Reddit introduces improved blocking features for managing trolls on the site

tech2 News StaffApr 07, 2016 13:40:17 IST

It just got a little harder for trolls to feud in the hive. Reddit, the favorite bulletin board of the internet just announced the first of a series of measures aimed at improving the experience of users at the site. The enhanced block feature allows users to block content from a particular user anywhere on the site. So far, the block feature was reserved only for direct messages. The measure intends to protect users from spam, trolls and harassment. Admins and Mods will still still see the posts in the subreddits that they moderate. Users can manage preferences for blocking here.

The blocking is invisible to the blocked users, who will not see any notification of the blocking. If a blocked user replies to your post, the comment tree will be truncated at the reply of the blocked user. This means that if other users that you haven't blocked reply to a comment by a blocked user, you will not be able to see any of those replies. You cannot at the present block users who have never messaged you or replied to a comment. The block feature is only available from within the inbox at present.

Reddit's admins do mention that this is just the first, experimental version of the feature. Changes are expected to be made based on how the feature is used, and to add more functionality. Users are still expected to report inappropriate behavior before blocking.