Also, voyager lets you tag users which is a godsend.

If I notice someone who is unnecessarily rude, dodgy opinions, bigoted or something, I add a tag, and if I see it is constant repetitive behaviour, I’ll block them.

I'd add "report" to that advice. If somebody is outright being jerks, that is probably against your instance's rules — and if it isn't, there are plenty others to choose from.

Blocking helps you, but reporting people (or instances) that are just here to troll will help others.

I know for a fact I'm opinionated, and don't have problems sharing them.

Please, by all means, block me if you think seeing my comments is adversely affecting you. I'd rather be ignored by someone than make their day worse (unless they're actively trying to make others miserable, but that's a separate discussion)

The fediverse has definitely gotten a little less hostile after blocking a few things.

And remember you can jump ship to another instance at any time! I've hopped a few times but for now my instance is filling my needs without much drama that I am aware of.

The biggest toxicity comes from the tank triad. I have blocked them and now it is peaceful.

I’ve yet to block anyone here and the only one I had blocked on Reddit was Gallowboob.

Additional PSA to admins not running a "universal free speech" instance- if you see someone someone being obnoxious it's probably annoying your users just as much as is is you. Don't put the onus fully on users to curate their experience. The Fediverse needs our adults in the room!

Im a big believer in block. I think its better for people to peruse all and block communities they are uninterested in and you should totally block users you don't like. To me it should be like real life. Don't hang with folks you don't like. My hope for the fediverse is instances that only remove things to stay out of legal trouble and communities that only block things that are unrelated. I want all the big tools to be at the user level. Bottom up.

That’s one of the benefits of the smaller community here too, the block button actually feels like it does something. If you’re frustrated by comments that add nothing to anything or are fishing for drama etc, a short commitment to blocking repeat offenders really improves things quickly

I found that a total of like 5 people post basically all of the lemmynsfw stuff. Once I blocked them, it almost all went away. Pretty sure the internet is nothing but bots now.

Also, if you're on the internet expecting all sunshine and rainbows -- leave now. The internet is not a place for that. Everything now is rage-bait designed to get more clicks, and the internet has always been the wild west with major hostilities all the time. It's not a good place to spend your time if you're looking to relax.

Make sure to also report the people you see being toxic, astroturfing, or downright attacking users. Many instances have policies against this and reporting them will increase the likelihood they'll be dealt with, in some cases permanently.

This is something that should be discussed more since blocking is not a moderation function that makes the platform better, it's a tool for people to pretend the problems don't exist. I'm not a fan of pretending issues don't exist, especially since I'm a mod and that would be insanely counter-productive.

Yes and no.

I am a big fan of block buttons and use them quite liberally (if someone responds to me in a manner that makes it clear they have no intention of having a conversation? I never see them ever again).

But the problem is that it only blocks it for the user who blocks them. So harassment is still a thing and now even fewer people are likely to flag it for moderation (to the extent that works).

There is obviously room for abuse but I am a firm believer that any block feature must be bidirectional. If user A blocks user B then A and B can no longer see each other or interact. Which would be a fundamental lemmy feature which makes things difficult.

But "just block them" is good for people who are annoying. Not for people who are abusive. And while the latter isn't SUPER common on lemmy, there are still a good number of people who respond to the simplest of things with "Fuck you you fucking moron and you should go kill yourself"

Thank you! I try to exercise caution for myself of am I just off put by this or is this truly uncessary behavior, and I'm glad the option to judge for myself is available.

I have blocked a few communities which I have really enjoyed. I think there is definitely a different but freeing experience to be in charge of curating your experience instead of algorithms doing it for you. It's more work but the freedom is nice but making the constant choice feels hard.