blocking a follower?

  • Unknown's avatar
    cmaydeal · Member ·

    how does one block someone from following?

    The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

  • Unknown's avatar
    victoriakgallagher · Member ·

    Hi. I’ve had a look for you and, even to my surprise, there is no way to block a follower/subscriber on your blog.
    All WP is saying is that as long as your blog is public, anyone can follow it unless you set your blog to private which kind of defeats the object. Apparently, even *blacklisting* a follower may block others too within the same region.
    My only advice to you, if you get excessive comments from a person you wish to block, is just put them in the *Spam* bin and eventually Akismet *should* spam the person automatically.
    Silly rules, especially for someone I read about who felt ‘Stalked’ and WP could do little to help her.
    The rules should change, but for now, the only means to do *anything* about troublesome followers is *spam* their comments.
    ~ Vic

  • Unknown's avatar
    timethief · Member ·

    @cmaydeal
    Hello there,
    Short version:
    Sorry but you can’t. Either make the blog private or accept that reality because there is no means of blocking anyone on the internet from access any public blog and submitting comments if and when comments are open.

    Long version:
    We cannot block or delete subscribers from public blogs. Anyone and everyone can access public blogs and that’s indeed what the public designation means. However, please read this about public blogs that become private blogs > Blog Privacy and Subscribers > http://wpcommaven.wordpress.com/2011/09/05/blog-privacy-and-subscribers/

    To change blog visibility to Private go to Dashboard > Settings > Reading scroll to Blog Visibility and choose option 3 .
    http://en.support.wordpress.com/settings/privacy-settings/

    For trolls, you can “blacklist” them at Settings > Discussion toward the bottom of that page. Enter their email address, their username, and if they included it, their website URL. That will automatically send them to moderation via Akismet so that their comments do not appear on the blog. Do note though that if they are determined, they can use a different email address or username to get around that.

    Also, do not put their IP address in the blacklist. IP addresses are no longer unique, and you might end up blocking legitimate visitors. In fact for over a decade only about 30% of us have IPs that trace back to any individual computer. Also, all they would have to do is go to a wi-fi hot spot, or connect via a different ISP and they could get around that.

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