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The tone of your comment comes off as drama. When it doesn't include the details of the tweet, people are left guessing. If no mention of the other things you f

The tone of your comment comes off as drama. When it doesn't include the details of the tweet, people are left guessing. If no mention of the other things you find questionable are explained, then it's just flaming. This isn't to defend him, but to suggest this style doesn't help solve the problem of sloppy social media commentary.

geofft 11y ago
Marc Andreessen has a well-documented record of blocking people liberally for very little reason: https://medium.com/@aminatou/to-marc-andressen-6d09239f0065 https://medium.com/@aminatou/to-marc-andressen-6d09239f0065 https://twitter.com/triketora/status/677597576183480320 https://twitter.com/triketora/status/677597576183480320 http://money.cnn.com/2015/12/23/technology/marc-andreessen-block-twitter/ http://money.cnn.com/2015/12/23/technology/marc-andreessen-b... https://blogdotitrendcorporationdotcom.wordpress.com/2014/05/07/til-that-marc-andreessen-likes-to-block-people-who-disagree-with-him/ https://blogdotitrendcorporationdotcom.wordpress.com/2014/05... And, confusingly enough, doesn't really respect other people's blocks: https://twitter.com/pmarca/status/622911480841699328 https://twitter.com/pmarca/status/622911480841699328 I can anecdotally confirm that piratebroadcast's claim is not unusual, as I got blocked sometime after this tweet: https://twitter.com/geofft/status/458371450052022273 https://twitter.com/geofft/status/458371450052022273 To be fair, maybe I should have attempted some substantive discussion instead.
- mikeash 11y ago
  I don't see what's wrong with this, specifically. It's his account, he can block whoever he wants. People take this stuff way too personally. I've blocked a few people simply because I don't like their stuff in my feed. One of them bugged me for months afterwards to unblock him, even though it's completely inconsequential and I don't say much interesting anyway. IMO this is a flaw with twitter. Blocks are two-way: I don't see their stuff, and they don't see my stuff. But whenever I'm blocking someone, it's just because I don't want to see their stuff. There's no reason to tie those together. In any case, how a person manages their own Twitter account is their business. If they use it to say something ridiculous then by all means attack it, but going after them merely for blocking people is ridiculous.
  - cookiecaper 11y ago
    >IMO this is a flaw with twitter. Blocks are two-way: I don't see their stuff, and they don't see my stuff. But whenever I'm blocking someone, it's just because I don't want to see their stuff. There's no reason to tie those together. Twitter tried to fix this and it was a PR disaster for them. http://archive.is/YMJCg http://archive.is/YMJCg
    - mikeash 11y ago
      Well of course it was a PR disaster, they "fixed" it by removing the original blocking functionality altogether! Both "don't show me their stuff" and "don't show them my stuff" are useful, they just shouldn't be bundled.
      - cookiecaper 11y ago
        I don't think "don't show them my stuff" is a legitimate option for a publication and broadcast platform like Twitter. It's so simple to evade the blocks that all it does is promote sockpuppetry, which just complicates attempts to control all that "harassment" (which, more often, is actually just simple disagreement) that Twitter users are concerned about. If you don't want your tweets to be publicly visible, set your account to private. If you do want your tweets to be publicly visible, keep your account public. Those are the two valid options. "Blocking" someone from seeing your tweets just puts them an extra click away (the "logout" button). It's online security theater.
        mikeash 11y ago
        The point isn't to put some ironclad barrier between you, it's just to make it harder for them. That's enough to get a lot of people to just give up and move on. If people want to do it, why not let them? Social stuff doesn't have to be all or nothing and it doesn't have to be perfect. The lock on my front door won't keep out a determined intruder, but it's still extremely useful.
        11y ago

geofft 11y ago

Marc Andreessen has a well-documented record of blocking people liberally for very little reason: https://medium.com/@aminatou/to-marc-andressen-6d09239f0065 https://medium.com/@aminatou/to-marc-andressen-6d09239f0065 https://twitter.com/triketora/status/677597576183480320 https://twitter.com/triketora/status/677597576183480320 http://money.cnn.com/2015/12/23/technology/marc-andreessen-block-twitter/ http://money.cnn.com/2015/12/23/technology/marc-andreessen-b... https://blogdotitrendcorporationdotcom.wordpress.com/2014/05/07/til-that-marc-andreessen-likes-to-block-people-who-disagree-with-him/ https://blogdotitrendcorporationdotcom.wordpress.com/2014/05... And, confusingly enough, doesn't really respect other people's blocks: https://twitter.com/pmarca/status/622911480841699328 https://twitter.com/pmarca/status/622911480841699328 I can anecdotally confirm that piratebroadcast's claim is not unusual, as I got blocked sometime after this tweet: https://twitter.com/geofft/status/458371450052022273 https://twitter.com/geofft/status/458371450052022273 To be fair, maybe I should have attempted some substantive discussion instead.

mikeash 11y ago
I don't see what's wrong with this, specifically. It's his account, he can block whoever he wants. People take this stuff way too personally. I've blocked a few people simply because I don't like their stuff in my feed. One of them bugged me for months afterwards to unblock him, even though it's completely inconsequential and I don't say much interesting anyway. IMO this is a flaw with twitter. Blocks are two-way: I don't see their stuff, and they don't see my stuff. But whenever I'm blocking someone, it's just because I don't want to see their stuff. There's no reason to tie those together. In any case, how a person manages their own Twitter account is their business. If they use it to say something ridiculous then by all means attack it, but going after them merely for blocking people is ridiculous.
- cookiecaper 11y ago
  >IMO this is a flaw with twitter. Blocks are two-way: I don't see their stuff, and they don't see my stuff. But whenever I'm blocking someone, it's just because I don't want to see their stuff. There's no reason to tie those together. Twitter tried to fix this and it was a PR disaster for them. http://archive.is/YMJCg http://archive.is/YMJCg
  - mikeash 11y ago
    Well of course it was a PR disaster, they "fixed" it by removing the original blocking functionality altogether! Both "don't show me their stuff" and "don't show them my stuff" are useful, they just shouldn't be bundled.
    - cookiecaper 11y ago
      I don't think "don't show them my stuff" is a legitimate option for a publication and broadcast platform like Twitter. It's so simple to evade the blocks that all it does is promote sockpuppetry, which just complicates attempts to control all that "harassment" (which, more often, is actually just simple disagreement) that Twitter users are concerned about. If you don't want your tweets to be publicly visible, set your account to private. If you do want your tweets to be publicly visible, keep your account public. Those are the two valid options. "Blocking" someone from seeing your tweets just puts them an extra click away (the "logout" button). It's online security theater.
      - mikeash 11y ago
        The point isn't to put some ironclad barrier between you, it's just to make it harder for them. That's enough to get a lot of people to just give up and move on. If people want to do it, why not let them? Social stuff doesn't have to be all or nothing and it doesn't have to be perfect. The lock on my front door won't keep out a determined intruder, but it's still extremely useful.
        11y ago