Blocking

GSheehy · 2012-07-12T14:49:43.000Z

What exactly is the purpose of blocking?

It would appear that the person that blocks another party can view and reply to tweets of the person they have blocked. But, the person that’s blocked can’t view the tweets.

The person that has been blocked can’t do this. Why is the system weighted heavily in favour of the person that blocks?

Would it not be more equitable if neither party could view each others tweets of reply, at all?

Gerard

deancollins · 2012-07-12T15:28:00.000Z

why would you want it any other way.

I’m suprised more people dont use the block feature for twitter. (though i’ve been pretty heavy as i “block once/block all” using the http://www.mytblock.com tool across all my twitter accounts).

aunju · 2012-09-12T08:03:00.000Z

Gerard, I think blocking was originally intended for use by persons who felt they were being “stalked” or otherwise harassed. It could be reassuring for the person who considered herself at risk to continue monitoring the other person.

Blocking can also be a way to punish or insult someone. Until recently (see my bug report
https://dev.twitter.com/discussions/10844 ) the parties could see the other’s tweets, but the blocked party could not retweet or favorite the blocker. This seems fair enough if the block was justified, and merely inconvenient but tolerable otherwise. The blocked person can always send a polite @ message begging forgiveness…

I do think your last suggestion - the nuclear option - could be applied when blocking and reporting for spam.