In the past several months, Staff has learned the user blocking tool is being used as a content screen similar to tag and ratings filters. This is not the tool's intended function, and concerns have been raised that such use will encourage a culture discordant with Side 7's mission of fostering a friendly artistic community. User blocking is designed for protection against peer abuse, intended as a 'last resort' to resolve hostilities that would otherwise require staff intervention. "Casual" blocking done for convenience weakens this purpose, and risks weaponization for trolling when used against members without obvious cause.

We are investigating an alternative 'Mute' feature to supply the same functions in a more moderate way, to discourage peer antagonism and safeguard the Block tool against abuse. Muting will provide a screen similar to existing filters for Tags, Ratings, and Categories, and suppress notifications for user correspondence, while still allowing members access to the user's own gallery. In addition to the default blanket mute, it will be configurable to silence or allow individual items, such as notifications on new posts, so a user may choose to screen for a member's gallery while still being updated with comments and replies. In this way, Muting will allow users to "opt out" of other members' content without requiring hard walls.

To help inform development, we are seeking your input on how a Mute feature would benefit your browsing, your expectations for its functions, and any questions and concerns regarding its implementation.

What if I just flat out don't like someone?

could it be possible to mute words? mute words so any kind of content with those words won’t show to the user, be it a journal post, a comment, art submission or description. i’m not the kind of person to block or mute people so ik i’d barely use the mute option for users but i’d for very specific topics and themes.

Then just mute them completely, or block them if you're having major problems with them.
-- BK

That's something I'd have to give some serious thought to. You can already filter out posts by tags, ratings, and categories. It wouldn't be able to scan an art post for words contained within an image. It would be a lot of extra filtering to scan everything for specific words. It would definitely require some serious design work.
-- BK

Oye boyes!

Good news.

I blocked meself.

I have cleared the block.
-- BK

Oh no.

But me's gonna break me legs!

It's not what he means and it's not a request, but it just struck me that I've been on several websites with autocensors, and I don't know if anyone's ever thought of adapting them for user-end configuration.

BUMP. Feedback wanted from the membership.
-- BK

A mute feature does seem to be an interesting idea. I can understand that there is certain content that a person would not be interested in, so having a mute feature to remove those from, say, the new updates feed and when browsing a user gallery sounds like a good idea. But, perhaps, there should be a works counter in a user's gallery so that there is at least some acknowledgement that these undesired works are still there, just invisible; it could be too easy to set up the mute and then get the impression that a user has almost no works because the mute feature is blocking them out.

Personally, though, I'd probably never use it. I've never even used the block feature (I can't even find it).

I would like to have a user mute system. There are already submissions I do not care to see while I browse recent submissions. I do not wish to resort to blocking the users. I simply would like to not see any submissions from these galleries again. Having it remove the thumbnail entirely, as an option, would be ideal. A gallery submissions counter, as mentioned in the previous post, would be nice to have as well.

If we have this we should have a user amplify feature as well. This place is smol enough without everyone ignoring each other. But yes a mute feature for trolls is a good idea.

WEW LAD!

Where have you been?

I like the sound of this idea. How would you envision a user amplify feature working?
-- BK

@Zaar: Yeah I've been busy, been on trip to gynecologist in London who cancelled on me twice, getting referral for eye surgery, etc.

And yeah amplify, DA sort of has badges that amplify a user, sort of a way of saying "this is awesome, have a look". But there's a few ways it can be done I guess. May be it's better to amplify per artwork instead of just per user, it helps several users gain reach.

One thing I miss about old DA is how I used to find different artists of similar works by going to an artwork and clicking on similar art. That's how I used to be able to en masse follow and fave if you know what I mean. That worked best pre-AI so I don't think they used AI to get recommends to work like that. I think they based it on what the artist of the artwork was following plus similar tags.

Fuckin hell man, can't imagine you'd be rushing to the Gyno unless you were concerned about something. Eye surgery, wewf my son.

My earnest wishes for your best health. Had friends with similar struggles recently and I can see it's hard to keep a smile on during those times.

If you're looking for any free movies, shows or cartoons to help yourself get out of reality for a bit.

Myself or Camazotz can hook you up, were kind of amassing a collection of stuff on youtube that gives the finger to copyright laws.

I managed to track down somewhat watchable episodes of the animals of farthing wood if you're interested.

How about a weekly "Most Viewed" or "Most Commented" section? Images, music, and/or literature which gained the most views after they posted the previous week get promoted to the front page for the current week and then replaced by the next week so that the images are fresh. Granted, there wouldn't be much attention to the works posted at the end of the week, but it's a thought. Otherwise, perhaps a modification of the museum feature?

So, if I could work up an algorithm that posted a few "similar works" that are linked to on a content page, would anyone object to that?
-- BK

That's an interesting idea. Let me give that some serious thought.
-- BK