itch.io

See, the thing is that I don’t think “following” someone counts as an interaction. I’m interaction with Itch, not with you. Same as when I watch somebody on TV, or read a magazine article about someone. Itch made it into an interaction, by giving you access to your list of followers, and by giving followers some extra information that non-followers don’t get. Both of which are bad ideas, IMO.

Look at the things I can do without following. I can visit your profile page and see your recent posts. I can bookmark your profile page and look at it every day. I can see your creator page. If I really wanted to harass you, I would already have all of the information I need. I wouldn’t even need an account!

For that matter, think about how easy it would be to follow someone with one account while using another account to harass them, and how easy it is to lie on the internet. The way to be “safe” is to accept no followers.

I follow people because I want to hear about it when they create new works, because there’s a decent chance that I would enjoy those works or find them useful. That’s it. It’s the equivalent of bookmarking their creator page, but without having to check that page manually. I follow without posting a message first precisely because I don’t want to interact with them. (Not because I don’t like them, but because I am just not very social by nature.) I don’t even care if they block me, so long as this does not stop me from buying their stuff. But who I am following is not public information, and I don’t want it to be used against me.

Harassment is a serious problem, but making it slightly less convenient to access public information is not an effective way of dealing with it.

But I absolutely agree that blocking should be stronger.