking policy. Other sites like Facebook, Reddit, and Quora only suggest blocking other users when you report them.

And that's the problem with this policy. It encourages people to gang up on one person and report the same post multiple times, or to set up multiple accounts to do the same thing.

SomeMichGuy · M

I agree.

uncalled4 · 56-60, M

We rarely see any kind of communication from the admins anymore. They used to announce new site features, etc. They idea that they stopped makes me think that they're "hands off" at this point, which does not bode well for SW.

Magenta · F

@uncalled4 It sure seems that way to me too. They've quit responding to anything at all, including reports. Almost as if they are not present anymore.

uncalled4 · 56-60, M

@Magenta Or lining up their next project, which of course is their right.

iamonfire696 · 41-45, F

This is what you get when it auto blocks. It’s been 6 days and I can’t unblock this person.

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iamonfire696 · 41-45, F

@LeopoldBloom those are the blocks from reporting someone. I can’t unblock those people I have reported.

The blocks that you make yourself aren’t permanent.

LeopoldBloom · M

@iamonfire696 I wonder if you could get around this by starting the report in one browser tab, then opening a new tab, blocking the person normally, then submitting the report in the first tab. The system might read this as the person already being blocked, allowing you to unblock them.

iamonfire696 · 41-45, F

@LeopoldBloom I am not sure if that would work or not.

There’s definitely a reason why this was changed though. I can think of 3 of them and one is on this thread.

iamonfire696 · 41-45, F

You can thank the people who make harassing posts. A popular woman made a post about me making fun of the way I looked and it was sent to me. I had unblocked a user on that post that was shit talking me and asked her why she was harassing me and if we could be adults because she previously had made a post about me, the reason i blocked her in the first place. I will say I originally made a post saying that I was living rent free in someone’s head here which was in poor taste. I took it down and apologized.

When i unblocked her to ask her why she wouldn’t leave me alone, I could not block her again for 24 hours and she made sure to get a bunch of digs in at me by making 8 posts about me. It’s users like her that have made admins implement this change.

People don’t know how to act like adults here.

Lilnonames · F

This is how e p got messed up being automated. Then the lil groups go around repirting your post and it gets deleted and u get a warning

The Dying is starting

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Lilnonames · F

I dont unblock anyway

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Lilnonames · F

@Imsleepy yup its e p all over
In the end e p went all automated then died

This message was deleted by its author.

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LeopoldBloom · M

@MarmeeMarch People are reporting me, so I’m just returning the favor.

This message was deleted by its author.

LeopoldBloom · M

@MarmeeMarch It was a few months ago. I was in "SW jail" for a month where I could only post once an hour. You wouldn't have seen the warning unless you happened to look at my profile or DM me.

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