Have you blocked anybody? Did you report why you blocked people? That report option is available without any need to block. You also have the option to delete comments instead of any knee-jerk reaction to block people. You can also simply flag any unwanted comment without reason, without any specific report, and without prejudice. That flag might be the best option in consideration where the person you have blocked is the victim.
Recently, +Zohreen Adamjee blocked people that commented on her public news posts from +FOX40 News, and I found out the people she blocked did not block each other. We could complain and question it, but this article title already pointed out the real problem to blocking people. News anchor, +Stefanie Cruz, did protect our free speech, so we know there is more to what happened. Wide range of reactions is evident, if we continue to argue the case in point.
Twitter recently changed their blocking policy. In the past, when people were blocked, the tweets were no longer view-able by the accounts blocked. It was quite common to be blocked on Twitter over trivial character disagreement, and enough of those led to accounts being disabled, automatically. When Twitter changed there policy, tweets were still viewable unlike before. The blocked accounts could no longer address the accounts of who blocked them, however. I heard people complain about how useless it was to change it that way, but how many parents do you know that will block the other parent on their child's account? There is law code that is suppose to guarantee communication between children and parents. Twitter appeared to be the first to comply with the law in its change of policy.
Justine Sacco recently tweeted about her trip to South Africa, and wrote "Hope I don't get AIDS. Just kidding. I'm white!" We heard an on-slaught of racist claims made about that tweet. Did anybody consider that she did it to protect herself, so that won't become the victim? In my hacker knowledge, it raises flags that she wanted to be tracked on her adventure that she embarked. Maybe she wanted to prove the same case in point, as titled here, and we have seen the reaction.
Was the block ever the right reaction? I have not blocked anybody. We have seen people post and share missing persons reports, but when they have also blocked people they appear in contempt of their own actions. We have these G+ volume controls to help normalize the massive and quite diverse conversations that take place, so we know there are more options than blocking people, causing further victimization, and going against the law in regards to free speech and communication rights.