Reply #151: But it's not as if they were completely powerless, before.

[Pithlet]

That's what ignore was and is for. Those who were made miserable could easily click the ignore button and never have to see another post by that person again. When they block as well as ignore, that directly affects how another DUer is participating, and when they start their own thread, it affects how everyone else reads that entire thread. People are calling this things like uber-ignore, or super ignore, but this is really a power to control other DUers above and beyond the ignore they already had. It's a lot more power because you can start whole threads and completely shut people out on a whim. And because it's so powerful, I think it's too tempting to abuse, even for people who wouldn't intentionally abuse it. I personally think that except in bad cases where DUers really are just being a pain and are harassing someone, a lot of people are blocking to punish other DUers for not getting along well with them, instead of just ignoring them. That's what it boils down to.