Blocking Needs An Update

[Eren]

The blocking feature on Steam is currently useless if you make posts in places such as game discussion forums. If someone has been harassing you and you block them, they can instead move to a discussion you created and comment their harassment there instead. What makes this even worse is that after a certain point, you can't delete your discussion and would have to just take the abuse until Steam does something about it.

Blocking should make it impossible for people to interact with anything you do AT ALL. It shouldn't only block direct communication, it should block someone from interacting with ANYTHING you create, such as discussions. The inability to do this potentially makes Steam extremely unsafe if someone is experiencing harassment and also makes public discussions. Someone shouldn't have to wait for Steam Support to protect them from abuse.

In conclusion, blocking should be an all around block. They cannot interact with you in any way, they cannot respond to your replies on posts, they cannot comment on your discussions, etc for any reason whatsoever. I'm sure this has been suggested before but when I contacted Steam about harassment I was receiving and mentioned the block feature not stopping someone from commenting on my discussions, they told me I could make a suggestion here. Thank you for reading.

[ุ]

You're forgetting the most crucial part of report, block, and move on. It's the moving on part.

Users can not and should not dictate who posts where.

[Yzal]

Public forum, you don't own the threads.

[Nx Machina]

1) Blocking means YOU choose NOT to see their posts.

2) Blocking does not mean they cannot post on "public" discussion forums, threads.

3) They are not your threads, they are "public" threads and they can voice an opinion.

4) A blog on the other hand is your space where you control who posts.

And finally - Welcome to the Steam Discussions - Everyone is invited!

[Aachen]

They would cease to be public discussions at the point.

[AmsterdamHeavy]

That not how blocking ever worked until bs "social media" came along. It allows people to create useless echo chambers.

[Crazy Tiger]

Blocking should not be some kind of weapon against others and certainly not a means to shut people out from threads. On that I entirely disagree.

A change so people don't get notifications when a blocked person posts, hiding the blocked posts more so you don't see the blocked posts and being more robust outside the forums, that I agree on.

[Brian9824]

It's been brought up a few times and it will never work the way you want it to. Steam forums are public, you cannot block someone from engaging on a public forum. If you block them they can't comment or engage your artwork, guides, profile comments, etc.

However once you engage in the PUBLIC forums, everyone is welcome.

[xAlphaStarOmegax]

I agree. Blocking is pretty much pointless, unfortunately. If you block someone, you shouldn't be able to see anything about them, and they shouldn't be able to see anything about you. By leaving it the way it is, these individuals can just come into your threads or stalk where you post and try to incite, bully, and harass you.

I actually had someone stalk me and try to incite me for quite a while, all because they didn't like the fact that I am religious. It was so bad that I just had to take a hiatus. Thankfully, they eventually left me alone.

I also recently went through a situation where someone sent me a friend request, and I added them, thinking that we might have some things in common. Long story short, I started to notice that they enjoyed baiting and trolling people; in fact, they told me that they did. They were even putting some racist and trollish artwork on their profile to mock certain groups of people. They would constantly change their name and profile picture and pretend to be various different people. I warned them to stop all of that stuff or I would unfriend them. Ultimately, they didn't listen, so I had to remove them, which prompted them to try and publicly shame me in an attempt to get me to befriend them again. I watched what little bit of Steam friends they had leave them one by one until I remained. I just couldn't, in good conscience, be friends with someone that I couldn't trust. I only held on as long as I did because they talked a lot about how they were mistreated on Steam. When I tried to ghost them to avoid confrontation, they eventually stalked me for a few days, and during that time they would follow me around, trying to harass me. I just ignored them, but things like that make me wish Steam had a better block system.

All you can do until Valve steps up and fixes the block system is to try your best and ignore them. You have to avoid contact with them. If they follow you around, never acknowledge them in any way. Do not quote them or reply to them. You must act like they do not exist. They will go through a time where it will make them even more angry, and they will ramp up their trollish behavior, but ultimately they will stop because these sorts of people only wish to pick on those that they can get a rise out of.

I have seen these threads about fixing the block feature pop up quite a few times, so I doubt Valve will do anything. Plus, you will always have people saying, But it's a public forum, so people have a right to post. These are people who have more than likely never dealt with such harassment and stalking. I suggest not buying anymore games from Steam until things like this are resolved. Sometimes it takes speaking with your wallet to get things fixed.

Good luck, OP.

[Brian9824]

Originally posted by xAlphaStarOmegax:

you will always have people saying, But it's a public forum, so people have a right to post.

Yeah its common sense.... If you don't like someone and don't want to see his stuff thats fine, but you can't block him from using public forums and resources just because YOU don't want to engage with them. They are free to post on the forums and you are free to block them and not engage with them.

I mean the solution you and others propose is nonsensical.

Persona A makes a thread
Person B posts in it
Person A doesn't like his post because it shows the flaws in his idea so he blocks him to prevent him from contributing...

Or Person A makes a thread
Person B and C post in the thread
Person C doesn't like Person B and blocks him so now person B can't post in the thread anymore because person B doesn't want to engage with him....

Its a horrible idea and goes against all forms of logic.

[Tito Shivan]

This sounds fine and dandy until one realises that road goes both ways.
Some only realise too late

[76561198407601200]

Originally posted by Eren:

The blocking feature on Steam is currently useless.

It works fine. In fact I will demonstrate that by blocking you. Best of luck, etc.

[Brian9824]

Originally posted by The Living Tribunal:

Originally posted by Eren:

The blocking feature on Steam is currently useless.

It works fine. In fact I will demonstrate that by blocking you. Best of luck, etc.

The irony is according to some logic since you blocked the OP that means the OP can't post in his own thread as that would be allowing a blocked person to "engage with you"

[xAlphaStarOmegax]

Originally posted by brian9824:

Originally posted by xAlphaStarOmegax:

you will always have people saying, But it's a public forum, so people have a right to post.

Yeah its common sense.... If you don't like someone and don't want to see his stuff thats fine, but you can't block him from using public forums and resources just because YOU don't want to engage with them. They are free to post on the forums and you are free to block them and not engage with them.

I mean the solution you and others propose is nonsensical.

Persona A makes a thread
Person B posts in it
Person A doesn't like his post because it shows the flaws in his idea so he blocks him to prevent him from contributing...

Or Person A makes a thread
Person B and C post in the thread
Person C doesn't like Person B and blocks him so now person B can't post in the thread anymore because person B doesn't want to engage with him....

Its a horrible idea and goes against all forms of logic.

Nobody said anything about blocking someone from using the forums, but they absolutely should be blocked from engaging with the person who blocked them. Period.

[Aachen]

Originally posted by xAlphaStarOmegax:

Nobody said anything about blocking someone from using the forums, but they absolutely should be blocked from engaging with the person who blocked them. Period.

The former is a consequence of the latter. Period.

[Eren]

Originally posted by xAlphaStarOmegax:

Originally posted by brian9824:

Yeah its common sense.... If you don't like someone and don't want to see his stuff thats fine, but you can't block him from using public forums and resources just because YOU don't want to engage with them. They are free to post on the forums and you are free to block them and not engage with them.

I mean the solution you and others propose is nonsensical.

Persona A makes a thread
Person B posts in it
Person A doesn't like his post because it shows the flaws in his idea so he blocks him to prevent him from contributing...

Or Person A makes a thread
Person B and C post in the thread
Person C doesn't like Person B and blocks him so now person B can't post in the thread anymore because person B doesn't want to engage with him....

Its a horrible idea and goes against all forms of logic.

Nobody said anything about blocking someone from using the forums, but they absolutely should be blocked from engaging with the person who blocked them. Period.

Yes, this is what I mean. I don't want people to be prevented from interacting with a public forum. That would be stupid and unfair. What isn't stupid and unfair is stopping someone from interacting with YOUR posts specifically. They are right in saying that it could also be used in a bad way, someone making a post and blocking anybody who disagrees with them for example. But that doesn't stop people from making their own thread to discuss it.