(If you want to block or mute entire servers, please see the Blocking and Muting Servers on Mastodon guide.)
Is it rude to mute or block people?
It is totally fine to block or mute people on Mastodon and the Fediverse. It is not considered rude or unusual to do so. Use it as freely as you want!
There are lots of reasons why someone might block or mute an account, it’s not necessarily any kind of judgement against that account.
To block or mute someone on Mastodon:
- Either click ⋯ on one of their posts, or go to their profile and click the ⋯ button at the top
- Select Mute or Block depending on what you want
- If you change your mind, do the same thing again but select Unmute or Unblock
Here’s what these options mean:
- Mutes are the softest option. You will no longer see their posts and you won’t see posts that mention them. You can either mute permanently or set a timer so that the mute expires after a certain period, and there’s also an option for muting or not muting notifications from them. People who are muted will not know they are muted, and they will still be able to follow you, see your posts and interact. From the muted person’s point of view, everything will seem normal.
- Blocks are the harder option, cutting off all interactions in both directions. You will no longer see their posts or mentions of them, and they will no longer see your posts while they are logged in. They cannot follow you, and if they were following you or you were following them the block removes these follows.
⚠️ Important: If you are posting public posts they will be visible to the blocked person when they log out, because public posts are visible to everyone on the internet. To restrict the audience for a post, use followers-only or mentions visibilities.
What about the “Block Domain” option? What does that do?
It mutes all accounts from that person’s server, but does not block them (yes, the name is very misleading!). Please see the blocking and muting servers guide for more details.
How do I keep track of who I’ve muted and blocked?
To view lists of all of your blocks and mutes:
- Log in through your server’s website or the web app
- If you’re using a computer, click ⋯ More. If you’re using a phone, click ☰ and then ⋯ More.
- Select Muted Users, Blocked Users or Blocked Domains
- If you want to remove a mute or block, click the icon next to a name on the list
How do I do a temporary mute?
To do a temporary mute on Mastodon:
- Log in through your server’s website or web app
- Click ⋯ on their posts or profile
- Select mute but don’t confirm it
- Click the Show Options link
- Select how long you want the mute to last
- Select if you want to receive notifications about them or not (this option also allows them to DM you or not)
- Click the Mute confirmation button
Some third party Mastodon apps also support temporary mutes, but the official Mastodon apps don’t yet do this. However, once you’ve done the temporary mute through the web interface it will still work when you’re using any Mastodon app.
How do I mute just someone’s boosts?
On Mastodon, if you follow someone and you want to see their posts but not their boosts, you can hide just their boosts without blocking or muting them. This doesn’t affect their normal posts, and they have no way of knowing you’re doing it.
- Go to the profile of the person whose boosts you want to hide
- Click on the ⋯ button on their profile
- Select Hide boosts
If you change your mind, go back to their profile, click ⋯ and select Show boosts instead.
Note that this only works on accounts you follow.
Can I hide posts that contain particular words, phrases or hashtags?
Yes, you can do this by using Mastodon’s filter system.
What happens to DMs sent by someone I’ve muted or blocked?
If you mute or block someone, you won’t see any DMs from them by default. However if you decide to browse their profile you will see any DMs sent to you in their profile timeline.
If you remove a mute or block, DMs will start arriving as normal, but any DMs sent during the mute or block will only be visible by going to their profile.
Is there any way to allow DMs and mentions to work while muting someone?
Yes! If you mute someone through your server’s website or web app, there will be an option to allow notifications. If you allow notifications, then DMs and mentions by the muted account will still show up normally in your notifications.
How do I ignore DMs from people I don’t follow?
- Log onto your server’s website or web app
- Click 🔔 Notifications
- Click ⚙️ in the top right corner of the Notifications section
- In the section marked Unsolicited private mentions click the dropdown menu and select Ignore
- When the confirmation box appears, click Ignore notifications
If you change your mind, repeat these steps but select Accept from the dropdown menu instead.
⚠️ If you are ignoring DMs from strangers, you might want to mention this on your profile description to avoid any misunderstandings. (This avoids situations where people are trying to contact you for legitimate reasons but think you’re ignoring them.)
⚠️ This will also ignore private replies in threads from people you don’t follow, as these are technically the same as DMs on Mastodon. This can cause confusion in discussions because you will be notified about other kinds of replies but not private replies.
Someone I’ve blocked on another server still seems to be able to interact with my posts, what’s going on?
Under certain circumstances people on certain other servers may be able to see and reply to your posts even if you block them. You won’t see their replies, but other people might. This isn’t the situation on servers running ordinary versions of good server software such as Mastodon, GoToSocial etc, but it can happen if their server has been customised to ignore blocks.
If this happens, contact your server admin and ask them for help. They have more powerful admin tools available for moderation, and you might want to also specifically suggest they activate “Authorized Fetch”. Authorized Fetch (also known as “Secure Mode”) is a special mode which makes blocks more effective on the entire server. It used to have a bad reputation many years ago for breaking server compatibility, but it works really well now and compatibility is no longer a problem. If the admin thinks Authorized Fetch will break stuff, send them a link to this article as it works pretty well nowadays.