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Twitter/X will let people you've blocked see your posts

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Re: Twitter/X will let people you've blocked see your posts

#401

Post by kortilla »

dangerwill wrote: post #138

My bet for the real reason for this is that it has been widely reported that Twitter artificially boosts Elon's account specifically. Many people noticed when they did this that his posts showed up in their feeds despite them not following his account. I bet this led to a massive wave of people blocking his account (it's as easy to block as it is to mute). And this population of users eventually got big enough for hi…

You’re misunderstanding the chance. If they blocked Elon then this change would just allow Elon to see their posts.

Re: Twitter/X will let people you've blocked see your posts

#402

Post by diogolsq »

prokopton wrote: post #399

If you sign out and view a user you can see their posts so I never saw the point of hiding them from logged in but blocked users.

A bit of friction and not being visible diminishes a specific behavior (in this case, interaction between blocked parties).

Re: Twitter/X will let people you've blocked see your posts

#404

Post by franciscop »

starspangled wrote: post #397
Seattle3503 wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've found in some communities the most caustic, snappy, and prolific commentors will block you the moment you disagree with them. The result is that everyone who disagrees with them is eventually blocked, and their snappy comments sit at the top of threads, uncontested.

On reddit, people use it to pretend to "win" arguments by appearing to get the last word (post a reply then immediately block).

I've def seen that in Twitter as well

Re: Twitter/X will let people you've blocked see your posts

#405

Post by nkmnz »

twelvedogs wrote: post #400
zzo38computer wrote: post #278

I do not use The X Formerly Known As Twitter, but if I write a message that is intended to be public (regardless of what service it is on), I would intend that people I had blocked are still able to see the message (and make copies of it) if they wish; I would block them because I don't want to see their messages and I do not want to allow them to send messages to me. I would also not want the number of users who blo…

agree, plus since it's trivially easy to get around the block it's almost pointless that person no longer exists to me, their opinion of me doesn't exist, whether non-person reads my posts or not is uninteresting to me

It's not about others reading your posts. It's about stuffing the posts of people you have blocked down your throat.

Re: Twitter/X will let people you've blocked see your posts

#406

Post by xzjis »

slg wrote: post #337

It says a lot about the HN community that the overwhelming majority of people here seemingly emphasize with the person being blocked rather than the person doing the blocking.

Yes, and yet it's surprising because blocked people can trigger or contribute to the harassment of a Twitter user.

The frequently opposed argument, including by Elon Musk himself, that a user can see posts in private browsing, doesn't hold water in my opinion. 1- Because not displaying them in the newsfeed or replies statistically reduces the chances of knowing that the post exists. 2- Because one would really have to be determined to look up a person who has blocked them on Twitter and regularly check their posts. 3- Because Twitter GREATLY limits the number of tweets visible in private browsing (without being logged in), displaying the most viewed posts first, not the most recent ones. This makes it almost impossible for a blocked user to actually view the latest tweets of their blocker.

I'm not so sure that Elon Musk made the right decision.

Re: Twitter/X will let people you've blocked see your posts

#407

Post by _djo_ »

bitlevel wrote: post #388
_djo_ wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not able to view profiles when logged out.

You can use Nitter to view content - list of servers here: https://github.com/zedeus/nitter/wiki/Instances

True, but Nitter is a bit hit and miss, and wasn't working for a while. No guarantee that it'll always remain available.

Re: Twitter/X will let people you've blocked see your posts

#408

Post by ForHackernews »

troad wrote: post #360
Melchizedek wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There seems to be an extreme obsession with blocking, banning, censoring, demonetizing, deplatforming, firing, unbanking, un-personing. And this is from people whose opininions already completely dominate mainstream media and all of public life. This is not healthy.

There is no site more perfectly suited to turning people off the fundamental democratic value of free speech than Elon Musk's Twitter, circa 2024. The front page is just brazen anti-Semitism and racism at this point. And no, I am not referring to some reasoned debate of the Gaza War or social issues, I mean literal memes with hook-nosed men, their captions explicitly referring to the Protocols of the Elder of Zion. I…

If most people want the internet to be a network TV sitcom level of content, so be it, but it will be a loss.

Re: Twitter/X will let people you've blocked see your posts

#409

Post by franciscop »

isodev wrote: post #395
bugtodiffer wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not side with the person who has been blocked, but it is very obvious to me that nothing in the world would prevent them from seeing my public posts

Why? For me it's the opposite. "Public" is a label for a specific type of audience - everyone with access to my feed/timeline (as opposed to a subset like friends, followers etc). If I block someone, they no longer have access to my timeline.

In twitter "public" is not a label for a specific type of audience, it's the name of common use of a work being public/generally shared with the world. The feed/timeline you are referring sounds awfully similar to Facebook/Instagram/etc which are notorious for being walled gardens where what you say it's true.

Re: Twitter/X will let people you've blocked see your posts

#410

Post by tuhriel »

slg wrote: post #337

It says a lot about the HN community that the overwhelming majority of people here seemingly emphasize with the person being blocked rather than the person doing the blocking.

I see what you are suggesting here, I see the same trend but I think the reason why is not the one you are implying.

The HN community, in most topics, is against censoring, echo chambers and that free speech doesn't mean you can say anything without being called out.

IMHO there are two impacted groups here: a) the ones who block everything and everyone that doesn't agree with them (on a public platform) b) the ones who are harassed and stalked and need to use the block as a defense

the change is bad for people in group b) - which most people can agree on. The problem with blocking is, it doesn't solve the problem (it's the equivalent of the EU's great idea of DNS blocking). There should be a system in place that actual (online) harassment can be legally pursued and prevented.

against group a), I think the change is a net-positive

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