I do not want this follower how do I drop him
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I do not want a certain person following my blog and I was wondering does he have to send me a message before I can block him? I don’t know how he found me and why he is interested. I am on LinkedIn and post comments to you tube.
I am not on Facebook because of creeps like him. I guess I can ignore him for now but it still upsets me that someone like him is following me. He writes articles that make him sound like a pervert. I guess as long as I never give my location and phone number I am safe. Please assist me. Thank you.The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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We do not have a way to block followers.
Please keep in mind that, even if you could block a follower, as long as the site is still public, they can still read it.
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I am being stalked by a follower on my blog. I do not want to make my entire blog private to be able to block a pervert. Why does WordPress not allow us to block a creep when they are creeping? I can have my profile on any other media public while still blocking a user with a specific email or from THEIR profile. I find it upsetting that this is not the case here.
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Even if you could block someone’s profile, this wouldn’t prevent him to visit your site. Everything you put somewhere on the internet can be seen by almost everyone. If you want your site to been by a limited number of people, you must set it to private.
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Did you READ what I wrote?!
“I do not want to make my entire blog private to be able to block a pervert.”
I think I made it clear that I do not want to make my blog private in order to keep this other profile from following me and continuing to stalk me here… Just like I am able to do on every other platform. I write a public blog; I want my blog public; I want the ability to block an individual from it because…
“I am being stalked…”
Stalking is against the law. A person who has chosen to blog publicly, who wants to blog publicly, is being stalked by a person online, a person whose location is unknown and who, therefore, cannot be charged in a court of law, and because he has not made <<threats>> his stalking will not be investigated by the kind of agency that could locate him.
I have the RIGHT to feel safe…
Which is why EVERY OTHER media platform allows a public profile to block or ban users/followers who they deem to be abusive, dangerous, creepy, whatever.
A victim of stalking/rape/assault should not be silenced by the fact that someone is behaving inappropriately, they should have the option to take a step to make themselves safe. Furthermore, telling someone who is being stalked/abused that their only choice is to hide in the shadows perpetuates a culture that silences victims and allows perpetrators of stalking, harassment, and abuse to be free to continue. It perpetuates rape culture.
So back to the question that I actually asked…
“Why does WordPress not allow us to block a creep when they are creeping?”
Can you answer THAT question?!
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Followers simply receive notifications of new posts. If they were to be blocked, which we do not have at this time, that’s all it would stop, they would no longer be notified of new posts.
As long as the site is still public, they could continue to simply visit the site to check for new posts.
In this case, blocking a follower would provide a false sense, so we do not offer it at this time.
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I am being stalked by a follower. This man has repeatedly re-followed me when I have deleted him. I have tried and been unable to report his profile and specific posts that are a “how to” guide to his many readers for rape and abuse of women, even going so far as to advocate physically aggressive, abusive, dangerous, and threatening behaviors toward her… But WP doesn’t allow these reports to go through. They won’t “take.”
I have no way to set a safe boundary for myself, which is the basic precept of what is acceptable in society and which is also foundational to basic human rights: I have the right to set a boundary for what I feel is safe and comfortable for my person. WP apparently thinks it knows better what is good for my well-being than I do as it seems to think that being allowed to set a boundary is “false” in terms of security.
What WP policy amounts to is telling a woman who has been raped that if she doesn’t want to be raped again she should not leave her house because it is a false sense of security for her to expect to be able to have set boundaries and have those enforced by businesses and the law for her safety and protection. WP, by taking this policy, is perpetuating rape culture.
Has this man raped me as of the writing of this post? No… But he is stalking me and he is promoting rape as well as emotional abuse and violence toward women. Soooo… Where is WP going to draw the line as to what is right?
I am not asking you to delete him altogether… I am not asking you to deny him his 1st ammendment rights to say what he wants and to be as much of a disgusting mysogonistic pig as he wants.
I am asking for the right to establish a boundary for myself that says, “no, guy, you may not follow me and I do not want my words delivered to your inbox. if you want access you’ll have to work harder,” because giving ME that ability makes people who are only mildly predatory take a hike and gives me a sense of safety and well being.
You, Max, do not exist in a world that is always more unsafe for you because of your gender. You are less likely to be the victim of any assault let alone a sexual one. You are less likely to be the victim of random violence.
Persons who are predatory and who have the psychological profile of a predator prosper in societies and cultures where the VICTIM is not granted a modicum of support in establishing and maintaining safe boundaries. It is especially the case in a situation such as this where the predatory person is protected by the anonymity of being online. When predators perceive that their intended victim/target has taken steps to protect themselves (where the predator has to take extra steps to reestablish the connection), they will usually move on because predators are not interested in a difficult target but an easy one. WP policy is to disallow targets of abuse to make themselves a more difficult target.
Unless you have been a victim of intimate partner violence, rape, assault, etc, you have NO idea how important it is to be able to set a boundary by doing something as simple as blocking someone from getting an email update of a posting.
WP’s policy of not “providing a false sense” is not really about protecting users from living with a false sense of safety or protection but is a policy that is entirely engrossed in the rape culture that keeps people from being able to establish boundaries for themselves.
Please clarify:
Does WP care about and respect the rights of its users to establish safe boundaries for themselves?
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I have the right to set a boundary for what I feel is safe and comfortable for my person.
Of course, you do have a right to set your own boundaries. However, you must also understand how websites on WordPress.com work. You mention social media where you can stay away from “creeps” – in order to do that completely on Facebook or Instagram, you’ll need to set your profile as private and only accept the people you want to see it. If your profile is public, again, anyone can see it and send you messages.
On WordPress.com, right now, we do not have a way to block a follower – you can remove them from following you. but they can come back or even use a different email address. If you feel they are stalking you, you should consider reporting them to law enforcement.You also mentioned that you do not want to set your site to private, however, right now this is the only way you can control who seen your content so I’d encourage you to try that.
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I understand how websites on WP work (been here for over 10 years) as well as how social media works. Yes… I know he could add a new email address if I block one email for him; that is what I want to have happen because he will either (A) lose interest and go away or (B) add a new address and come back. Yes… I understand that having a public blog makes it possible for people to find me. I am not shocked as if by some realization of what “public” means on here, on social media, or on any other blog hosting site.
What WP policy amounts to is telling a woman who has been raped that if she doesn’t want to be raped again she should not leave her house because it is a false sense of security for her to expect to be able to have set boundaries and have those enforced by businesses and the law for her safety and protection. WP, by taking this policy, is perpetuating rape culture.
On other blog hosting sites, not just on social media, if a follower is being offensive or rude or inappropriate to the owner/user of a PUBLIC page, a PUBLIC blog, a PUBLIC profile, the user has the ability to block the offending person without making their entire profile, blog, or page private because they have all entered the world where rape culture is no longer acceptable and where people are not told to hide in the shadows if they feel unsafe but are instead empowered to redraw their lines.
If you feel they are stalking you, you should consider reporting them to law enforcement.
When users are able to block the offending person and that person returns with a new email address or user name, THAT action provides the kind of PROOF that law enforcement will begin to take seriously. However, unless I have the capability of blocking one form of his user and seeing him return under another form, law enforcement can and will do NOTHING until he makes a direct threat of harm even if I could prove this individual is in the same city as me. Compounding the threat is the fact that the offending person has nearly 700 followers of his “how to rape women” page who could, any one of them, become dangerous online or offline if he decides to attack… Yet LE can and will do nothing unless I can prove he is a more viable threat by having proof of stalking which is, amazingly, made possible by being able to block his one user and see him try to come back in a different manner.
Does WP not WANT users to be able to get proof that would be acceptable to LE that would allow LE to help people who are being stalked or harassed? Because it seems like it.
The difference between WP and pretty much everyone else — including other blog hosting operations — is that everyone else lets people see a public blog/page/profile rather like viewing a house on a street:
It’s public. We can drive down the public road and look at the facade. We can decide if we want to go in because we really like the garden in front… but the user gets to decide who walks through the front door and can choose to let everyone but Bob. Meanwhile, WP says you either have to let everyone and Bob in or you have to move off of the block so no one can look at or find the house at all.
That disallows people who are being harassed from continuing to feel empowered and free and safe to explore by telling them that the only way they can feel safe is hiding. That also empowers people who are predatory, who are bullies, who are dangerous, and who are trolls to abuse other users without any fear of repercussion because they get a psychopathic “win” by making someone hide or they get to continue to target and torment in public.
Further proof of the fact that WP does not seem to GAF about the dynamic I just addressed because…
I have tried and been unable to report his profile and specific posts that are a “how to” guide to his many readers for rape and abuse of women, even going so far as to advocate physically aggressive, abusive, dangerous, and threatening behaviors toward her… But WP doesn’t allow these reports to go through.
WP is perpetuating rape culture by not allowing users to BOTH set a boundary with an offending individual AND remain in a public space. “You either have to hide and never be seen in public again or you have to let the cretin into your blog/vagina/whatever.”
WP is perpetuating worse than a rape culture when it does not even allow users to report offensive or dangerous information being hosted so that moderators can make sure nothing dangerous is happening. I shudder to think what other things people may be trying to report when WP won’t actually allow the reports to go through.
I understand how WP is operating (so please don’t someone else come on here and try to explain again).
I am saying that the way WP is operating is wrong and it should change.
Users should be granted the ability to block someone specific… Just like everyone else does. Until it makes the change, just know you’re working for an organization that perpetuates one of the things that is wrong in this world rather than working to change it.
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If a site is running on the wordpress.com platform, you can always report it as described on https://en.support.wordpress.com/report-blogs/.
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When I first discovered this individual, I tried to report it because that is the logical first step when one finds something that is teaching men how to rape women…
I have tried and been unable to report his profile and specific posts … But WP doesn’t allow these reports to go through.
I get to the form… It opens… I click the correct type/item… I click submit… And nothing happens. When I looked through all the things on reporting several days ago I was on that article and I noted then, as I do now, that it says we are to make sure it is hosted by Automatic but it is not clear how we are supposed to do that. When this individual shows up on my followers list it is as a WP user and the name of his blog appears.
The next logical step after reporting filth is blocking the individual from access.
And here we are where I have been able to accomplish neither blocking nor reporting.
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