Lemmy instance block feature has the perverse side-effect of a shitty Reddit-esque shadow ban on all DMs from users on that instance (like blackholing email). Yikes!
Lemmy instance block feature has the perverse side-effect of a shitty Reddit-esque shadow ban on all DMs from users on that instance (like blackholing email). Yikes!
Disenshitify the fedi (from centralisation) using RMS’s prescription for hopeless Facebook enablers as inspiration - SLRPNK
In the user settings, I have several Cloudflare instances on my blocklist (e.g. Lemmy.World). When a user from one of those instances DMs me, the sender is falsely led to believe the msg was delivered and the recipient has no way of knowing. It has a nasty side effect comparable to shadow banning.
I have not actually tested this myself. I just know that I do not recall receiving a DM from a user on an instance that I block. But the linked comment is from @wolfyvegan@slrpnk.net who discovered the bug and tested this.
Isn’t that what blocking is supposed to be like?
Not unless the devs are incompetent as TrickDacy. It’s inexcusable in any comms system to deceive senders about the delivery of their message. A block certainly does not imply: lie to senders about the transmission status. In the very least, the sender should be informed that their msg was not be delivered.
Do you think it’s smart for a mail server to accept email for delivery then silently blackhole it?
But beyond that, the meaning of a “block” on an “instance” is not defined to users. Block what? It is not blocking everything as it is. E.g. you will still see public posts from users of a blocked instance, just not their DMs. What justifies the inconsistency between pubic and private msgs particularly when it’s the opposite of intuition? If blocking one and not the other, it’d be more reasonable to block public msgs and not DMs.
And what justifies not properly informing users of the blocks what effect to expect?
Beyond failing to inform users, the control is not refined enough. I want to block Cloudflare clutter from my search results and timeline views, but not individuals -- and most particularly not individuals sending a DM. OTOH, there /would/ be a corner case benefit to blocking DMs from a whole instance, if a lot of harassing msgs come from multiple accounts on an instance. It should also be possible but only as a separate control.