No system is perfect, and that’s certainly the case with Disqus, the service which makes The Avocado possible. And while our Great and Powerful Mods do what they can with the time and energy they have, it’s not possible to have a community without at least some friction. For those instances when another poster just seems to consistently get on your nerves, but in a manner which doesn’t violate any site rules, Disqus provides us with the Block feature. Use it against a poster, and that person is condemned to oblivion rendered unable to see your posts, just as you are no longer forced to gaze upon theirs.

Pictured: Avocado Mods *_{may not be to scale}

The thing about the Block feature is that its so easy to use (especially on mobile) that it’s all too easy to block someone by accident. So, as we approach the New Year, I’m launching my second annual campaign to encourage everyone to review their Blocked lists and reevaluate whether every name on there truly deserves to be. New and Improved for this year: visual aids!

The first step is to find and click on your Username, which is always found at the top right corner of the comments area. That brings up a menu, and from there you click ‘Edit Settings’.

This brings up a page with another menu at the top left. Click on ‘Blocking’ to bring up the list of people you’ve blocked. Each name will have a button next to it marked ‘Unblock’.

Doing this on mobile is exactly the same process, but a couple of the menus look a little different. After tapping on your Username, you’ll see this screen:

Tap on the menu button in the top right corner, and that will bring up this screen:

Tap on ‘Settings’, and then tap on ‘Blocking’.

And just like that, you’re done! It only takes a minute, and if you see a name on there that doesn’t look like it belongs, clearing it off can really improve your enjoyment of the site.

Looking over my list, I’m certain that they’re all names I recently encountered over at the Mothership. While it’s definitely a good thing that The A.V. Club has returned to being a site worth visiting, the total lack of moderation in the comments there really makes one appreciate the awesome job our Mods do here of keeping us in line. So while I don’t spend a lot of time over there, I do still read and post comments. I can spot when someone’s just being a troll pretty quickly, so I block them and move on.

If there are any Avocados that I have blocked, well… you probably know what you did. If anyone has me blocked… I probably know whatI did [tugs collar].