@Defiant
"And being an asshole is subjective" Right, that's why mods can't judge it. It's a matter of your own personality, education and culture. It's a big world.
That said, you made some good points: settle problems, time to grow up etc.
See, I also try to settle my problems with other people and I always succeed when the other person is willing to do the same. When the other is not and he keeps on lying about everything, well, I've done with him. Why should I be forced to play games with such person. I'm here to have some fun and relax, aren't you?
Retillion is right and really spot on this: "playing a game with someone else is not a right : it is a mutually shared decision."
I wasn't a mod yet when the block feature was implemented.
But I realized how much it was useful (for members, for mods, for the whole site) the first time I saw a member reporting another. Imagine something like this (notice: it's a pure fantasy example!):
"Hi mods, I want to report SandgooseXXI because he doesn't stop mentioning Jesus in this gameID=xxxx. He's really offensive. I ask you if you could ban him because it is written 'Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain'. At least please remove him from my game"
What Mods should do at this point. Religion teachers? Marriage/Friendship counselors? Mediators between parties?
Defiant, I admit my example is rather extreme, I can't report here true ones, but I'm sure you'll get my point. Often there's nothing to grow up or to mediate. There are just 2 worlds too different that met in the same game.
We can't say who's wrong and who's right. There's freedom of speech, but nobody can force you hear things you don't want to hear. They're both right in 99% of cases. So what we respond is, roughly: "If you don't want to hear him, just mute him. If you don't want to play with him any more games, you can block him, but this will work as if he blocked you either, so think carefully if you really want it" and that said, we can go back to our hunt for multiaccounters and metagamers. Our time is little and cheaters are a little more skilled everyday.
@Kaner
28? Really? I blocked only 4 and I find them rather often in games I'd like to join. Are you sure you're blocking players *still* alive & active? :)
Also - just a suggestion - rather than blocking unreliable players, wouldn't it be better if you use the "Rating requirements"? It looks the correct feature to be used, if you don't want unreliable players in your games.
I might agree for the all-hold-ers instead. They're idiots.
"Personally I would support writing a small description as to why I have chosen to block these players. If these players can see my message anonymously in their settings page then perhaps they will realise why they have been blocked and perhaps remedy their ways. "
That's not a bad idea. Not that I'm really supporting it, but put in these terms it can do no harm, so I wouldn't be against. It could be even useful handled by players like you.
What I wonder is how much it would be useful in the whole, considering how easy would be working around it and hence whether it'd be worth the effort to implement it. But that's not for me to say.