As someone who remembers Usenet culture, I wonder where the idea that blocking someone is a big deal comes from? Facebook's manipulative design? Web forum culture shaped by entitled white dudes?
(There was no shortage of toxicity or entitled white dudes on Usenet, of course, but killfiles were ubiquitous and taken for granted. It probably helped that Usenet was slow and asynchronous.)
(More cynically, I suspect the real difference was that blocking on Usenet was less effective and easier to circumvent so no one felt the need to use social engineering against it.)
@ghost_bird I think it is the fact that on Usenet you didn't know if someone had blocked you.
@Canageek Good point - I don't see people making the same fuss about muting or shadowbans. (You could *plonk* someone on Usenet, of course, but that was an optional performance.)
Anyway. PSA: block early, block often, block preemptively, block with regexps, block on a whim, block individually, block by association, block because you don't like their profile pic. You're setting boundaries, and setting boundaries is care.