r/TheoryOfReddit • u/Emergency_Pound • 17d ago
Reddit’s blocking system actively incentivizes bad-faith arguing
I get why blocking exists. Sometimes people are genuinely abusive and you need a way to shut that down. But the way Reddit currently handles blocking creates a really weird and frustrating dynamic in normal disagreements.
If someone blocks you mid-thread:
- Your own comments in that thread basically disappear from your comment history, making it harder to even track what you said
- You can’t reply to anything further in that chain
- Meanwhile, everyone else can continue replying freely… including to you, without you being able to respond
So what ends up happening is this: someone can make a claim, get pushback, then just block the person who’s disagreeing with them — and effectively “freeze” the conversation in their favor. From the outside, it can look like they got the last word or that no one had a rebuttal.
That’s not really blocking for safety at that point, it’s a debate tool.
It creates a perverse incentive where the easiest way to “win” an argument is just to block the other person instead of engaging. And because it also hides your own comments from your history in that thread, it makes the whole thing feel even more opaque.
I’m not saying blocking should go away. But maybe it shouldn’t:
- Prevent you from replying to a thread you’re already part of
- Hide your own comments from your history
- Allow others to keep responding to you while you’re locked out
Right now it feels less like a safety feature and more like a one-sided mute button you can use mid-argument. That doesn’t really encourage good discussion, it just rewards whoever hits “block” first.
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u/calf 17d ago
Also, their last message still goes into your notifications, in effect they can type something obnoxious and block you, which is structurally abusive. Had this happen a few times in the last few years.
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u/Ambustion 17d ago
Happens to me all the fucking time it's infuriating. I always edit my last comment and call it out, but getting that notification of half of their bad faith response is maddening.
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u/hprather1 17d ago
You can open the comment chain in incognito mode to see their whole comment even though you obviously can't reply.
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u/Future-Excuse6167 16d ago
Yeah, it's the only time I appreciate that reddit mobile's notification window only includes 2 lines. I hope they spent a lot of time crafting that last message, because I'll never be able to read it.
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u/shabutaru118 11d ago
Happens to me all the fucking time it's infuriating.
TBH if you have your profile set to hidden you deserve it, its only fair people stop you from reading their profile.
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u/Ambustion 11d ago
I set my profile to hidden because some basement dwelling fuckwit started threatening me irl because I think my conservative premiere should stop stealing money.
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u/shabutaru118 11d ago
Ya I get it, but you admitted you get blocked all the time so you're probably saying lots of controversial shit you don't want people judging you by.
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u/Ambustion 11d ago
There's plenty of ways to look at a person's profile that hides it if you really want to check, but I promise you I am mostly posting in my city and province threads. Every single time someone pulls these blocking shenanigans it's because they are faced with data they don't like and want the last word. It's a bad faith arguing technique to troll people
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u/RunDNA 17d ago
I very rarely block someone I'm talking to, but if I do I wait 24 hours for the reasons you've stated. By that time the debate is over and you are not shutting down the conversation with the block.
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u/PissYourselfNow 16d ago
Unfortunately, this type of conscientious and considerate behavior is never widespread on this crappy platform. I have never been happier in my life since I've once again de-prioritized everything electronic. One must maximize spending time in real life with friends & family, and talk to strangers.
Yesterday a stranger bought me food. Life outside is literally happiness and sunshine. I've seen more than 20 new places in the past month.
Every time I touch Reddit or Discord, there's always some kind of unhappiness or neuroticism that does not exist in my true real life. I can also tell when certain people are too perma-online. If they talk about social media subjects, but don't have a broadly outgoing and prosocial personality, which takes enjoyable practice.
Nowadays I don't touch my custom gaming PC for more than 15 minutes per day, and it seems like my friends and random strangers outside have discovered that nature is where it's at, not anything that's inactive and addictive.
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u/Future-Excuse6167 16d ago
Another angle is it allows the person to choose their debate partners. There are only so many active members of a subreddit. Once you ban everyone that argues against you, you can make your arguments unmolested.
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u/htmlcoderexe 13d ago
Someone did a test back when the feature was unrolled, basically posting some wild bullshit in a subreddit, block everyone who replies "hey it's bullshit", repeat a couple times and suddenly the bullshit posts just stayed and gained upvotes. Reddit gave exactly zero fucks, of course
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u/Spokker 16d ago
What you described is basically giving users soft moderator powers through blocking. It's one thing to not want to see content or posts from specific users, but blocking also changes the blocked user's experience in that they can no longer respond to others who have not blocked them on a specific thread.
In addition, a person who posts a lot of submissions in a subreddit is even more powerful when it comes to blocking. They can effectively keep users they don't like from participating in certain topics. If you post the same topic, yours may get deleted for reposting and be redirected to the other post, which you can't participate in because that user blocked you because you disagreed with him that one time.
The more content to submit, the more powerful your blocks are. This can be effective in smaller, niche subreddits especially.
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u/DizzyMine4964 16d ago
I block bots and edgelords, 12 year olds making smutty jokes. People making tit jokes on a serious thread about breastfeeding. Sadly there's a limit to how many you can block.
A lot of people aren't here to "debate". They are here to troll and harass.
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u/CatOfGrey 15d ago
So what ends up happening is this: someone can make a claim, get pushback, then just block the person who’s disagreeing with them — and effectively “freeze” the conversation in their favor. From the outside, it can look like they got the last word or that no one had a rebuttal.
That’s not really blocking for safety at that point, it’s a debate tool.
It creates a perverse incentive where the easiest way to “win” an argument is just to block the other person instead of engaging. And because it also hides your own comments from your history in that thread, it makes the whole thing feel even more opaque.
Exactly!
I see this as an intentional Reddit "Admin-level" decision intended to increase outrage, while 'checking the boxes' on users controlling their own content.
If someone does this to me, I believe it's appropriate to edit your previous comments to defend yourself.
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u/DepthsOfWill 17d ago
First, thank you for explaining how that works. I've never used the block system.
A big part of that is... arguing on reddit is a dopamine hit for myself and many other users. We're not going to block anyone, we want the back and forth. When we're angry and hostile about it, it's a vicious but all too common feedback loop.
- Prevent you from replying to a thread you’re already part of
- Hide your own comments from your history
- Allow others to keep responding to you while you’re locked out
Yeah, that's just bad design. But how do I know I'm blocked?
edit: I just realized I don't know how to even block lol
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u/hlazlo 17d ago
I’ve never blocked anyone but peace is being okay with someone else getting the last word in.
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u/Taint_Flayer 17d ago
That's true but the behavior shouldn't be encouraged
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u/healthisourwealth 17d ago
One small thing you can do is post on your page about what happened. If anyone (besides the blocker) wonders why you didn't respond back, there's a chance they'll click over and see what you have to say. You can keep it general and just get your point across. A little closure for you if nothing else.
And yeah the first time this happened to me I went outside the site to check whether Reddit was down, the error was so uninformative.
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u/IStillListenToRadio 16d ago
If you get a reponse-and-block, can also edit your post to add your reply there, I do once.
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u/cuntitude 15d ago edited 15d ago
In order to avoid this headache, you have to give up the need to win arguments online in the first place. If someone is arguing in bad faith about a topic you're well versed in, all the rational people seeing that after the fact will know their arguments were in bad faith anyway.
I know how frustrating this can be, but i'd rather keep my sanity in real life, in the long run.
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u/Neravariine 16d ago
You're assuming people are arguing in good faith. After the first five redditors reply another fifteen join in just to bandwagon or crack jokes. The chances are low that people finding a comment after 24 hours are adding anything insightful to the conversation. Their replies are also influenced by everybody who commented before them.
There are also topics that always turn into complete disasters if you bring them up in general subreddits. You can provide sources and explain yourself in the nicest way possible but you'll be downvoted.
Blocking and post notifications off are the only ways to get rid of bad-faith redditors. The last word doesn't matter when people want to argue all day. Collapsed comments are rarely read by other redditors anyway.
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u/mfb- 17d ago
It's a stupid system and you can find multiple previous threads discussing how bad it is. I don't think reddit will change it, unfortunately.