> it hides all posts bob made in response to alice posts
Exactly, it hides these from anyone else who might read the thread, including others participating in the thread.
This offers Alice not just the means to control her own Bluesky experience, but also to unilaterally control which parts of the conversation that all others on Bluesky can see.
It is in effect a feature to selectively delete the posts of others for any reason.
> because bob is a deranged lunatic and alice does not owe bob the attention he seeks
That is generally not the reason why users on Bluesky hit the block button. There's a strong tendency there of blocking because someone disagrees with you, or they explained why you're wrong about something, or they pointed out that you're spreading misinformation.
On Bluesky, blocking is a way to quickly and conveniently hide any dissent.
yes, alice has autonomy over who participates on conversations she started. bob is still free to have the same conversation, just not on alice's conversations or as replies to her.
i dont't think we're going to agree on why people generaly block others. you seem to see yourself as some sort of dissenter, or a truth-teller of some kind, but when you get blocked for interjecting into someone else's coversations it's just because no one asked you to be part of that conversation and now you lost your access privileges. this rejection probably fucks with your self-esteem more than it should but i'm no therapist so maybe go find one instead of annoying folks on the internet.
It seems that a lot of people today have a really difficult time understanding that free speech does not mean you get to follow someone around yelling at them, you don't get to come into their home, follow them to the bar they go to with their friends. That's not free speech, that's harassment.
I'd go so far as to say that social media without a block button is unethical, and promotes propaganda and harassment. The block button means the user heard you, use used your free speech! Congrats! Now they want to walk away from you. Ooops. No, you are not entitled to get any response, nor to continue talking at them if they choose to leave the area.
no one is missing the point, it has been state multiple times: when you get blocked you no longer get to reply to that person, and all previews replies are hidden, to them and everyone else.
the one other point that seems to be ignore though is: you are still capable of continuing that conversation on your own terms on you own feed. your posts will not be visible to the people blocking you but everyone else can still see them.
it's probably the single feature that will drive me away from Bluesky given how abused it is. not fun erroneously getting lumped in with MAGA and finding yourself in a void.
> it hides all posts bob made in response to alice posts
Exactly, it hides these from anyone else who might read the thread, including others participating in the thread.
This offers Alice not just the means to control her own Bluesky experience, but also to unilaterally control which parts of the conversation that all others on Bluesky can see.
It is in effect a feature to selectively delete the posts of others for any reason.
> because bob is a deranged lunatic and alice does not owe bob the attention he seeks
That is generally not the reason why users on Bluesky hit the block button. There's a strong tendency there of blocking because someone disagrees with you, or they explained why you're wrong about something, or they pointed out that you're spreading misinformation.
On Bluesky, blocking is a way to quickly and conveniently hide any dissent.