Just come in here to get some more low rates, thanks for the effort and wasted seconds in doing it:)

+ 1
*Rubs hands* Mwahahahaha *Pets cat*

(Also happy soon to be 1776....twas a good year for us americans...not so much for the brits, tho)

Give me a break, idiot!

I actually care about you(as a fellow goggite) and give you plenty of breaks here that you likely never know I gave you.....even if you complain and subtly poke fun at me from time to time.

Reading comprehension - an often neglected skill.

My question was in regard to comments made by users which aren't blocked by me, but may quote users which are blocked by me. And I even mentioned the "block" feature as something existent for decades.

Let's see how these (non-blocked) comments could be presented to me:

1) The non-blocked user's comment does show me the blocked user's comment as a quote - would suck, because I don't want to read blocked comments, and would essentially counter the blocking feature completely.

2) The non-blocked user's comment does NOT show me the blocked user's comment itself, but ONLY the response of the non-blocked user to the blocked user's comment - would suck, because it would make me read responses in regard to comments that I don't want to read, respectively would make me read comments in whose content I have no interest in - Woosh, there goes the forum's readability.

3) The non-blocked user's comment which is quoting a blocked user gets completely hidden from me - would be ok, for as long as the non-blocked user's comment is ONLY responding to the blocked user.

But it would totally suck, if the (now hidden from me) non-blocked user's comment also addresses me and/or the community in general, in the same comment as the blocked user.

Which is a thing that happens here regularily - and, woosh, there goes forum's readability and usability, because in this case, I (and others) would miss out these comments which are directed at us, completely.

So, for the block-feature to be useful without destroying the flow of non-blocked conversatons, the forum software would need to be able to hide all blocked-by-me-content even in non-blocked users' comments from me, AND in addition to that, it would need to be able to recognize when something written in a non-blocked comment is directed at me/the general community.

With comments directed at me/others I can see the quote-function serve as a gatekeeper who decides what to let through and what not...but with comments directed to the community as a whole?

I see no way to implement that.

Now, if you have something constructive to add to that, be my guest.

Indeed. Whom you block is entirely up to each one.

Also, in blocks are reversible. If you want to enjoy someone's posts again, just go to the ignore list and untick the name. Easy. Like in Twitter or Whatsapp.

As for the overall effect. Attention seekers surely will regard it as a threat, as it will make the forum (slightly?) less fun for them, but more interesting for everyone else. But they should not fear so much, since the people who would remove them from their reading are people who right now pay very little attention to their writing and their exchanges and very rarely would actually engage with them, anyway.

Concerning the Twitter example (albeit being a social network of a different nature than a web-based forum), with a large rate of users leaving that platform, and the company making efforts to counter that, if there was no block option, it might be true that the drop rates would be even larger. Anyway, the thing is that this tool is a common feature of forums.

Let's be honest.....how many actually ever unblock people all that often? I will hazard a guess that many times people keep people on block and never look back.

It would also likely cause some people to more easily block more and more over more minor annoyances or slights & cause some to only want to hear from people who say what they want to hear....essentially safe space walled gardens online.

One never knows if someone that one dislikes or disagrees with might say something they like or would find useful. By blocking some people at the drop of a hat, people could potentially miss out on some people's good/informative posts.

Social media is a common thing online, and look at the negative effect it had on society(Yes, it also has some positives as well)....not everything that's common online or offline is a net 100% positive.

What I've seen is that it either replaces the quote with mention of the user name you've blocked or just a block saying its a quote by a blocked party and the ability to press a link that would make it visible.

Well, that's nice and well. And I would be fine with that.

But you have to see my comments in regard to the OP's comment, where s/he mentions things as:

- Click to remove the troll forever <--- not exactly met, if the comments are still visible (if even hidden).
- Simple: the ability to block people <--- again, if I still see signs of their existence all over the place, and even can read their input by a simple push of a button...not exactly what the OP wants (I assume!?).
- Once you block them, you do not have to read their posts, ever <--- well...but what about the response comments done by others?
- They also do not get to see yours <--- this one's really a mystery to me...how would that work? And how would that not completely destroy the forums, if half of the users can't see the other half anymore?
- Useful for making the forum more readable, enjoyable and possibly useful <--- I seriously doubt that - for the reasons I gave already.
- Great if you [...] want to remove all the trash to proceed quicker to whatever is worth reading <--- and again: what about the responses to the trash? They will only get "removed" if I also block the users doing them. Where does that end, if not with a disfunctional forum?

And what about threads started by blocked-by-me users? I guess, I shouldn't be able to see (and post in) those either. Oh, and vice versa, of course (as planned by the OP (= "they also do not get to see yours").

I can only repeat my concerns: a block feature in the GOG forums will not work as the OP envisions it to work, and will rather destroy what little of a functional community we still have here.

And I really wouldn't mind having a block/silence/hide function in the forum. I just don't see it working the way the OP wants it to.
And I definitely don't see GOG implement this in a way, that would better the usability of the forums.

I know, I sound like a broken record, but GOG's business model is their DRM-free store - not their forum.

If they wanted, they could close the forum - or at least the "general discussion" forum, and then they could invoke very strict rules as to what can, and can't be posted in the games specific forums, which in effect, would kill all non-game-related discussions here, immediately.

I dare say, it would barely hurt their sales.

Yes, Sir. Works like a charm.

What functionality is missing exactly? If you want any other features you can contact Alaric and see if he'll add it. Haven't seen him around for some time though.

GOG has a tendency to rely on user scripts when it comes to tools that should be native to a forum.

Thanks for confirming it works. The functionality missing requires that the tool was native to the forum: making the block bidirectional, like in Twitter. Things work better that way. But what this script does is the second best. Thanks for bringing it to the table.

Anyway, now there is a petition for GOG to include the block in the forum.

I wasn't going to say it, but yeah, no doubt that's where the push-back is coming from. The concern-trolling about "destroying conversations" is objectively wrong considering how widespread blocking has been for many years. That it works fine is not up for debate, since real-world usage proved that long ago. Whether GOG could implement it is a question, but it seems to me the correct answer is that they should switch to something usable like XenForo, rather than try (badly) to reinvent the wheel.

You might not read this(due to your "if someone irks me I don't bother with them ever again" policy), but i'll reply a bit anyways as you make some interesting points and even some I agree with:

Why do comments by others you want blocked seemingly worry you that much? They're comments, not bubonic plague.....if they're hidden then don't read them and you'd be ok....they won't leak out from the block filter or similar.

Why would that matter? It's not like everyone who replies to someone else one has blocked talks or acts like the ones one has blocked, or will necessarily say or do something one dislikes.

If it's the fact they might mention someone's name(that one has blocked) or stances/ideas, and the mere thought of that is unnerving, I don't know what to say to that but: *shrug*

If there was such a feature it likely wouldn't(and imo shouldn't) block those one blocks from reading one's own posts/replies.

Also a block feature would likely lead to even more of a ghost town in the general forums than we have now even if that wasn't the case(people not seeing the posts made by those that blocked them).

That's how it might work, in part....you possibly wouldn't get to have the cake(block people) and eat it too(read their threads...at least the OP posts)...well unless you could unblock individual posts and/or reply to them manually/etc.

Agreed near 100%(it wouldn't destroy it necessarily but it would hurt it and segregate us up, most likely).

Again agreed(minus the bits about wanting a block function personally).

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True, but then GOG went to the lowest bidder when making the forums & it then the guy left and now they're stuck with what's left.

(Also as to Jerkmuter: would/does it allow one to know if someone has blocked them? I ask as it'd help some know who to not bother replying to[if those others have them on block])

Really? You're trying to generalize it all as concerned trolling?

Also those other forums have much more posts per hour, so it likely doesn't make as much of a dent on overall conversations....also the user base here is, shall we say, full of individuals occupying the parts of society who would be(imo) more likely to segregate off if such features were a thing.

It works too well, and for a forum such as this(low posts per hour even as a global forum and many people seemingly averse to the world's social movements/etc to a larger than average degree) it wouldn't be so good...maybe for steam forums and such large forums.
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To all: To be clear, I am all for a user script like jerkmuter so people can have such options available to them, just not an official gog feature as I think it'd be overused and abused and lead to much less replies/posts between people not in one's group of friends/etc than we have now, and also because gog likely wouldn't implement it well.

I don't think gog has made any real changes to its forum software itself (it did introduce player profiles a while back, but that's not really directly connected) in possibly almost a decade. I wouldn't hold my breath for them to improve it any time soon. Your best chance is the user script that was linked.

I'm not sure there's any forum software (official or unofficial) that makes blocking bidirectional, though. I dunno about twitter, but that wouldn't really work on a forum. And of course, unofficial user scripts would not be able to do that either, being only local.

I don't personally use blocks on any of the forums I visit (both less and more active than gog), but they all have it available, and it hasn't destroyed the world yet. Then again, unfortunately, I have to say gog is one of the more trolly forums I visit (even though I do visit forums where the entire POINT involves debate about issues political, religious and philosophical, they're less trolly than here).