12 upvotes, 3 direct replies (showing 3)
View submission: Feature timeline update: Opting out of being followed
Thanks for the feedback! I want to better understand: what’s your thought process behind removing a bot from following you but not blocking them?
One workaround you can do is block them, which removes them from your follow list, and then unblock them.
Comment by [deleted] at 09/08/2021 at 18:00 UTC
15 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Blocking and unblocking doesn't remove a follower, I just tried. It never has. It simply hides them from the follower list and they immediately reappear when unblocked.
Comment by ashamed-of-yourself at 09/08/2021 at 19:21 UTC
12 upvotes, 0 direct replies
honestly, i want to be able to remove followers without blocking them because i have to be able to see what they're posting on my sub.
Comment by Bardfinn at 09/08/2021 at 17:58 UTC*
18 upvotes, 1 direct replies
what’s your thought process behind removing a bot from following you but not blocking them
The same rationale for not banning spammers but just sending them to spam classification and letting them get shadowbanned:
If they get any form of feedback that tells them that they're being stymied in their efforts, they'll spin up a fresh instance and Lather-Rinse-Repeat
Removal of a follower who then re-follows -- especially when this represents a cycle of behaviour -- is a metric which has been used previously by a social media site that features "Followers", as a signal of abuse and a signal of the preference of the victim.
Victims who are experiencing abuse and **in situations where there is no clear method to report that abuse** will often not seek escalation of that abuse and will maintain practices which they know will not trigger escalations by their abusers.
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Also: the sacrifice of an entire feature to mitigate the systematic abuse of a group whose goal is to make Reddit as a whole less useful and welcoming -- resulting in increasing isolation -- is a win for the people who undertook the systematic abuse (their goal was to increase the actual and perceived social isolation attached to using Reddit)