Post AT5PonVZ2VWRCCGzVA by colin@hoagie.fun
(DIR) More posts by colin@hoagie.fun
(DIR) Post #AT5PdY5E33JCAfacBE by simon@fedi.simonwillison.net
2023-02-26T23:12:31Z
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So does Mastodon let people know that you've blocked them? I just blocked someone and then got a message from another account owned by the same user that mentioned my block
(DIR) Post #AT5PonVZ2VWRCCGzVA by colin@hoagie.fun
2023-02-26T23:14:48Z
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@simon No but probably pretty easy to figure out since you can make infinite accounts on many servers
(DIR) Post #AT5QBfZ8jcvvDuqrwW by erincandescent@queer.af
2023-02-26T23:15:19Z
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@simon it doesn't send any notifications to the user, but it does notify the server and it does show up that you're blocked in the UI
(DIR) Post #AT5QBhIYIGqwb36eMi by erincandescent@queer.af
2023-02-26T23:17:30Z
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@simon some widely defederated servers like to run "block bots" which DM someone to inform them they've been blocked...
(DIR) Post #AT5QZvrDoZ30hWsXw0 by simon@fedi.simonwillison.net
2023-02-26T23:16:51Z
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@erincandescent aah that must be it then
(DIR) Post #AT5QmPqy7Gk5CsiGzw by simon@fedi.simonwillison.net
2023-02-26T23:19:28Z
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@erincandescent yeah that sounds possible here, the server in question had a policy page that said their community likes to shitpost
(DIR) Post #AT5QySugZ6ZOAjCI08 by BlurTheFur@meow.social
2023-02-26T23:21:36Z
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@simon People aren't notified of the block, no. But if they happened to view your profile and see that no further posts were showing up but showing up on the non blocked account, that could be an indication.
(DIR) Post #AT5RBrSkbOzS4jWDKa by simon@fedi.simonwillison.net
2023-02-26T23:24:22Z
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Looks like the answer is that blocks are broadcast out to hosting instances, and some (frequently defederated) instances run custom code that then notifies their own users of any new blocks - so muting may be a better option in many casesPlus if you visit a page of someone who has blocked you some clients will tell you that you are blocked - here's an example using https://elk.zone (thanks Sean for helping me test this)
(DIR) Post #AT5SyX0fXBo8ml9gFE by jpf@mastodon.social
2023-02-26T23:50:11Z
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@simon this is unexpected behavior and very good to know about. Thank you for sharing!
(DIR) Post #AT5Wgb5q0tMU3PHDdo by jbaggs@infosec.exchange
2023-02-27T00:31:44Z
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@simon Probably best to mute if you just don't want to hear someone, but it would be pretty hard to block someone and not have them be able to figure it out when trying to respond to you. Twitter's block has always given a nice "you're blocked" response when you try to follow people who have blocked you as well.
(DIR) Post #AT5Y121dgnrzKRcXBI by PublicLewdness@freespeechextremist.com
2023-02-27T00:48:25.444329Z
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@simon When i've been blocked by people I got a message delivered by a bot.
(DIR) Post #AT5eenTfnSBBWA4tgu by dhwthompson@mastodon.social
2023-02-27T02:01:08Z
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@simon Even when clients don’t explicitly tell you you’re blocked, it looks like they’ll say “so-and-so has n posts”, but then say “no posts found” when you try to see them.(I made a dummy account to test this, and confirmed the behaviour in Ivory.)
(DIR) Post #AT6j0dEh9JCN6EhPGq by srj@mastodon.online
2023-02-27T14:24:08Z
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@simon There's also this from the docs (https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/moderating/#block):"Additionally, on the blocked user’s side:* The user is forced to unfollow you* The user cannot follow you* The user won’t see other people’s boosts of you* The user won’t see you in public timelinesIf you and the blocked user are on the same server, the blocked user will not be able to view your posts on your profile while logged in."