•  alyaza [they/she]   ( @alyaza@beehaw.org ) 
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    1 year ago

    it’s unavoidable to center Elon here but can we just take a step back and appreciate how stupid, bad, and completely antithetical to a usable website this idea is? blocking has been a feature on like everything since phpBB forums because it literally just works. it’s an easy way to curate your experience without escalating and it’s a logical imitation of being able to simply avoid a person in real life. the idea of removing this in favor of nothing but mutes is just goofy as fuck (and if you make muting the new “block”, what’s even the difference between them? people will just use them basically the same way!).

          •  Hot Saucerman   ( @dingus@lemmy.ml ) 
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            1 year ago

            He ascribes to Longtermism and like his associate Jeffery Epstein, he thinks his genes are magically special, and so he wants as many offspring as humanly possible: while not actually giving one shit about the quality of life for any of them.

            It’s really interesting, because he fucking hates his own father (Errol is also a creep who fathered a child with his step-daughter, who he raised from childhood), but can’t put together that he is exactly the fuck the same as his creep ass father.

            •  fubo   ( @fubo@lemmy.world ) 
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              51 year ago

              Longtermism doesn’t have to do with one’s own personal genetics or lineage, though, and it certainly doesn’t belong to Elon.

              Longtermism is a notion coming out of population ethics, that since there will be more people in the future than there are today, that we should take the well-being of all those future people into account when making decisions today.

              This can be taken in lots of different directions — ranging from humanist environmentalism, to space migration, to concern about exotic existential risks.

              But a fixation on one’s own personal DNA is not really related to it at all. That’s more of a misunderstanding of evolutionary biology.

      • That’s actually all that the “block” function on Lemmy does too - it makes it so that you don’t see any more content from a user, but they can still make comments on your stuff. In other words, Lemmy’s “block” is essentially a “mute” function, too.

        • lemmy, at least, would have the excuse of being constantly a work in progress and i guess that not having such a large community that hard blocking is necessary. but twitter would be appallingly bad without blocks–it already is with them!

          •  Hot Saucerman   ( @dingus@lemmy.ml ) 
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            1 year ago

            Also, Lemmy has the bonus of federation allowing instances to defederate entirely from abuse and spam-happy instances. The smaller instances can have more tight-knit communities and defederating from instances full of jerks might be as worthwhile as a “block.”

            •  meldroc   ( @meldroc@lemmy.world ) 
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              1 year ago

              IIRC from reading about Bluesky, its strategy for dealing with spam, trolls, hate speech, etc., was to have various servers in the Federation tag posts, users & servers with a “Spam” tag or “Hate speech” tag, and server admins can set their servers to not display posts so tagged, and to not pass them on to other servers.

        • I hope it stays this way. It would suck being excluded from unrelated content on Lemmy just because I had a disagreement with someone at some point in the past (depending on how block happy people are of course).

    • It’s interesting to me that they made the argument that blocking is increasing server costs.

      1. How is that even possible, on a technical level?
      2. If true, how is changing to a “stronger mute” going to reduce said costs?

      I mean, it’s plainly clear that Musk has no idea what is going on at any of his companies and the narrative of him being a genius of some kind was simply that: a narrative.

      •  Redex   ( @Redex68@lemmy.world ) 
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        211 year ago

        In a way, I could imagine it increasing server costs by like 0.001%, if even that, because if the algorithm finds a post to recommend but then realises it’s from a blocked account, it would have to search again (ofc it’s probably optimised so that it realises that at an earlier stage).

        But we’re talking about such small details it literally doesn’t matter and is outweighed by the functionality lost one hundredfold.

      •  777   ( @777@lemmy.ml ) 
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        111 year ago

        I expect it’s accurate to say; their architecture is not like a database where you can add an index on a blocked state and then join against it. You have to get a list of potential posts that the user might want to see and then eliminate any in the block list. There will be a few edge case users who have thousands of block entries and a multithreading strategy is likely required to swiftly filter it in a reasonable timeframe.

        However, an architecture I’ve seen that works around this is to build this timeline in the background and present it to the user from a cache, I don’t know if this is what Twitter does as I never worked on that. However, if you want to not have a block feature but have some kind of mute feature anyway I don’t see how there is a meaningful difference.

        •  2deck   ( @2deck@beehaw.org ) 
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          71 year ago

          Yeah, sounds like that’s the case. Funny how flaws in system architecture gets exposed to the public through vapid excuses these days.

          My guess is muting would likely result in a decrease of overall visibility. Every account gets a mute score.

      • As I understand it it’s because of block lists making large queries as soon as someone subscribes to it. I don’t condone the removal of the block feature, just trying to answer your question to the best of my knowledge.

    •  777   ( @777@lemmy.ml ) 
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      221 year ago

      Haha, that’s a throwback to the days when I helped to manage a phpBB board and there were a few members that would just continuously get into arguments so I edited the database so both of them had each other on their block list. It was very telling when I discovered they unblocked each other a few weeks later and got back to arguing and derailing thread topics.

  • Fun fact: a block feature is required to be accepted by the Apple AppStore review process. So Twitter will disappear from Apple devices with this change.

    Since this got some votes and became visible, here’s the source:

    Apps with user-generated content present particular challenges, ranging from intellectual property infringement to anonymous bullying. To prevent abuse, apps with user-generated content or social networking services must include:

    - A method for filtering objectionable material from being posted to the app

    - A mechanism to report offensive content and timely responses to concerns

    - The ability to block abusive users from the service

    - Published contact information so users can easily reach you

    https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#user-generated-content

    • Hmm. Hate to be a downer, but that sounds like there needs to be a way for the service itself to block (ban) users and material, not for users to be able to block other users. So I wouldn’t be too optimistic about Apple’s response…

    • Apple’s review process is inconsistent at best. I used to work for an iOS app and it took several years before they blocked our release for not having a report feature on products. Never had the ability to block users, despite the ability to DM people.

      Plus, for an app the size of Twitter, Apple will likely ignore most rules that doesn’t lose them money.

    •  manitcor   ( @manitcor@lemmy.intai.tech ) 
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      1 year ago

      Elon, for all of his smarts, seems to not understand the game theory behind social networks. I get it, we have had the status quo for over a decade, but the fundamental rules are still the same.

      Frankly I’m happy to see them falling apart and a return to how social was meant to be on the internet.

        • Depends on what going backwards means, from a technical perspective this is fine and more forward than the centralized providers would have you believe. The only step back im seeing is mainly UI and tooling. The bones here are fine and the UX im seeing on Lemmy and Kbin are inline with reddit just a few years ago.

          If having to deal with UX issues is a huge problem the just wait and come back when its more developed, most of what you use in your day-to-day computing is OSS code, if its good enough for your daily work, its good enough for socials.

            • why would I not be able to block a user on the internet? I was able to block them on every system from the beginning. Centralized services will have you think you need thier magic code to do that but we used to do it with clients all the time.

              I still run IMAP email clients with a boat load of personal rules, though I did move the blocks to my server for efficiency. Still its MY server, like im posting to you now from my fediverse instance. If i wanted to block someone here they can be annoying sure but at the end of the day I have many of the same tools i had before, though there might be more cat and mouse. That said nothing stops you from having entirely private instances and since we technically can completely control our servers and clients its entirely possible to have things like one-way servers and nodes that are more picky about what they forward. If the network grows you will see an increased sophistication in management tools.

    •  jonne   ( @jonne@infosec.pub ) 
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      141 year ago

      Blocking Twitter Blue users is the only way to make threads make sense again after he decided to weight them higher. Any time you open a tweet there’s like 10 Twitter Blue trolls with 3 followers that are sorted above the good comments.

  •  hddsx   ( @hddsx@lemmy.world ) 
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    1 year ago

    “Hang on, Steve. Reddit can not and will not beat Twitter.” -Elon

    “Hold my beer, Elon! I’m probably going to shutdown the mobile reddit website.” -Steve

    •  Gork   ( @Gork@beehaw.org ) 
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      91 year ago

      QA: “I’m clicking the block button but it isn’t doing anything anymore!”

      Twitter mgmt: “That’s ok, instead of fixing it we’ll just remove the button.”

    • It would be hilarious if when he is out at twitter we got a twitter files dump that showed the devs that maintained block really are all gone and he’s playing it off like this is some new big idea twitter came up with to make money🤣

    •  Rick   ( @howdy@thesimplecorner.org ) 
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      1 year ago

      I deleted mine the day Elon bought it… Lol. I honestly never cared for Twitter too much but I admit I get a lot of news from it (specifically because I am following the ukrainian situation pretty closely).

    • I’m not part of any minority, but sympathize and will be deleting my account now. However, I’m wondering if I should block everything I see first the refresh several times. Knowing that 1 cent came out of their wallet because of me sounds pretty enticing nbl

    • Maybe we can convince him that the chain of events that lead to so many people blocking him is actually what Blockchain means and get him to ban all crypto. This would obviously piss off his cryptobro fans, leading them to mint an NFT of a screenshot of the front page of Twitter and claim that no one else is allowed to use it.

      Thus would ignite the Great Flame War of 2023.

    •  deo   ( @deo@lemmy.world ) 
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      481 year ago

      After he got boosted up to a level where anyone was only getting Elon in their feeds despite of the topic, a lot of people blocked his ass. So he is now getting rid of the block feature because everybody should be reading Elon’s all bangers, all the time.

    • There’s been a big effort to block anybody with a blue checkmark since any major story or viral post will have them automatically bumped up to the top of the replies. So, when the whiners started complaining, he started openly considering this.

    • The article is a bit misleading. He wants to get rid of block for stronger mute as you can get around block by logging out.

      The counter argument is that block is still useful because I block someone I want zero interaction with that person and people are too lazy to log out anyway so it kinda works in practice.

      I’m not sure why is he stirring shit up. The block feature is on point with free speech philosophy he trying to push. If anything he should be making blocking etc. More powerful.

          •  fubo   ( @fubo@lemmy.world ) 
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            1 year ago

            They do, though. It’s called Führerprinzip, or “the leader principle”.

            Wikipedia says:

            The ideology of the Führerprinzip sees each organization as a hierarchy of leaders, where every leader (Führer, in German) has absolute responsibility in his own area, demands absolute obedience from those below him, and answers only to his superiors.

            In this view, absolutely everything in society must be made authoritarian. Cooperative and democratic forms of social organization are considered corrosive to social order, and therefore are not allowed. Disrespecting your Führer — any of your Führers, at any level — must be punished, with penalties up to & including death.

            If there is a social organization at any level — a family, a church, a workplace, a school, a local government — it must have a Führer to take responsibility for it, and everyone else involved must obey that Führer unquestioningly. Anything else is social chaos and probably Communism.

            Children and wives obey the man of the house, who is wholly responsible for them. If the man of the house fails to enforce order (that is, compliance with his own Führers), then his own Führers must remove him from that responsibility. For instance, if a child deviates from the state governor’s dictates on gender, that child must be removed from his father’s home and placed into a more obedient home.

            Workers obey bosses and business owners. Worker-owned enterprises are not allowed as they are obviously Communism. Unions are wrong, as they exist to second-guess the will of the business’s Führer for his workers. Moreover, it is the job of each business leader to bring his business into line with the dictates of higher Führers. Businesses that fail to obey the economic and cultural dictates of the Führer must be punished; see e.g. Disney.

            Students obey teachers, who obey principals, who obey the state governor. If a teacher fails to demand that children fall in line with the directives passed down from the state governor, it is the duty of the principal to not only fire that teacher, but report them for prosecution.

      • I think a large part of this is just users being complacent. As long as the platform doesn’t completely change, most users will typically just keep trudging along.

        For example if you remember the whole WhatsApp controversy from a little while ago. Pretty much my entire extended family communicated solely through WhatsApp, and they all were promising change, moving to signal, deleting fb and so forth. When the time actually came, everyone made signal accounts, and a few really switched, but to this day everyone still uses WhatsApp.

        I’d guess that as long as people’s “interests” are on the platform, they will continue to use it.

        • I’m not sure what happened with WhatsApp, but I think the key is if the platform still mostly works as intended people will stay. I follow some artists on Twitter and my feed is mostly their content. I don’t see the trash from other parts unless I specifically go looking for it or on rare occasions. So for the most part twitter still functions the same for me and the artists I follow. Now, if say my feed was filled with bigots complaining or people harassing the artists I follow cause they draw NSFW lesbian art or the site was SO filled with bigots that it ruined your reputation just by being there then yeah I’d leave. We are approaching this point but I don’t think we are in a Voat or Ruqqus like situation. When I look at instances of games or social media platforms having a mass exodus, that seems to be the common theme, making a change that directly interferes with its core function.

        • Spot on analysis. The convenience of staying must be beat out by the new tool. I remember when myspace was killed when facebook came. The annoyance of everything being customized was beat by facebooks neatness. Finally all my relatives could find the buttons. Apollo was soooo convenient on reddit. I’m hoping he’ll port it to the fediverse, that would be the killer app for me.