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Thraxx Media1 year ago (1 edit) (+6)

Yeah I don’t get the point of the block feature here either.

In its current form, dare I say, it hurts more than it helps… because aside from the lack of content filtering, it also doesn’t really do anything to stop a bad actor from harassing you (or your community), which makes no sense. It’s like there’s someone getting assaulted in your living room, but instead of having a phone to call the cops, you only get a sleeping mask and a pair of noise-cancelling headphones so you don’t see or hear any of it.

That’s not how these things are supposed to work. Platforms like Twitch are a pretty good example of how it should be: blocking someone not only hides all their activity, but also deletes them from your follower list (if they followed you), and prevent them from ever re-following or subscribing to you again. They can’t spend or redeem anything in your channel, they won’t count as a viewer, and whispers are automatically rejected.

In the same vein, what itch’s “block” feature should do (in my opinion):

  • Remove and keep them away from your follower list
  • Prevent them from leaving anything (comments, reviews, ratings) on your uploads
  • Automatically hide (or delete) their activity from your uploads (for everyone)
  • Filter your content from their search results
  • Filter them from your search results
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doodlemancy1 year ago(+2)

I'm honestly flabbergasted it does NONE of the stuff on this list?? What does it do?! I like itchio but this seems like really appalling neglect of a basic feature.

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Thraxx Media1 year ago (8 edits) (+1)

I haven’t exactly had the chance to properly test it myself yet, but if the website’s notification (i.e. the one that you get when attempting to block someone) is to be believed, then the ONLY things it does is:

  • It hides their community posts (forum, comments) from you, and
  • it prevents you from getting notifications about any of their activities

…which is completely baffling to me. All this does is literally just “turning a blind eye” without actually doing anything about the root issue and reason why you may have wanted to block the person in the first place.

This is why I think it’s worse than not blocking them: they can probably just continue to post on your uploads, maybe even harass other people, and you won’t even be able to moderate it - because you don’t see it.

Whoever implemented this feature clearly didn’t think it through.

/edit: alright, so I’ve just tested this with my own secondary account.

The result, after blocking myself:

  • The blocked account can still visit the main account's profile and follow them.
  • The blocked account can still purchase and/or download your games and assets.
  • The blocked account can still add your uploads to their collections if they want.
  • The blocked account can still write comments that are visible to everyone but you.
  • The blocked account can still rate your posts and uploads.

Now, there’s one caveat: you could technically see the blocked account’s posts, because they’re greyed out and labelled as “post from blocked account” so when you click it, it’ll become visible. But what’s the point in blocking anyone then, if all it does for you is to cause extra work when it comes to moderation…

Plus, the “you won’t receive notifications anymore” thing seems to be a complete lie, because I did in fact receive a notification - from the blocked account posting on my upload.

So half of what the feature promises to do… doesn’t even work properly.

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redonihunter1 year ago

itch is not a social media platform. There is no private message system. So a "blocking" as needed in real social media is not needed. I cannot spam and harrass   you privately. And if someone does it publicly, report those people, so their account will be banned.

If you are a publisher, you do can ban accounts from commenting on your game. Also publishers are not allowed to ban users from using itch, so why wonder that blocked users could still buy your stuff? It would not even be valid blocking, because you do not even need an account to buy stuff. And just banning people that downvoted your game to increase your ratings is too easy to exploit.

The point in blocking  here is not protecting of privacy, but to filter out stuff that is not bannable, but triggers your shitposting  migraines.

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Thraxx Media1 year ago (8 edits)

Exactly. It “triggers shitposting migraines” which is all the reason you need. People on the internet feel empowered and entitled due to a false sense of anonymity all the time and are not shy to exploit it whenever possible.

You starting an argument with me over something that should be common sense proves this point.

As a counter-argument, let me ask you this: why would a billion dollar company like Twitch (owned by Amazon) implement the features I mentioned, when they’re not really a “social media” platform either?

Yes there’s private messages, but that’s just one very minor thing which is rarely ever used.

First and foremost, it’s a live broadcasting / video-on-demand platform, i.e. offering entertaining content - either for free, or paid (if people put it behind a subscription). So it’s not that much different from itch’s general concept.

There would be no real need to ban someone from following you on Twitch - follows are a good thing, right? And why would anyone think it makes sense to disallow someone from giving paid subscriptions to your channel? That sounds ridiculous, right? …but it’s done anyway, because people are unpredictable and will find ways to flip things around so it becomes an annoying factor to you, just to tick you off.

And just like that, “triggering shitposting migraines” becomes a thing that needs to be moderated, for which people should have the proper tools at hand to do so.

You say: “I cannot spam and harass” (here on itch). That’s a false statement, because YES you can. There’s no technical limit on how many comments you can post to anyone’s page, and as far as I know there are ZERO bad language filters in place so verbal harassment is very much possible.

The ONLY point that I would agree on is that, on second thought, yes you’re probably right: being able to block someone and remove their negative rating that way does seem exploitable, so not a good idea. However, what they could (and should) do instead, is: check whether someone leaving a rating or review has downloaded the product before. And if they haven’t - don’t let them do it.

Boom! There, I fixed it for you.

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redonihunter1 year ago

You can argue that blocking is the wrong name for the feature. Ignore might be a far better word for the feature, because that is what it does.

And you do can ban users from commenting on your published projects. I commented on your project, so you can test that feature.

Since you can't interact with other users, other than publicly commenting, an ignore feature is all that is needed for the limited social media capabililty of itch. 

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Thraxx Media1 year ago

Okay. Still, consider this: someone just followed you here on itch, and by their name and behavior towards you, you can clearly tell who it is - and that they came with ill intentions in mind. It might be a stalker that’s keeping tabs on every single site you’re on.

This can severely impact someone’s mental health, knowing that they’re actively stalked - but powerless to do anything about it. That’s why you need to have these moderation tools. Maybe not to the extent other sites offer it… but the “follower removal” thing is the least one can ask for.

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redonihunter1 year ago

I was on the suffering end of this and initially deemed it a bad idea to be able to follow users. I would like an opt in button to be followable at all.

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redonihunter1 year ago

You are obviously riled up. But you cited me incorrect, creating a strawman you argue against.

You say: “I cannot spam and harass” (here on itch). That’s a false statement, because YES you can

No, I did not.

I cannot spam and harrass   you privately.

That was  the complete sentence.

Any harrassment would have to take place in public, and if it is indeed harrassment, report the account you would block, to the moderators. 

Same for 1 star ratings for fake accounts. Itch does remove those if you tell them. But a single disgruntled user that downvotes your stuff is not blockable, nor should it. 

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redonihunter1 year ago

It does what it promises.

If you don't want to see posts by an account you can block them.

The other guy wants a lot of stuff out of that feature that is just not to decide for a publisher. Making a thing public restricts the things you can do with it, while it still is considered public. And for the important things, the creator do can ban people from their stuff.  

An opt in to be followed would be nice for non publisher accounts.

Also, if you use that ignore feature aka block, that you could ignore projects, but I think this feature is intended for ignoring other users and not creators' works.

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