Is it possible to block a user in the Forums? If so, how? If not, is it possible for us to have this option made available? I’m not sure if it’s even possible on the Discourse platform but I thought I would ask. I think it would enhance many users’ experience of the Forums.
If you click the little person icon under your avatar in the upper right hand corner of the screen (I’m using my computer, not sure how it looks on a phone), one of the options in the drop down box is Preferences - in that section choose Notification & then Users - you have several options there where you can Ignore or Mute someone and control who can send you a direct message.
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It is possible to ignore and mute members in you settings > preferences:
Or do you prefer more than this?
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Thank you so much! I am going to give it a try. I’ll let you know if I have any questions about how to make it works. This is a gamechanger for me.
ETA: I successfully did it. Thanks again. I will say that the process is slightly different on a mobile device.
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I didn’t know about this feature before. I hope I never need to use it. But I’m glad it is there.
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I’m glad I helped. It really wasn’t obvious to me.
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I wish I could block an user in the main Postcrossing platform. It´s not possible yet, right? People can send us offensive messages whenever they want. I think this is something needed.
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If someone sends you an offensive message, report it to the Postcrossing team through the contact form.
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If it’s the same sender, you can block via your email I suppose.
Go to the blocking filter and choose “from” or “has the words” so you can type the username there.
But definitely let the admins know, they will suspend the member if they send offensive messages to people (like someone spamming religious messages was suspended I think).
If you get offensive private message here in the forum, you can flag it as well just like the public messages.
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I did it, but there is no “block user” tool, so she can keep offending me. I think this tool is necessary.
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Good idea, I didn´t think about the email settings to block. I will do it right now.
The postcrossing team will ban the user. But I understand there is a delay so you may receive a few more messages before she is gone.
This shouldn’t be replaced by a button in my opinion because it would solve the problem only for you, not for the whole community. People who are nasty to others simply shouldn’t be part of postcrossing. If everyone just blocks them and don’t report, they will be still free to send hate to more people.
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So sad to read that…I thought we were safe of the “bad people” here… Naif of me… I hope you’ll find a way to block this person. It’s terrible to receive offensive messages. But please contact the “help team”!
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First, I think that if anyone is offending/bullying someone, that individual blocking is not the best decision, it should be brought to attention of admins before more damage is done not only to you but to others too and to community as a whole Also personally after digging into trust levels functionality (How do trust levels work?) I forever prefer flagging as ‘other’ with explanation rather than ‘offensive’.
Checking the mute/ignored options we can apply individually to any other user, made me think of hypothetical situation:
- Let’s say some user saw my message which they didn’t like in some discussion (and it wasn’t a direct confrontation or dialog, but let’s say someone might feel uncomfortable by seeing my opinion different from theirs) and chose to ignore me (that means for them ALL my replies in any topics and all my topics will be always hidden and they never get any notification if I reply to them or tag them with @). But how would I know?
- Then imagine I see this user in some tag I participate and will tag them (how would I know I offended them? If I knew I’d avoid tagging) - they will never see my tag and will never respond to me. So please, everyone who knows that you have blocked someone - please check your tags manually every week or so to avoid that!
Then I made some experiments to show how it works and looks:
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This is part of profile of any user, as you see options normal/muted/ignored are available
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But if certain user chose to have their public profile hidden then these options are not there!
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But you can still ignore them manually in Preferences (top right menu) and choose time frame for that decision from day to forever:
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Their replies in topics and in PMs will now be shown as hidden but you can click on them (which would be a case for tags, for example)
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Topics made by these user will still show in the list in category but if you click on their topic the content will be hidden and you wouldn’t be able to see it at all (at least I didn’t find the possibility)!
I asked the permission of the user I was ‘ignoring’ and we explored the functionality of the forum together, if anyone asking 
So as good as this function might be for someone to feel comfortable, it has a potential to cripple not only a person whom somebody ‘ignores’ one-sidedly, but also can cripple your own tag-games activities and create a invisible division and influence the community’s heath IMO 
That doesn’t concern the muting option which I consider quite mild and if you have some differences with someone in my opinion it’s the best option so you will see their messages accidentally with clear head and be reasonable and not hurt/emotional yourself.
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I agree. And to my understanding offensive and bullying messages are removed. So there is no need to block. The flagging is better option instead, so the admins will see what the message is.
I understand the blocking in other forums better, when there is not other interaction between members.
But here, we might be swapping or getting address to one we blocked.
It’s good to understand that people disagree, they have different opinions/religions etc, and it they like to write about things I don’t, I don’t have to read that topic. In my opinion, blocking is that there is something personal against that member. And it would be better solved, than ignored. Of course I know there are young people who maybe didn’t yet learn skills to solve disagreements, or how to cope with someone not agreeing with them, and everyone must be like them. But this is good place to be around different people
Also to think about it, will they send the card if they get the address to the one they blocked? Will they register if they get the card from the blocked one?
As well it’s a little worrysome that do people really want to form a bubble, where they keep only the ones who think like them? Then it makes a distorted group, who think they are right, because no one disagrees. I have already seen someone/s use “we”, like the one who disagrees didn’t belong here, and it’s “them” against the disagreer 
. Not good.
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We experimented futher - when someone blocked you, when you try to send them PM to request address for tag there will be a warning that you can’t send it because the user is not accepting messages right now
I can imagine how awkward and confusing it might feel, if you don’t know why
Forming bubbles is one of my concerns too. Because when you don’t see opinions others from yours, it creates a positive feedback and your own opinion might get radicalized further and further.
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But official addresses and cards, the blocking doesn’t work there, I think?
The same persons from forum are there too, so the blocking won’t work.
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Well, no, blocking doesn’t exist there on official site afaik. But I saw countless profiles saying for example ‘I will never send or register a card from/to Russia’ and probably if people from Russia send something, it goes to trash unregistered and no cards sent 
Admins try to poke these users to remove these lines from profiles, but it wouldn’t mean such users will change their principles and start officially sending cards to Russia, when they assigned an address.
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Of course they are! From public threads for sure.
Not that it’s common, but some users can continue bullying in PMs theoretically… I mean it’s normal to continue communication with people you like to talk with before in public parts, but privately. Anyway, you can ‘invite’ admins to PMs too and flag any messages in PMs, if it goes sideways
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It would seem the “block” function isn’t a true block, rather an ignoring of a user.
I’m going to start by saying the ability to ignore another user is an important one, and vital for the health of any online community. If, for example, someone is determined to argue it is better to ignore them than escalate the situation. Plus it’s important that we all have control over who we interact with.
However, I do see issues as it’s one sided but I’m not sure how to resolve those. A full block where Person A has blocked Person B and therefore person B can’t see any of Person A’s messages would indeed cause issues in the tags and other games, unless there’s a message saying “This person has blocked you” to indicate a post person B can’t see… but I can hear the complaints now.
I will add (having solved nothing) that muting as an option isn’t good enough to protect from potential stress/arguments etc as the posts are still there and visible, while the Ignore option hides them which is preferable.
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