It’s the ‘hard’ blocking (boldface mine):

I want to talk about one other technical aspect of Bluesky which I think is a real differentiator, and also helped me evolve my thinking about how I want to be online generally, which is its really fantastic “block” feature. When you block someone on Bluesky, it doesn’t just keep them from seeing you, or you them. It also (as I understand it) nukes every interaction you’ve had on the site with them out of existence, not just for the two of you but for everyone else. I understand that some people dislike this and feel like it’s overpowered and breaks conversational continuity. I tend to think of it differently. I think it both disincentivizes the power of being shitty for clicks and influence in general, and disincentivizes being shitty to people, or (intentionally or otherwise), directing others to dogpile. On social media, that is absolutely a jewel beyond price. You can still be an asshole on Bluesky if you want to! And some people are! But you risk all your “work” in that area being wiped out by someone else in a single click. That’s not fun for most trolls…

Bluesky early on fostered the idea of “Don’t Engage, Just Block,” which is to say that the first time some dick rolls up to give you a hard time, you just zap him there and then, no muss, no fuss, just that dickhead gone forever, not longer your problem and no longer the problem of anyone else in that comment thread. Bluesky’s powerful block tool encourages getting that done sooner than later, so you don’t disrupt the conversational experience for anyone else, and then it’s done and you literally never have to think about that person again.

One of the huge mistakes of Xitter culture (such as it was/is) was to have a radical reinterpretation of the notion of free speech, in which you were (supposedly) obligated to engage with assholes, especially bad-faith assholes. You’re not! You’re ‘allowed’ to block them. This also links up with the second good feature about Bluesky, which is the absence of an algorithm, which forces people to engage–that is, be social. More about that tomorrow.