"skeptical"

One of my neocities mutuals was recently followed by someone. Thanks to the Neocities TOS I can't really say who so I will just refer to them as someone. Just know I don't blame my mutual for responding the way that they did. The someone is against CRT (critical race theory), DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), immigration. This someone is also supportive of the death penalty, privatization of healthcare, and border patrol. My mutual rightly called out the someone through neocities, the someone responded with "but I love how you just ignore my political ideas and just home in on the part where I'm a little skeptical of left wing beliefs. Tells me everything I need to know about you". LET ME TELL YOU BUDDY, MY MUTUAL DIDN'T IGNORE JACK SHIT. YOU SAID EVERYTHING WE NEED TO KNOW ABOUT YOU! Skeptical implies that you have doubt. Your own page describing your own political beliefs explains that you are far more then skeptical and fall closer to the bullshit "enlightened centrist" category which is actually pretty far right. I presume that the someone has since deleted the comment that my mutual left since it's no longer there.

I hear you say "why is this page a thing?" and to that I respond with this. Neocities is an online platform. One that lets you curate your own. "How?" I hear you ask. On every site profile on neocities there is a block button. Don't like someone who has followed you? Click the block button. "Oh but thats extreme and rude" No it's not and I'm tired of people acting like it is. It's not like they can't access your site at all, it just means they don't have access to your site profile and as a result, no access to your site updates. For example, I blocked the person that my mutual called out so if they try to access my neocities profile it will just drop them on my landing page. They can't tell that I made this page (unless they are using a webscraper that can tell when new pages are made) because it's not linked anywhere on my site. Only people who have access to my neocities profile should be able to see this page (at least in theory). Another benifit to the block button is that thanks to how neocities works, if enough people block someone they effectively get banned from the site (may or may not still be the case after the whole divsel incident). This system is useful for keeping drama off the platform.

I'm not saying to not engage in conversation with anyone you disagree with. I am saying the ability to not engage and prevent further interaction is a thing we all have on neocities. If you see someone engage in a bad faith argument like someone over there did on your own profile or in a comment that allows for it, you can delete and block it. Hell, even if you just witness it you can still block and wash your hands of it. Don't feed the trolls/engage with the rage bait. My mutual handled the situation perfectly and in a way that allowed others to block a problematic individual and avoid any potential interaction in the future.