Muted Inworld - but weird effect on the SL Profile Feed!

[Caitlin Tobias]

This morning we (a friend and I) tried something out on the Profile Feed.

I muted him inworld.

The effect was kind of bizarre:
I am still able to post on HIS feed and I can read everything he posts on other people's feeds. However, MY feed was blocked for him  -  while my feed is open to all SL residents (you only have to be logged in to have access to my feed).

This can't be the purpose of muting! I would have thought, once muting someone i would not be able to see anything they are posting, anywhere. Nor can it be the case that I can still post on a muted one's feed, and possibly annoy them, while they cannot post on mine.

We could have a conversation on his feed, not on mine.....

I hope this makes sense and I hope this will be fixed!

[madjim]

This is MOST amusing! LL has implemented Inworld "Mute" as Profile Feed "Ignore", which is not the way that it is supposed to work at all and lends itself to huge opportunities as far  as I am concerned.

It means that the messages of THE Cult, even if each member is muted by feed users (we need a name for them: feeders perhaps?) will still be staring into the faces of those who do not want to read them, in the Trending tab.

It is also likely to lead to feedjacking of unused accounts as platforms for the muted to circumvent the impotent restriction attempts.

No real thought seems to have been given to what the feeds are intended to achieve, and to the privacy and utilisation issues associated with a platform that is semi-public and semi-private, and accordingly not subject to formal moderation protocols.

THE Cult will naturally use the feeds to promote their community, keeping to the Community Standards, but where those standards are silent or inapplicable, we will take advantage of the social interaction capabilities they offer to the fullest extent.

So join us now! It's the New Year! Make a commitment to our community now! Share your resources and thoughts with us.

Father "Feedmeister" Jim

[Dresden Ceriano]

I have to admit to not quite understanding how it should work.  As far as I know, if you IM someone that you've blocked inworld it automatically unblocks them, so shouldn't it be that if you post on someone that you've blocked's feed, it should unblock them as well?

The thing is... I hardly ever block anyone inworld, or anywhere for that matter, unless it's just some annoying random person that's spamming crap in local chat who I'll probably never see again.  If I have an actual issue with someone, I'd much rather deal with it head on instead of trying to block them out of existence.  I do understand the need to be able to block people... I just see it as a last resort, instead of as something to use as an immediate fix for any problems I might have with anyone.

So I suppose that this muting of people on the feeds will only effect me if someone else mutes me, in which case, I wouldn't care.  Either I can post to someone's feed or I can't... so what.

The thing I find most annoying is that people feel they can post nasty crap on your feed then come back and delete it as if to cover their ass.  If they can't stand by their words then they shouldn't say them in the first place... but that's a completely different issue.

...Dres

[Tamara Artis]

I use my own tool for muting people, far better than LL has. Its called ignore :matte-motes-big-grin-wink:

[Caitlin Tobias]

Thanks for the replies all!

Personally, I do not care much about the 'muting/blocking' as a topic as I hardly mute people anyway (I do have a long list of muted fountains and waterfalls, but they do not tend to follow me on my feed....).

The issue I brought up was that it all seems technically a bit odd. If you wish to mute someone, I suppose you do not want to see anything of that resident. Not in world and not on the feeds.
This is not how it works.

When you block/mute a resident inworld, they become grey and you can blissfully carry on without noticing them. They can now also no longer read your posts on your sl profile feed, but if they post on other people's feeds (e.g. your friends) you will see it.

That was all. It does not make sense, as the mute/block is not complete.

[Theresa Tennyson]

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Caitlin Tobias wrote:

Thanks for the replies all!

 

Personally, I do not care much about the 'muting/blocking' as a topic as I hardly mute people anyway (I do have a long list of muted fountains and waterfalls, but they do not tend to follow me on my feed....).

The issue I brought up was that it all seems technically a bit odd. If you wish to mute someone, I suppose you do not want to see anything of that resident. Not in world and not on the feeds.

This is not how it works.

When you block/mute a resident inworld, they become grey and you can blissfully carry on without noticing them. They can now also no longer read your posts on your sl profile feed, but if they post on other people's feeds (e.g. your friends) you will see it.

That was all. It does not make sense, as the mute/block is not complete.

---

It would be resource-intensive to screen feeds like that. Keeping someone from posting on your feed is easy - every incoming post has to go through a filter once and that's it. But if you tried to keep seeing that person's post on other feeds every post on every feed would have to be fed through your block list every single time you accessed a feed before you could see it. As far as not being able to see that person's feed, you need to make a conscious effort to access a person's feed so there's no way for them to force you to see what they're saying - if you don't want to deal with that person you simply wouldn't look at that feed, and if you post to annoy them you'd probably just be muted your ownself by the other person.

[Kylie McGillivary]

i found out something funny too about muting/blocking:

1) i mute somebody and we both stay on the same sim.

2) i write something in a group chat, where they are member too.

3) If they are on the same sim as me, it automatically unblocks them. If they're on a different sim, then it doesnt.

 

[madjim]

Theresa, I understand what you are saying about the pragmatic approach taken by LL, but the fact remains that you would have to avoid scanning the Trending thread to avoid reading comments from those you have "muted", which is surely against the philosophy of open social interaction that everyone seems to think should underlie the feeds. It is so easy to get a post to "trend" at the moment, because you only need two "love"s and one can be yourself! There is also no categorization of feed threads which would facilitate selective reading of "Trending" subjects, nor is there a "Group" capability which would overcome the current dichotomy between making your personal feed "friends-only" and inviting contributions from potentially interested and interesting acquaintances.

Personally speaking, THE Cult would like this last facility, so that those who had made a commitment could be assured of social interaction and could promote the benefits to those who have not yet recognized how they might fulfill themselves and derive additional benefits from their community participation.

Father "inclusive, but selective" Jim

[Kylie McGillivary]

Well from what i have experienced too, if you mute someone and you pay them some money then it automatically unmutes them too. I had apparently muted someone in the past (cant remember why) and after i bought something in a store, i got a message like "xxxx has been paid some money and has been unblocked".

But seriously, i wouldn't mind if they can still look at my web profile, or at my feed. I just dont want them to be able to post there. And yes i agree if i mute someone i dont want to see their messages on any feed either.

But the web profile thing is a good way to find out if certain people have muted you or not

...i just cleared my mute list which has grown pretty big in the past 3 years ...