I try not to block actual criticism but things I've started pretty much automatically blocking to make Twitter usable:

Snitch-tagging;

"Oh you're surprised?" reply guys;

People who respond to an article *I* wrote with a point made in the article as if I could have no idea. https://twitter.com/zeynep/status/1361678304793808897

I've never had a useful interaction with any of the above categories, and they are just cluttering up my mentions especially since others then respond to them, and it's an endless, pointless series of pings that hide any signal that may hide in my mentions.

I didn't tag someone already on Twitter myself? Yeah, I'm not an idiot, thank you. Immediate block if you tag them *in my mentions*. Go talk to them separately if you want. People wanting to start fights are not doing something healthy and life's too short.

You think my points are obvious? Happy to relieve you of them! Especially since "oh, you're surprised" adds nothing whatsoever. Point out something obvious I missed? I'm grateful. Object to it substantively? Grateful. Just uselessly smug? On your own time and dime.

Finally, I write a lengthy, detailed article about something. Someone comes with a "have you tried rebooting it" type comment as if I'm a novice, and an idiot, and clueless? I used to tolerate and then realized nothing good ever comes out of that because of the clutter they add.

I wish Twitter let us pin a separate block policy thread so people know. And finally, my experience from before I blocked is that these categories have a lot of repeat offenders so blocking just a few useless repeat offenders really improved my mentions.

Why not mute? I tried. Because people reply to them (which I see) and others see them and affects the quality of the discussion I do want to have, and also because snitch-taggers can work even when muted. I mute some non malicious people who just say the same thing a lot.

Other than that, I truly and honestly appreciate people who object to something I write or say, or have a point I missed, or point out something that I may not like but is actually a point. Even when it gets testy and contentious as it does with opinionated people. That's fine.

Finally, this is an attempt to be able to hear real criticism and feedback in my mentions. If I don't do this, the roar of the people who make the most obvious points back to me or are just uselessly smug will drown others out. The smug and stupid minority are very repetitive.

What I mean by the kind of thing I do block—because these people are repeat offenders with no any useful content. I don't mean disagreement, even if testy and contentious. I mean pointing out to me the most basic thing about a field I work and write in. https://twitter.com/zeynep/status/1361685049268133888