Banishment!

[mcfnord]

Much has been written about online friendship relationships... how they form, and why they fall apart. But I haven't read discussion about the mirror opposite: The Banishment! Banning is the LJ feature that lets you prohibit someone from replying anywhere in your journal. Perhaps you've used this tool to silence someone who was really bothering

Comments

[puffpastry]

I banned two girls prophylactically -- that is, they had only barely started to comment in my journal, but they came over to it from a community we're all in after I made a comment THERE that angered them. I could tell that they were about to move the fight into my journal, and I wanted to nip it in the bud, so I banned them.

I banned my sister. :-) Boy, did that feel awesome! I mean, not that she can't still see my entries, but when she finally confessed that she'd gotten married and that she and my mother made a pact to not tell me and not invite me to the wedding, I banned her AND insisted she take me off her friends list. If I could ban her and my f*cking mother from even READING my journal I would, but I don't want to make my entries friends-only ; I have non-LJ friends who really like reading my journal, and I don't want to hurt them in the process of trying to hurt my manipulative, vicious and abusive family.

[damnitnicole]

I have 4 people banned.

2 are people I'd probably not know the difference if I unbanned them. Actually, I probably will do that after I post this comment.

2 are people that I've made efforts to remove from my life. They refuse to unfriend me, in the hopes that I'll cause a big stink about it, so instead, I just have them banned so I don't have to see their names on my info page.

I'm not a big banner. I troll sometimes, so it would be a bit hypocritical of me to not allow others to troll me, as well. *shrugs*

[mcfnord]

Trolling is a complex topic. The term is used in different ways, and that clouds the discussion. I don't consider myself a troll, but when I run into some dipshit, I'll batter them until I get bored. I think trolling is something more subtle than this, because typically the abuse keeps the appearance of earnest sincerity, yet intends to get yer goat. It's a suprisingly popular sport within the attention economy, and I hope to see some thoughtful discussion on it within this community.

[damnitnicole]

Fair enough. I still call it trolling, though, simply because it's meant to aggravate.

[mcfnord]

Perhaps. I tend to include some level of deception in the definition. You disagree?

[chrysalis]

I struck up an online friendship with someone who was in a troubling relationship. As she and her husband argued more and more, he began snooping around in her e-mail, and reading others' journals to see her responses so he could bring them up in arguments. I was apalled that someone would purposely invade someone's privacy like that so I banned him though I don't know the guy. I doubt he even noticed -- it's more likely that he went behind his wife's login since she is privy to most of my friends-only posts.

[scarlete]

This is so off topic, and I really apologize, but I was curious. When one donates to the mindmap site after getting their regular mindmap version, how do you know which mindmap to make all those nifty colors with?

[mcfnord]

I built the site so it tells me the username they entered, but there are some cases where it doesn't tell me, and for those I coordinate the information I do have (email address details, timestamp, whatever) with my queue of orders. In the end I have to email about 10% of the people to ask, "Hey, what's your lj name?" I think there could be a cleaner way, but I haven't found it. PayPal has a somewhat dizzy array of options.

(I found you easy! Your color will arrive momentarily!)

[thaumata]

i have a few people banned. generally speaking, there are mostly only two troublemakers in there, and they are both guys i dated who unfortunately have ljs also. the others are friends of theirs who felt the need to get involved.

however, i like to see differing opinions in my lj, and i like getting advice that i might not really WANT to hear but NEED to hear. the only reason these people are banned is because it was coming to threats of bodily harm and we are in close geographical proximity. i figured the less said, the better.

i'm so glad i found this community. it's fascinating!