Suppert. Maybe some people *cough cough* wouldn't personally use the Block button, but a whole lot of other people would find it very useful.

It's not mutually exclusive with a “Report” button either. There's a lot of reasons you might want to block someone without them breaking the letter of the community guidelines, for example, if you know them in real life, or on a different website.

MATU wrote:

• People who have been abusive to you in other websites, but have found you on Scratch

Use contact us to tell the ST to keep an eye out for them (maybe give a link to the other site where they were mean to you)

It's not the Scratch Team's job to follow around Scratchers on other websites anyways, so I think that falls outside of the scope of the Report button and is something more appropriate for blocking.

(Twitter has both a Report and Block button, and even respectfully asks you if you want to block someone when you report them, which is a nice way of doing it.)

PrincelyTights wrote:

we're not, saying that we hate any of those people. we're just saying that we do not want to interact with them again because of past experiences. that isn't hating them.

Then don't interact with them. Simple.

EDIT: Maybe not simple, but it's pretty doable, isn't it?

MegaApuTurkUltra wrote:

And guess what? Scratch isn't about hate.

>Posted in the most condescending way imaginable

gg

PrincelyTights wrote:

complain-about wrote:

PrincelyTights wrote:

birdoftheday wrote:

NoxSpooth wrote:

Uh, stop telling neurodivergent people to act neurotypically?

If being neurodivergent means that you have a free pass to hate random people without trying to remedy or act on these feelings at all, then you have a problem.

if being neurotypical means that you can disprove other people's experiences because you've had a different experience, then you have a problem.

hold on who said anything about your experiences being false?

“Instead of blaming those people, what do I do? I contact them to work it out on their profiles.
Stop using the fact that you're neurodivergent or something to excuse your hatred.”

as if i haven't done that on many occasions and gotten backlash for it.

well you did the right thing by trying. “it doesn't always work” – but if you don't try there's no chance. it's their fault for not trying to be decent about it, right? so they need to learn to try. the ST can deal with that, all you should do is report (or better, use contact us and explain your situation) the inappropriate (emphasis on “keep the site friendly” of CGs) message.

if the ST doesn't deal with it and help the Scratcher (in the become-a-better-person way) quit Scratch

im going to make one last post on this topic before i remove myself from it.

say there's an extremely racist, homophobic, transphobic person on scratch. everything they say offends you. obviously, this would make a lot of people uncomfortable. they'd probably want to block the person, and they will block the person if this feature was implemented.

but that homophobic, racist, transphobic person is actually a person. they have insecurities they feel bad about, and chances are they're only saying these things because they either need attention or because they have some sort of personal experience that they somehow need to make up by being intolerant. maybe they grew up in an intolerant household.

in a better world, the people who are offended wouldn't turn away from this person. if you turn away from this person, they will go on saying hurtful things. but if you try to help them, if you let them know they are loved, they just might improve. they just might realize that transgender people, or gay people, or black people, or any people aren't as bad as they've been taught their whole life.

with luck and time, they will improve and be a better person, but only if helped by the community. if everyone blocks them, they're destroying the principle of what scratch is all about: love and acceptance. that's why i don't support a block button. because people are people, regardless of beliefs. a block button is not what scratch is about.

PrincelyTights wrote:

we're not, saying that we hate any of those people. we're just saying that we do not want to interact with them again because of past experiences. that isn't hating them.

Clearly it is. Your feelings towards them are not positive, and they aren't neutral either. Otherwise you'd be talking to them again.

birdoftheday wrote:

im going to make one last post on this topic before i remove myself from it.

say there's an extremely racist, homophobic, transphobic person on scratch. everything they say offends you. obviously, this would make a lot of people uncomfortable. they'd probably want to block the person, and they will block the person if this feature was implemented.

but that homophobic, racist, transphobic person is actually a person. they have insecurities they feel bad about, and chances are they're only saying these things because they either need attention or because they have some sort of personal experience that they somehow need to make up by being intolerant. maybe they grew up in an intolerant household.

in a better world, the people who are offended wouldn't turn away from this person. if you turn away from this person, they will go on saying hurtful things. but if you try to help them, if you let them know they are loved, they just might improve. they just might realize that transgender people, or gay people, or black people, or any people aren't as bad as they've been taught their whole life.

with luck and time, they will improve and be a better person, but only if helped by the community. if everyone blocks them, they're destroying the principle of what scratch is all about: love and acceptance. that's why i don't support a block button. because people are people, regardless of beliefs. a block button is not what scratch is about.

*standing ovation*

birdoftheday wrote:

im going to make one last post on this topic before i remove myself from it.

say there's an extremely racist, homophobic, transphobic person on scratch. everything they say offends you. obviously, this would make a lot of people uncomfortable. they'd probably want to block the person, and they will block the person if this feature was implemented.

but that homophobic, racist, transphobic person is actually a person. they have insecurities they feel bad about, and chances are they're only saying these things because they either need attention or because they have some sort of personal experience that they somehow need to make up by being intolerant. maybe they grew up in an intolerant household.

in a better world, the people who are offended wouldn't turn away from this person. if you turn away from this person, they will go on saying hurtful things. but if you try to help them, if you let them know they are loved, they just might improve. they just might realize that transgender people, or gay people, or black people, or any people aren't as bad as they've been taught their whole life.

with luck and time, they will improve and be a better person, but only if helped by the community. if everyone blocks them, they're destroying the principle of what scratch is all about: love and acceptance. that's why i don't support a block button. because people are people, regardless of beliefs. a block button is not what scratch is about.

imagine: me being with homophobic/transphobic/racist people could end up with me being dead because i am a gay transgender boy of color which is why i am avoiding those kinds of people for my own safety. i am not willing to risk my safety. and i will not defend homophobic or transphobic or racist people

A block button is a weapon. And if you use it, somebody's going to get hurt. It doesn't matter if that person is the most despicable person ever to go on Scratch. They're going to get hurt. And it's not up to you, or the ST, or anybody to decide whose feelings get hurt and whose don't.

Think of it this way: are you really any better than these “mean people” if you use such a button?

PrincelyTights wrote:

birdoftheday wrote:

im going to make one last post on this topic before i remove myself from it.

say there's an extremely racist, homophobic, transphobic person on scratch. everything they say offends you. obviously, this would make a lot of people uncomfortable. they'd probably want to block the person, and they will block the person if this feature was implemented.

but that homophobic, racist, transphobic person is actually a person. they have insecurities they feel bad about, and chances are they're only saying these things because they either need attention or because they have some sort of personal experience that they somehow need to make up by being intolerant. maybe they grew up in an intolerant household.

in a better world, the people who are offended wouldn't turn away from this person. if you turn away from this person, they will go on saying hurtful things. but if you try to help them, if you let them know they are loved, they just might improve. they just might realize that transgender people, or gay people, or black people, or any people aren't as bad as they've been taught their whole life.

with luck and time, they will improve and be a better person, but only if helped by the community. if everyone blocks them, they're destroying the principle of what scratch is all about: love and acceptance. that's why i don't support a block button. because people are people, regardless of beliefs. a block button is not what scratch is about.

imagine: me being with homophobic/transphobic/racist people could end up with me being dead because i am a gay transgender boy of color which is why i am avoiding those kinds of people for my own safety. i am not willing to risk my safety. and i will not defend homophobic or transphobic or racist people

Thanks for proving my point. You're not risking your life when you're talking to people on Scratch.

@bird You're acting as if the blocking and reporting functions would be mutually exclusive.

And I must also reminded you that people who have been abused are also people.

But yes, because we believe in “love an tolerance”, let's put them right in front of their abuser, right?!

Scratcher1002 wrote:

This is a very well put together suggestion, but unfortunately it's been rejected:

Paddle2See wrote:

We found that it just buried problems rather than fixing them. It was also very easy to circumvent by creating an alt account. Additionally, it was confusing having multiple views of the site - things that some people could see but others could not.

Thanks for all the interesting discussion on this suggestion.

To clarify - we are opposed to the block feature for the reasons shown above. It tends to bury problems rather than bringing them into the light where they can be fixed. It also adds additional complexity to the site that we feel is unnecessary.

Yes, we had it on the 1.x site - but the decision was made to not implement it on the 2.x site. It has been brought up a number of times over the years and it has been rejected each time. So I'm closing the topic to save everybody some time. If you feel you have compelling arguments that you still want to put forward, please use the Contact Us button at the bottom of every page.