User Blocks

User blocks will work for out-of-the-box Kitto² features, but as you build out social features in your game, you will need to be mindful of enforcing blocks.

The goal of blocking is to prevent a user from seeing any presence from the blocked user. There should be no ability for them to socialize, trigger notifications to each other, spam each other, or generally remind one another that they exist.

It is a social “do not interact” flag. Out of the box, blocking is also treated that way for gameplay features.

There are no player-vs-player features that come with Kitto². If you implement a PvP feature, it may be undesirable for users to “dodge” each other with blocks. Carefully consider the correct balance between gameplay needs and potential harassment/stalking/etc.

Design Goals

When considering how to implement blocks in new features, it is helpful to understand what Kitto² already does, so you can integrate blocks in a way that feels consistent to users.

Users have the option to block each other. This can be done unilaterally for any reason at any time, and reversed at any time.

Blocking User Perspective

When blocking someone in Kitto², the following should happen from the blocking user’s perspective:

1. Friend relationships (or pendintg invitations) are silently severed
   • Attempts to friend the blocked user will error
2. Notifications caused by the blocked user (e.g. @-mention on the forums) are suppressed
3. Mail from the blocked user is suppressed
   • Attempts to mail the blocked user will error
4. Posts, comments, and other public messages from the blocked user should be suppressed

Blocked User Perspective

And from the blocked user’s perspective:

1. No notification should be given to indicate the block has happened¹
2. Attempts to friend, mail, or otherwise trigger notifications to the user should all appear successful, despite the suppression
3. Posts, profiles, user shop inventory, and other content from the blocking user should be silently suppressed

As much as possible, “suppressed” user-to-user items should still be stored, but not shown to the user. This allows moderators to investigate abuse, and for accidental blocking to be reversed without losing data.

Considerations for Staff

It should be possible for users to block game staff, at least when staff are acting in a personal capacity. There are two ways to deal with this:

1. Requiring all official actions happen from separate staff accounts, which are unblockable
2. Permitting the staff to bypass a block when it interferes with their responsibilities

For many hobbiest Kitto² games, requiring moderators to have a second account will be inconvenient. Kitto² is oriented towards people having a single account, and does not facilitate easily swapping between them.

In these cases, staff should have the tools to set aside the block and view content that would be suppressed or bypass the suppression:

1. Investigate reports, rule violations, or abuse
2. Communicate about action taken in response to a report or infraction
3. Post official threads/information on the forums (including news page posts)

This should generally be a conscious choice by the staff: they can opt into violating that “block” boundary when they decide there is a need to do so.

Implementation

TODO

This section needs to be written! It should cover things like:

• Using Eloquent scopes to hide content (in different modes)
• An interface for “official action” to bypass the suppression scope
• Admin panel generally ignoring all the block stuff

Footnotes

1. Block notifications are not likely to be helpful. They may upset the blocked user, who has no recourse: appealing their block would require bypassing the desire to not communicate with the user anymore. ↩