I think mute is worse than block. Having a room where half of the people can’t see the other half, but nobody knows who can see the other people, is much worse for the dynamics of the conversation than having two rooms. A good critique that does not get responded to means something very different if the author literally can’t see it versus the author being able to see it and choosing not to respond. Someone being a dick or insulting others and getting away with it because the moderators or post authors have them muted, but nobody else knowing that is very bad for norms.
Sorry, I should have been clearer. I didn’t really mean in comments on your own posts (where I agree it creates a messed up dynamic), I mean on the frontpage.
I think mute is worse than block. Having a room where half of the people can’t see the other half, but nobody knows who can see the other people, is much worse for the dynamics of the conversation than having two rooms. A good critique that does not get responded to means something very different if the author literally can’t see it versus the author being able to see it and choosing not to respond. Someone being a dick or insulting others and getting away with it because the moderators or post authors have them muted, but nobody else knowing that is very bad for norms.
Sorry, I should have been clearer. I didn’t really mean in comments on your own posts (where I agree it creates a messed up dynamic), I mean on the frontpage.
Oh, sure, yeah, not a crazy thing to do, agree.
“I don’t want to see this guy’s garbage content on the frontpage” seems a lot more defensible than “I will prohibit him from responding to me.”