Maybe placing a button that leads to a list of blocked users under each post (with a Karma threshold to avoid mentioning blocked users that could be spammers or something, with links to optional explanations for individual decisions) would get the best of both worlds? Something you don’t need to search for. (I’d also add mandatory bounds on durations of bans. Banning indefinitely is unnecessarily Azkaban.) Right now AFAIK this information is private, so even moderators shouldn’t discretionally reveal it, unless it’s retelling of public info already available elsewhere. (Edit: It’s not private, thanks to Said Achmiz for pointing this out.)
Being able to protect your posts seems important to some people, and an occasional feud makes it a valuable alternative to involvement of moderators. But not seeing the filtering acting on a debate hurts clarity of its perception.
So it is, thanks for pointing this out. I’ve even seen this before, but since forgot to the point of not being aware of this existing when writing my comment. From the way Duncan phrased his reply he either also wasn’t aware of this, or there is a way of banning users privately as opposed to publicly, so that these decisions don’t show up on that page.
This is exactly the kind of situation I meant to rule out by saying that the list of banned users should be directly accessible from each affected post, as something you don’t need to search for.
Yes, sure, if you’re going to allow people to ban users from their posts, the list of these banned users should be prominently displayed on each post. But this is a fairly weak mitigation. Much better to not have the feature in the first place.
Maybe placing a button that leads to a list of blocked users under each post (with a Karma threshold to avoid mentioning blocked users that could be spammers or something, with links to optional explanations for individual decisions) would get the best of both worlds? Something you don’t need to search for. (I’d also add mandatory bounds on durations of bans. Banning indefinitely is unnecessarily Azkaban.) Right now AFAIK this information is private, so even moderators shouldn’t discretionally reveal it, unless it’s retelling of public info already available elsewhere. (Edit: It’s not private, thanks to Said Achmiz for pointing this out.)
Being able to protect your posts seems important to some people, and an occasional feud makes it a valuable alternative to involvement of moderators. But not seeing the filtering acting on a debate hurts clarity of its perception.
Isn’t this info visible at https://www.lesswrong.com/moderation ?
So it is, thanks for pointing this out. I’ve even seen this before, but since forgot to the point of not being aware of this existing when writing my comment. From the way Duncan phrased his reply he either also wasn’t aware of this, or there is a way of banning users privately as opposed to publicly, so that these decisions don’t show up on that page.
This is exactly the kind of situation I meant to rule out by saying that the list of banned users should be directly accessible from each affected post, as something you don’t need to search for.
Yes, sure, if you’re going to allow people to ban users from their posts, the list of these banned users should be prominently displayed on each post. But this is a fairly weak mitigation. Much better to not have the feature in the first place.
(I was not aware but also am fortunately not ashamed of my blocks, so)
I made my block of Zack public, so Ray has not done anything amiss.