Robert Scoble

Well, on Twitter anyway, I block Twitter spammers so that Twitter will delete their accounts. - Morton Fox

Precisely. I can't control what they say, but I can certainly control what I have to deal with reading. - Bradley McSpinn

...someone else. Oh, and I do block some that keep dragging the jerks into my view. My attitude has improved 100x since I don't see them here every morning. - Robert Scoble

@Scoble - err, dragging the jerks? - Yuvi (has IRL friends!)

@morton Does that work? I certainly don't follow everyone who follows me but only block those who are obvious spammers. Once they're "out of sight, out of mind" I don't really care if Twitter keeps their accounts open or not, but it'd be nice to think that spammers are dealt with appropriately. - Sally Robinson

If you didn't block, you'd end up pulling a Calacanis and retiring from FF - Jason Kintzler

I think blocking is appropriate... like that comment thread I got into the other day on your blog. At some point as these social tools mature, we, as users, have to develope methods to filter the noise. Unfortunately, there are a small minority of people in the world who make a lot of bad noise and disrupt the conversation. On my blog I wrote about Cyber Bullying... http://bloghh.wordpress.com/20...... I think it will take time and trial and error to figure out how to deal with the bad elements on the Internet... But the benefits are worth the little pains here and there - Herschel

this is why I can't chat on message boards anymore! - orionstarr

Sally: I'm not sure but I've heard that Twitter does look into accounts that are blocked by lots of users. I only block obvious spammers too, i.e. those who started Twitter accounts just to promote a get-rich-quick website. - Morton Fox

There is a danger though that in an emotional moment you will block someone who is a valid critic and you should be listening to. My attitude is block with extreme caution. I use killfiles on nntp but every once in a while I delete them and start from scratch to make sure the trolls are still trolls (if they are even still there). There is no easy way to find out who you have blocked on FF though. - Brian Sullivan

Brian: believe me valid critics are still well represented in my living room. :-) - Robert Scoble

Robert: No doubt but are there also valid critics in your block list? - Brian Sullivan

It's a fairly reasonable 'live and let live' attitude, I think. - Phil Glockner

@Brian Perhaps you've come up with a new FF feature. Adding a block duration (hours, days, months, forever). Might be useful, especially if the blocked person knows they are being blocked temporarily. A digital version of shunning. :-) - Jim McCusker

I get the impression that most of us have only blocked a handful of people. I've blocked exactly 3. I'd like to think that we all have good, well-thought-out reasons to block. Like Robert said, I want to keep jerks out of my living room. For me to block another user, they have to really want it. - ha3rvey

I'm not sure "live and let live" is exactly the solution. I don't think anyone with an open mind is afraid of respectful criticism. It's when "critics" go beyond the issues and get personal is when the line gets crossed. I'm without no sin on this sometimes and I find in responding to attacks I can respond with passion and that can lead to personal attacking. - Herschel

Brian: no. A reasonable critic isn't a jerk and/or doesn't try to bring one into my world. - Robert Scoble

I find myself concerned that Scoble has blocked me even though I am a nice guy hehe :0 Great post Robert, I like it and will block people if I ever get enough people to care and follow me. I think we are all figuring out that we have some responsibility to control the noise using our mouse and keyboard and that the system (twitter or ff or whatever) is not entirely responsible for controllling it for us. Thank God for editing comments - Cody Heitschmidt

Robert: Everybody acts like a jerk at some point in their life (I am sure even you have at some point). - Brian Sullivan

Brian you miss the point (my opinion) and take the conversation down a dismal path... Scoble is not saying every time someone could possible be considered a jerk... He blocks them, he is saying he enjoys the oppurtunity to be able to decide in his own friend feed world that someone is a jerk and get rid of their noise. Same thing as having a home. We all love our home because we control it, I can invite Robert Scoble over if I want and if when he comes I don't like him... I don't invite him again. - Cody Heitschmidt

Cody: exactly. Plus I still see the jerks on ego searches on the everyone tab. - Robert Scoble

You hit the Everyone tab? Don't think I've ever used that, to be honest. - Bradley McSpinn

my fav shows r where you are yourself. um think huell howser. for tech :) http://www.calgold.com/ appreciate your work! keep it up!editing this to add that suits r awesome but not always needed as you make us feel comfortable when you are comfortable! thanks again! - tanya

Blocking is perfect for when you need to filter out the negative crap from FF. I second Scoble's use of it! yeah for FriendFeed block feature!! keep the jerks, trolls out of my life - thank you very much. :*) - Susan Beebe (Santa Claus)

Is there a way to know if someone has blocked you? - Shey

excellent points, I might try that! Grazie - Danny Bo'itanni

Blocking is cool. Freedom of speech doesn't imply that anyone has to listen. - Ian Betteridge

Shey: as I discovered yesterday, you'll figure out you're blocked when they post, but don't show in your timeline. You cna still see them by going to their page directly. If you comment on a thread, it won't move to the top of your timeline -- even if you're apparently subscribed. - Chris Baskind

How do you find out who you have blocked ? - Brian Sullivan

Freedom to speak and freedom to block are two sides of a same coin. ;) - Yung-Hui Lim

Robert: what's your process for following and subscribing by default ? With so many followers on FF and Twitter how do you decide who is your feed and who is not? Do you build a "friendship" first or do you follow and subscribe friends of friends, etc. What about others in this discussion? What do you do? - Larry Kless via twhirl

To me it seems important to recognize that with an open-ended tool like Friendfeed, different people will use it different ways. Personally, out of principle, I'd prefer to avoid blocking anyone, and I haven't yet. But I'm low-profile anyhow. If I were Scoble -- or if I were female -- I'm sure I'd use the block feature liberally. My blood pressure, you know. I just have no need to see overtly negative or hostile posts. - Nathan Rein

@Larry I use Twitter/FF to follow industry analysts and other noted personalities. As my interest in a person's feed grows, I start to look at their followed and followers and expand my own list accordingly. Sometimes I'm interested in following particular people and sometimes it's following particular conversations. Either way, I like the open flow of information. - Sally Robinson

larry I subscribe to anyone who catches my eye and is nice. - Robert Scoble

I block spammers. I don't typically block trolls or people that disagree with me. This isn't my living room after all. For Robert though, he would have to block or it would drown out the signal. - Sam Pullara