status.net itself is NOT a crap design. consider the alternatives- twitter’s new model is to spam you directly through your feed, and i remember trying to clean out all the advertisers cluttering up my subscribers list. status.net is still the best microblogging service/platform anywhere, and that’s why i use it.
but there is at least one thing about status.net that IS a crap design- its half-assed blocking features. first, some background: status.net is federated, meaning it tries to do an awful lot more than your average platform-
you can install your own “instance” of the platform, and instead of being a mere microblogging island, these instances can subscribe across each other- @schestowitz on identi.ca (or in address form: @schestowitz@identi.ca) can subscribe to remote user @gamerchick02@status.net and vice-versa. if @gamerchick02 wants to block him then, she can (although she would definitely be missing out on some good stuff.)
when you’re on the same “instance,” among fellow identi.ca users for example, it’s much more convenient to block local users than remote users, and you have to wonder why they don’t make it just as easy across instances, perhaps by putting “block” buttons more in reach. if you can add remote users to your subscriptions list, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to add remote users to your blocked list- but most status.net users (if any exceptions exist) do not seem to have this privilege.
here’s the best part- even if you could block remote users before they subscribe to you, they can still spam you! you may have @viagradumptruck blocked (you may have the privilege of being on the same instance, and thus being able to block @viagradumptruck at all in the first place) but your block won’t affect your view of the public timeline- result? the public timeline is a totally useless feature, constantly serving spam that is impossible to block, no matter what site it comes from.
let’s pretend you don’t care about the public timeline- i mean, with everybody on different instances, the public timeline is more useful anyway if everyone is on identi.ca (or maybe if you run a very large instance of your own.) you like to subscribe to groups, right?
blocked users can still spam you through groups- so if you’re a member of !doctorowfans and @viagradumptruck wants to spam you through your block, all s/he has to do is join !doctorowfans and put the same group in his/her post, at which point it will be stuck right in the middle of your feed- much like using twitter. there is absolutely nothing you can do about that spammer, you’re at the mercy of the group admin, who may be willing to block the spammer from the !doctorowfans group. (alternatively, you could unsubscribe to the group, but that’s not a reasonable option at all.)
you also have to go through so much tedious crap to block multiple spammers that status.net actually shuts down temporarily (ironically, as a measure against abuse!) if you click “block” and then load another page to click “confirm” so that you only get http error messages if you block too many spammers too quickly.
if that sounds reasonable, this more often applies to blocks that affect your view, and your view only- you’re EASY to spam- but handling spam for your own sake is (in many cases) impossible. it’s not merely tedious- there’s actually nothing you can do but beg the already overburdened support team to remove them (which works- sometimes.) that’s a pretty crap design.
