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Clear view on suggestion threads made by blocked users

Clear view on suggestion threads made by blocked users
Posted 2020-11-04 04:56:52

Greetings.

I have an idea to reveal topics made in Game Development board by blocked users and be able to write in them.

The purpose of this idea is for players to write their thoughts regarding suggestion regardless of grudges held against the user who made the suggestion. This might avoid creating duplicate topics or topics which answer or somehow relate to already made topic which is invisible because of the blocking system.

Recently I've realized we cannot read or write in topics made by users who blocked us or who we blocked. The topic is invisible to us unless we find a link that redirects to the topic but then we're informed the topic is unavailable. While it might be quite understandable players wish not to have deals with blocked users, suggestion threads are quite different. Everything said in Game Development threads are directed mainly towards developers. Replies to suggestion topics are supposed to directly relate to the suggestion, not to its author. Any harassment or grudges made towards users are efficiently handled by the staff, I suppose, so monitoring this particular chatter board mustn't be an issue.

All that is needed for this feature to be implemented is to make players have access to threads made by blocked users.

Thank you for attention.


Dżanek
#24018

Posted 2020-11-04 05:19:05

While I see where you're coming from, I'm on the fence regarding this suggestion. I feel like some very malicious players might use this feature to find an avenue to harass the person that blocked them. What's worse, it might not always be "moderatable", since they might not insult the user directly, but just shut their suggestion down without any good reasoning. And I believe moderators can't just delete stuff like "I don't think this is a thought out suggestion and it should never be implemented. It's a waste of time," because everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
So, I feel like this can lead to indirect insults or bashing down of reasonable suggestions without any way to escape it for the person being pestered.


hydde 🥀 on hiatus
#7307

Posted 2020-11-04 16:27:43

What Hydde said. Though I would fall more into the, "No support," category. Though on the guidelines it says to not be overly blunt or not give substance on a response, mods still have to look through and find that response to delete it. Allowing blocked users to interact, even on suggestions, will likely lead to arguments or general conflict, and will just put more strain on moderators.

On another note, reasons for blocking is on a case-by-case basis. Some people only block others when they stud race, some may just block minors because they don't want to/don't feel comfortable interacting with them, and some users may have blocked somebody because they were genuinely toxic and just seeing their name/posts can be triggering.


All in all, the block system needs to stay the way it is right now. When someone is blocked, they can't interact with each other. That stops any potential conflicts or lurking.


LittlePuppy
#2787

Posted 2022-04-01 05:27:51 (edited)
I'm refreshing this thread because I encountered a new problem. While it is known that blocked users can't reply to suggestion threads, the problem is that the users can't actually publish their point of view that could be heard out by developers at all. Why? Developers only read content of Game Development thread when thinking about making changes. According to Game Development Guidelines point 5., duplicate suggestions will be locked. It means that if you're interested in discussing certain suggestion and can't respond in the right thread due to block, you may not even be able to make a thread related to the already existing suggestion for devs to read and other users to discuss because it might be locked.

There might be no way to publish an opinion about something that could bother you when there happens to be a similar idea to yours which author happens to be blocked.

Let's say user A suggests to have more hunting parties to be sent at once as a topic of the thread. User A says that for each 50 wolves owned, the player will be able to sent an additional hunting party at the same time. Most users agree to this idea thinking it's a better situation than currently when only one hunting party can be sent at once. User B comes up and says that this might get problematic when wolves die or get sold and the amount of wolves decrease making it frustrating to send less hunting parties at once so the user B says that it should depend on territory slots owned since territories can't be lost. Other users point out at User B's idea being the better option.

Now let's tweak the scenario. Let's say that user A had user B blocked before user B could even talk in this thread. The underlined version of the previous paragraph doesn't happen but user B wishes to publish the idea shown in the underlined version. When user B is unable to discuss it with other Wolvden users because user B's suggestion thread gets locked by mods due to being a similar suggestion of sending more hunting parties at once. Devs might consider idea of increasing the amount of hunting parties sent at once to attract a lot of bugs specifically in case where the amount of wolves owned decrease making hunting parties to be sent over the limit and might think that this feature could be too difficult to handle. Devs never hear about user B's tweak of the suggestion.

Of course, there could be other users thinking the same as user B to reply to user A's thread but there might be not a lot of users creative enough to come up with own tweaks. Most of users come here to support or oppose suggested ideas and you can't support what hasn't been suggested yet.


Who knows how many ideas have never been heard because some pair of users blocked each other for unrelated to the ideas reasons. I appreciate that the staff takes high priority to keep blocks respected but I'm also sad that the game development is not taken as high.

Dżanek
#24018

Posted 2022-04-01 09:46:48
Support! I agree with Dzanek that game development threads are different from general interactions. All users should be able to give their opinion on game development threads, because changes to the game will affect everyone's experience. Moderators will prevent any harassment or off-topic conversation, so allowing comments from all users should not cause any problems.

Lionel
#34199

Posted 2022-04-12 20:40:43 (edited)
I'm on the fence about this, but if it is enabled, blocked users should only be able to see the first post and their replies should be hidden from whoever blocked them. That way the blocked user can provide input but the person who blocked them doesn't have to interact with them directly or read/respond to their posts.

Badger
#10939

Posted 2022-04-12 20:50:38 (edited)
i support.  i have been blocked by users , still have no idea why. 

i agree if a blocked user made a post on game development thread , or left a post  made by the user they blocked . other users and the creator should be able to see what they post  , and be able to post their opnion on game development thread.  any post made by a user the blocked or or the other way around you should see all the post and replies they made.


like Lionel # 34199 said changes to game will affect everyone.  all users should be able talk about ideas and changes to add to wolvden , without worrying about the blocked users.

magicwhitewolf
#25645

Posted 2022-05-06 13:59:45
Maybe a solution to this could have all posts in the development threads be anonymous? That was, no one (except the mods) know who suggested and who commented what. That way, all parties are protected.

Sepulchre
#33572

Posted 2022-07-19 23:38:54 (edited)
I could see this implemented that you can read the suggestion and vote, but not comment.

Edit: Honestly, I would also support Badger's post of marking the original poster anonymous, but you are still allowed to comment. Heck I think that's something I could see implemented on a wider basis. Often I think people with multiple suggestions may be overlooked, or people that comment a lot may be annoying. So I'd support a system where either the original poster is anonymous, or all comments appear anonymous in these boards - they could still be reported though if breaking rules and moderators could see who did them.

Slothie
#2938

Posted 2022-07-20 01:45:17
I'm in middle on this too, I suppose it just depends how it would be implemented. I do think the block should still stay in place for this board, but blocked users should be able to read the suggestion and vote. The OP could be anonymous and so could their subsequent posts.

I'm very iffy on the commenting aspect, that's a slippery slope. Especially since I've seen drama around some suggestions, so this is the very place that may have caused a few blocks to ensue. I wouldn't want people to be forced to interact with someone they're trying to avoid, that defeats the purpose. And mods aren't always on the scene when this kind of stuff happens, so blocked users could have the time to say something bad before it's removed. That doesn't sound worth it.

But reading and voting isn't direct contact that the blocker has to face, so that's a different story. I don't agree blocks should be fully removed in Game Development, but if it's one of the ideas put forth, I'd support that.

Whirligig
#11137

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