Cool idea.
I wonder if it might lead to some minor abuse, though?
For instance, if I were a good basher, I would place all longs on "block PMs," and then make provocative posts knowing that they'd flail around, not able to respond to my posts.
It would lead to a lot of posts that begin with, "In response to post #xxxx," or just, "Hey, basher..." etc.
Also, it would break up the threads. I like to click backwards through a thread sometimes. If I see a post that interests me, I click on the post it was in reply to, and the post THAT was in reply to, etc. all the way through to the back of the thread. If people are preventing others from responding directly to their posts, those threads would be broken up for other readers.
Also, it would defeat the "view all replies" feature. A great feature of iHub is pressing "view all replies" and seeing them all. If groups of bashers block PMs from longs and vice-versa, and that prevents members of the respective groups from responding to each other's posts, then pressing "view all replies" wouldn't catch all the replies. It would be hard for the lurkers to catch the entire conversation, since the conversation on that topic would be interleaved with other topics.
Or, a group could get together for shenanigans. Like, a group of people could all block PMs from fung_derf, then create a thread that he couldn't break in on.
"Hey, how hairy is fung?"
"Oh, he's totally hairy."
"I agree, the first time I saw him, I thought he was a big tribble."
"Only he's not as nice as a tribble."
etc. etc., and Fung wouldn't be able to enter a post into the thread to defend himself.
Is it the best idea to allow people to prevent others from publicly responding to posts? I'd hate to see the threads broken up that way.
This all assumes I'm interpreting your comments correctly. FWIW
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