Clueless wankers R U.

[pErvinalia]

What fresh hell is this?

It's what the OP was about. Though looking back at the thread it appears I'm the only one that actually bothered to find out.

I still don't understand. Who's being blocked, and from what?

[Cormac]

At least their evil leaders are as inept as they are evil. Insulating themselves against criticism will just cut their public profile.

[Hermit]

What fresh hell is this?

It's what the OP was about. Though looking back at the thread it appears I'm the only one that actually bothered to find out.

I still don't understand. Who's being blocked, and from what?

It's about a blocking device for people who use twitter. The device is run by some atheism+ folks. link.

I'm somewhat annoyed by the fact that I spent ten minutes figuring out (that is, googling and reading some of the stuff the search terms "blockbot" and "BBC" Google came back with) what the opening poster was trying to say, only to discover the insignificance of the issue at hand. First of all it's a tiny fraction of the internet communities - twitter users. Then it's a tiny subset of twitter users - A+ members and their opponents who think twitter is a great communications device. Talk about a storm in a teacup within a teacup within a teacup.

And now I feel annoyed for having spent time posting about it, but if this post clarifies what the OP didn't, I suppose something good came of it, even if it's on a microscopic scale.

[PsychoSerenity]

What fresh hell is this?

It's what the OP was about. Though looking back at the thread it appears I'm the only one that actually bothered to find out.

I still don't understand. Who's being blocked, and from what?

This blog-post gives a thorough explanation. But basically, someone from the A+ lot has developed a bot that has a list of abusive twitter users that automatically blocks those users from the feeds of anyone who wants to use the bot - so an A+ member on twitter can use this bot to automatically block a whole load of anti-A+ people like thunderf00t.

It's apparently been blown out of proportion when a BBC interviewer investigating trolls gave them some airtime without making it clear that this block-bot is not suitable for general use.

[Robert_S]

Anyway, I always thought the main problem with A+ was they never decided if they were trying to be a safe, nurturing environment, for those that sadly have good reason to be particularly sensitive to certain issues, or an outspoken campaigning activist group that was going to tackle abuse head on. By trying to do both from one platform they ended up just attracting more abuse to all the people that were most sensitive to it. I would have hoped that they'd mostly sorted themselves out by now, but as I said, I've not been paying any attention to what they've been doing lately.

I know the have a (more or less) private area now so people trying to deal with personal or sensitive issues don't have to have it potentially ending up in a youtube video.

As far as I know, there hasn't been much in the way of activism. I haven't been by there in a long time though,

[Robert_S]

Thing is, they've made a thing that can allow you to ignore certain people on twitter with three levels.

Level 3: @the_block_bot #Block #Level3 please block these annoying people +a_twit +etc

Level 2: @the_block_bot #Block #Level2 please block these unpleasant people +an_asshole +etc

Level 1: @the_block_bot #Block #Level1 please block this nasty twit +stalker +doxxer +etc

Yep I've been living in a bubble, hadn't heard a thing about it. But it looks like anyone using that block-bot will be living in a bunker. There's a detailed analysis of it here, and from that, one of the main problems:

Inappropriate Blocks, Especially for Anyone Unfamiliar with Atheism+

-

However, just a casual scan down the list of Level 2 and Level 3 blocks reveals people, many of whom I know personally, who are deeply involved in the atheism, skepticism, secularism and humanism movements all around the world. They include:

A Research Fellow for a U.S. think-tank who is also deputy editor of a national magazine, and author of numerous books
A Consultant for Educational Programs for a U.S. national non-profit
A long-time volunteer for the same national non-profit
An organizer for a state-level skeptic group in the US
A past president of a state-level humanist group in the US
A former director of a state-level atheist group in the US
An Emmy and Golden Globe award winning comedian
A TED Fellow
Co-founder of a well known magazine of philosophy and author of several books
A philosopher, writer and critic who has authored several books

These are not anonymous trolls. They are not likely to be arrested anytime soon. Most of these people regularly speak at national conferences to audiences from several hundred to over a thousand people. Starting from the publicly available block list you can click the names to go directly to their Twitter feeds, I see little evidence that these people are attacking, threatening or spamming anyone.

So, the people on the list are levels 2 and 3 and so apparently thought of as either assholes or twits.

[Cormac]

Thing is, they've made a thing that can allow you to ignore certain people on twitter with three levels.

Level 3: @the_block_bot #Block #Level3 please block these annoying people +a_twit +etc

Level 2: @the_block_bot #Block #Level2 please block these unpleasant people +an_asshole +etc

Level 1: @the_block_bot #Block #Level1 please block this nasty twit +stalker +doxxer +etc

Yep I've been living in a bubble, hadn't heard a thing about it. But it looks like anyone using that block-bot will be living in a bunker. There's a detailed analysis of it here, and from that, one of the main problems:

Inappropriate Blocks, Especially for Anyone Unfamiliar with Atheism+

-

However, just a casual scan down the list of Level 2 and Level 3 blocks reveals people, many of whom I know personally, who are deeply involved in the atheism, skepticism, secularism and humanism movements all around the world. They include:

A Research Fellow for a U.S. think-tank who is also deputy editor of a national magazine, and author of numerous books
A Consultant for Educational Programs for a U.S. national non-profit
A long-time volunteer for the same national non-profit
An organizer for a state-level skeptic group in the US
A past president of a state-level humanist group in the US
A former director of a state-level atheist group in the US
An Emmy and Golden Globe award winning comedian
A TED Fellow
Co-founder of a well known magazine of philosophy and author of several books
A philosopher, writer and critic who has authored several books

These are not anonymous trolls. They are not likely to be arrested anytime soon. Most of these people regularly speak at national conferences to audiences from several hundred to over a thousand people. Starting from the publicly available block list you can click the names to go directly to their Twitter feeds, I see little evidence that these people are attacking, threatening or spamming anyone.

So, the people on the list are levels 2 and 3 and so apparently thought of as either assholes or twits.

...for the most part, for voicing concerns, criticism, or difference of opinion, rather than trolling.

[JacksSmirkingRevenge]

I wasn't wanking when Dave made the OP...Is it alright to start now?

[laklak]

If I used twitter or gave a shit about A+ I'd be really really annoyed.

[charlou]

Speaking of Twitter ...

Twitter boss apologies to abuse victims

Twitter’s UK boss has personally apologised to women who have been attacked by “trolls” on the social networking site, vowing to do more to protect people from abuse.

Tony Wang, general manager of Twitter UK, posted a series of tweets today saying abuse was “simply not acceptable”.

He wrote: “I personally apologise to the women who have experienced abuse on Twitter and for what they have gone through.

“The abuse they’ve received is simply not acceptable. It’s not acceptable in the real world, and it’s not acceptable on Twitter.

“There is more we can and will be doing to protect our users against abuse. That is our commitment.”

His messages come as Twitter today clarified its rules on abusive behaviour amid a growing backlash over a series of attacks.

The company has updated its rules to make it clear that abuse will not be tolerated and has put extra staff in place to handle reports of abuse, it said today.

The move comes as Scotland Yard said its e-crime unit is investigating allegations by eight people of abuse on the microblogging site.

There has been growing concern over abuse on the site after three female journalists said they had been the subject of bomb threats, while two received threats of rape.

An online petition calling for Twitter to add a “report abuse” button to tweets has already attracted more than 124,000 signatures.

In a message posted on its blog today, Mr Wang and Twitter’s senior director for trust and safety, Del Harvey, said: “It comes down to this: people deserve to feel safe on Twitter.”

They said the clarified rules make clear that Twitter will not tolerate abusive behaviour, and an “in-tweet” report button has been added so people can report abusive behaviour directly from a tweet.

“We want people to feel safe on Twitter, and we want the Twitter rules to send a clear message to anyone who thought that such behaviour was, or could ever be, acceptable,” they wrote.

They said additional staff are being added to the teams which handle abuse reports, adding: “We are committed to making Twitter a safe place for our users.”

The bomb threat tweet was sent to Guardian columnist Hadley Freeman, Independent columnist Grace Dent and Europe editor of Time magazine Catherine Mayer, as well as a number of other women.

In separate incidents, Labour MP Stella Creasy and campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez, who successfully fought for a woman’s face to appear on £10 banknotes, were threatened on Twitter with rape. Two arrests have already been made in relation to those threats.

The anonymous Twitter accounts from which the bomb threats originated were suspended, although screen grabs were widely circulated online.

Scotland Yard said an investigation into eight allegations had been launched.

News Letter article

[DaveDodo007]

I reckon somebodies impersonating me, they also know where my secret stash of Jack Daniels is, coincidence I think not.

[DaveDodo007]

Hello Fishie.

[Seth]

I think I like Dave! We shall be friends also. How you doing my friend?

Please, call him "squishy."

[JacksSmirkingRevenge]

Can I stop wanking now?

[Audley Strange]

The internet has many people who consider themselves part of the media, as such they spend their time courting it by constructing minor pseudo-events of their own, hoping to gain enough attention for mainstream legitimacy. I was infuriated by their incoherence and impotent vitriol, I admit. For trolling me I give them a bravao (don't know what the non gender based perferred term is).

The problem I have always had is that I see some coldly, manipulative and exploitative individuals exploiting a lot of very vulnerable and unbalanced people by deliberately triggering their neuroses, trauma states or otherwise batting their knees with the SJW hammer. They are creating melodrama, minor pseudo-events in order to position themselves and are only being kept afloat by the souls they exploit.

In that they are no different from many. They saw an opportunity to become part of the spectacle. Still considering their sensitivity to criticism seems like a foolish and self destructive move.