Blocking comments

Jake Razor · **Posted:** Wed Jul 16, 2008 6:11 pm

I've been thinking about how some initially civilized topics can turn into flame wars and wind up blocked when people get carried away, and I had an idea. What if there were a way to block select people from posting comments on your topics (sort of like the Ignore list on PMS)? That way, a lot of flame wars could be stopped before they start, and fewer topics would have to be stopped. I've seen (and done) similar on DA, and it's worked very well.
Some ideas for specifics to prevent misuse:
*Time limit on blocking someone, like the way banning works. This would make blocking someone akin to a time-out (quite appropriate, since this would be a measure to deal with problems caused by immature users).
*Blocked users still able to vote on polls (albeit without posting text comments), to reduce the risk of someone rigging the results.
*High-ranking mods granted veto power on blocks.
*Limit to number of people one is allowed to block at a time.
Any thoughts, ideas, comments? Is this a good plan?

Angel Dreamer · **Posted:** Wed Jul 16, 2008 6:17 pm

I like it!

UKthewhitewolf · **Posted:** Wed Jul 16, 2008 6:18 pm

Sounds like a really good idea though I don't know if it could be done. o0'

Jake Razor · **Posted:** Wed Jul 16, 2008 6:20 pm

UK teh white wolfer wrote:

Sounds like a really good idea though I don't know if it could be done. o0'

Me neither, but I figured it'd be worth a try. And individual users can block people from commenting on their stuff on DA, so why not?

warriorcat · **Posted:** Wed Jul 16, 2008 7:45 pm

Dragon Tamer wrote:

UK teh white wolfer wrote:

Sounds like a really good idea though I don't know if it could be done. o0'

Me neither, but I figured it'd be worth a try. And individual users can block people from commenting on their stuff on DA, so why not?

exactly. and since it worked on a quite large site like dA it should work well here. i think it would be great, but as stated before, how can this be done?

Alpine · **Posted:** Wed Jul 16, 2008 8:00 pm

There is already a system like this in place. When you click on a member's profile, under their display pic (avatar) are two bars. It looks like this [Add Friend | Add Foe] Adding the person as a foe blocks most of their post.

I myself don't block people, I just don't pay much attention to their posts if they're not worth it. That way, if they have an idea or comment you agree with, you don't miss it.

Alpine · **Posted:** Thu Jul 17, 2008 12:27 am

JerseyCaptain wrote:

Alpine wrote:

There is already a system like this in place. When you click on a member's profile, under their display pic (avatar) are two bars. It looks like this [Add Friend | Add Foe] Adding the person as a foe blocks most of their post.

I myself don't block people, I just don't pay much attention to their posts if they're not worth it. That way, if they have an idea or comment you agree with, you don't miss it.

He doesn't mean simply blocking your ability to see their comments if you find them to be irritating or troublesome (and in hopes of stemming any possible flame wars). What Dragon Tamer means is for some means of the person's ability to actually post comments in a given topic be suspended or blocked (I'd assume by a global forum or section moderator rather than a topic author, which would be a bad idea).

Personally, I am skeptical of this idea. On dA, the ability to block someone from commenting only affects the person's page (i.e. one person owning a page grows weary or angry because another is posting rude, insulting or spamming comments, so blocks that person from posting on his or her page. That does not prevent that other person from posting or commenting elsewhere). That is fundamentally different than the situation on Animation Source, where the "page" (to make a rather limited concept comparison to deviantArt) is something we all post on, and which yet is not controlled by us in general (or by any one of us). The global forum moderators are the only ones with controls over what is posted or removed.

I hope everyone sees the differences I am trying to point out. I mean, the only way I could see it having any legitimacy is if global forum mods (or section mods) alone had such a blocking ability (certainly not the topic authors).

Ah yeah, I think it'd be a good idea, only if a moderator gets to approve it. That way, you don't have these little packs that run around not taking to outsiders, and all of them block the person, just so that they can't post in any of their threads.

Jake Razor · **Posted:** Thu Jul 17, 2008 8:19 am

JerseyCaptain wrote:

Alpine wrote:

There is already a system like this in place. When you click on a member's profile, under their display pic (avatar) are two bars. It looks like this [Add Friend | Add Foe] Adding the person as a foe blocks most of their post.

I myself don't block people, I just don't pay much attention to their posts if they're not worth it. That way, if they have an idea or comment you agree with, you don't miss it.

He doesn't mean simply blocking your ability to see their comments if you find them to be irritating or troublesome (and in hopes of stemming any possible flame wars). What Dragon Tamer means is for some means of the person's ability to actually post comments in a given topic be suspended or blocked (I'd assume by a global forum or section moderator rather than a topic author, which would be a bad idea).

Personally, I am skeptical of this idea. On dA, the ability to block someone from commenting only affects the person's page (i.e. one person owning a page grows weary or angry because another is posting rude, insulting or spamming comments, so blocks that person from posting on his or her page. That does not prevent that other person from posting or commenting elsewhere). That is fundamentally different than the situation on Animation Source, where the "page" (to make a rather limited concept comparison to deviantArt) is something we all post on, and which yet is not controlled by us in general (or by any one of us). The global forum moderators are the only ones with controls over what is posted or removed.

I hope everyone sees the differences I am trying to point out. I mean, the only way I could see it having any legitimacy is if global forum mods (or section mods) alone had such a blocking ability (certainly not the topic authors).

Good thinking. My main reasoning for wanting to give authors blocking power was speed of response, to stop flame wars in progress as fast as possible. Of course said power could lead to abuses, which is why I suggested mods having veto power.

steet · **Posted:** Sat Jul 19, 2008 3:44 pm

Technically, I wouldn't be able to add this on the forums, because it would require a great deal of modifications, which I can't do because I didn't code the forums and mods make updates difficult.
But it would be possible on the site. (in galleries : fanarts, fanfics...)
I'll probably include this for a future evolution of the galleries.

steet · **Posted:** Sun Jul 20, 2008 3:11 pm

As I said, it's not possible on the forums. Anyway, it seems more appropriate on the site to me, because a gallery is "personal", not a topic (except specific ones in fanart and fanfic sections)

Jake Razor · **Posted:** Mon Jul 21, 2008 8:24 am

steet wrote:

As I said, it's not possible on the forums. Anyway, it seems more appropriate on the site to me, because a gallery is "personal", not a topic (except specific ones in fanart and fanfic sections)

Well, Jersey is right in that forums were what I was thinking of. And unless I'm mistaken, it's already possible to get mods to remove unwanted gallery comments. And there are many people I know who would block a well-meaning commentator at the drop of a hat. So in the galleries I'd personally rather not see such an option put in place, since it would probably do at least as much harm as good (if not more). But thanks for your time!

Kelev · **Joined:** Thu Jan 12, 2006 10:13 am **Posts:** 331

steet wrote:

Technically, I wouldn't be able to add this on the forums, because it would require a great deal of modifications, which I can't do because I didn't code the forums and mods make updates difficult.
But it would be possible on the site. (in galleries : fanarts, fanfics...)
I'll probably include this for a future evolution of the galleries.

I agree. It's a good idea but it would be hard to actually carry out. Maybe you could try it out as a test someday, Steet. I wouldn't mind seeing this in place, since there are a lot of spammers and flammers on here.

Animation Source Forums

Blocking comments