Block Liberally

It's frustrating to find out that the return to Web 1.0 took the homophobia, racism, cyberbullying, and bad taste of the 2000s with it.

So if you see someone who's being bigoted, pro-self harm, pro anorexia, or being toxic in general, here's the number one tip:

Block. Liberally.

"Liberally" as in "often" "regularly" "freely" "a lot". Someone complains about gay people? Block them. Someone's being negative and you don't like it? Block them. You have NO obligation to help them, you can if you want but don't get sucked into a cycle of abuse because someone is threatening to hurt themself. Someone is asking you for nude pictures? BLOCK THEM!

You don't need a good reason to block someone, you don't need any reason to block someone. Block someone because you think their profile is ugly. Block someone because they hate a movie you like. Don't ever feel like you need to let someone talk to you on the internet.

THIS DOES NOT MEAN SEND HATEFUL COMMENTS! DO NOT SEND HATEFUL MESSAGES TO PEOPLE YOU DO NOT LIKE. It will not change their opinions, it will not make them better, just walk away before the problem starts. Nothing good will come from engaging.

Some other tips:

- You can report people for doing bad things, but sometimes moderators won't do anything (this applies to all websites). So just block and move on.

- Don't participate in harassment campaigns! Even if a person has done horrible stuff, sending hateful messages solves nothing. Find something better to do with your time.

- Don't talk to people who get into arguments all the time. Even if you agree with them, they're probably stressful and negative to hang around. If they get upset at you for leaving them, guess what you do? Block them!

- If someone is doing targeted harassment towards you, you might want to consider switching platforms or leaving public online spaces altogether. Get in contact with some of your favorite friends and create a space for you to hang out privately (like discord, group chats on other services, etc). and stay away from public online spaces as long as it takes for the harassment to die down, which might not be ever, but that's okay.

- On that last point: Never share your real identity on the internet. It makes it a lot harder to get away from cyberbullying, and also makes it much easier for people to track you down to harm you.

Please be safe on the internet!! We're here to have fun!!