OpenStreetMap
GitHub's backward blocking causes conflict aggravation
Posted by jidanni on 22 July 2020 in English.GitHub is great, but note, if you block somebody on GitHub, they won’t get (your) notifications:
@holmes: any final opinions?
Alas, holmes won’t have any, because he didn’t get notified. And, you, assuming blocking works the same on GitHub as it does on other platforms, will assume holmes is ignoring / blocking you, and get even more angry at him, when in fact it is you blocking him.
Same when you resolve holmes’ bug reports, pull requests, etc. He won’t know until one day some third party comments on one, if ever.
OpenStreetMap’s many teams using GitHub should be aware of this potential for software-exasperated discord.
See also: https://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/31.46#subj35 , https://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/31.47#subj13
(Yes, you will probably also hear less noise from (example user) holmes, but did you know that you caused him to not see the notifications he normally would of your actions?)
Discussion
Comment from skquinn on 27 August 2020 at 04:05
This is too powerful for a block function on a site like GitHub. It’s almost as bad as Facebook’s and Instagram’s block functions (which make the blocker’s entire account disappear, including comments and other interactions, for the person being blocked).
Comment from jidanni on 27 August 2020 at 04:18
Ah, but at least FB and IG don’t let me keep on commenting on the blockee’s issues, with the blockee anesthetized so he is not aware of it too.
Comment from mmd on 27 August 2020 at 12:27
After your Easylist stunt 4 years ago, which banned our fundraising banners on osm.org, a lot of people probably put you on their Github block list. Get over it.
For context: https://github.com/openstreetmap/openstreetmap-website/issues/1333#issuecomment-255306223
Comment from jidanni on 27 August 2020 at 16:59
Apparently I got over it within minutes https://github.com/openstreetmap/openstreetmap-website/issues/1333#issuecomment-255526907 but nobody knew, as they already had blocked me.
Comment from Mateusz Konieczny on 30 August 2020 at 20:00
That is the whole point of blocking people.
Comment from jidanni on 30 August 2020 at 20:12
Comment from pnorman on 7 October 2021 at 10:52
With the large number of people blocking you, have you considered modifying your behavior so that they no longer feel the need to do so?
Comment from jidanni on 7 October 2021 at 20:02
How do you know there are more blocking me than blocking you?
But that’s beside the point.
Don’t you think there is maybe something wrong with being able to turn off other people’s notifications?
Isn’t there any security problems with that model?
If you had a choice, would you choose to 1) only turn off notifications to you of other people’s boring activities?
Or, 2) turn off their notifications of your activities, so you could do things behind their back, even though the things you do are certainly good, and they are certainly a bad person, so has no right to know.
And OK, 1) and 2) are linked to the same function, so it is hard to do 1) without also doing 2), so that makes it morally OK?
https://github.com/openstreetmap/openstreetmap-website/issues/3333#issuecomment-937212081
Comment from Mateusz Konieczny on 8 October 2021 at 06:31
There are many indicators of that, for example one person is blocked so significantly that they are posting complaints about how blocking function works.
Also, many people mentioned how they are blocking your GitHub account or its notifications.
Yes, it is 100% moral to use ignore lists.
Please, stop bothering tomhughes.
If you would post things like https://github.com/openstreetmap/openstreetmap-website/issues/3333#issuecomment-934987836 on my issue trackers I would warn and later block you. Given subsequent offtopic and bothering I am surprised that you are not blocked on that issue tracker.
You are not entitled to forcing notifications on people. And if you want to change how GitHub works - contact GitHub.
Comment from jidanni on 8 October 2021 at 16:20
https://github.com/github/docs/pull/1092