To block someone = I will never ever see them again. They can post all they like, I will not know. I won't even give them a second chance. They're dead to me.
To welcome someone = at my house that means actively inviting people in, probably for dinner & drinks, and we're probably going to have a good time, in my personal space.
Now, to NOT block someone is NOT the same as welcoming someone. In fact, I'd say for me, most people end up somewhere in between: we co-exist. They live their lives over there, I live my life over here.
Unless they ring on my door I will likely not see them, or even know of them. They are the people passing by the window of the cafe I'm sitting in. In here, If I don't follow people from any given instance and I don't let them follow me, we will probably not even federate.
Using the terminology "oh, so you welcome them!" just because you haven't actively blocked someone is only used to shame/bully people, and to apply attributes/values to someone whether they like it or not. Basically saying "if you haven't blocked XYZ, you yourself are XYZ". This is rarely correct, and it completely offsets any goodwill going in to a discussion.
Stop it.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
#Fediverse #Terminology #Language
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You forgot muting...
with muting you likewise garuntee you never see them again. But it has some differences
1) less rude since it doesnt limit their ability to interact with people on your posts
2) less disruptive to people on your posts because it doesnt orphan tons of past threads that people left (people you arent blocking so why would you want to)
3) is transparent to the other party so causes less drama and less chance of them trolling you from sock puppets
4) Doesnt game the social system, in other words, when you block you game the dialogue, so people who see your posts see a false reality, the conversations arent an honest representation of peoples opinions. By not blocking people dont get echo chamber effects where they get a false view of reality and thus start to view reality incorrect.
Do you have hitler block? I dont think you do, you must be a hitler lover!
But yes, muting and filtering (depending on what service people are on) can be great tools for chiseling out the stream of the day, which might be different tomorrow or in an hour.