Is being blocked by a user because you disagree with them a sign of defeat?

Don't worry about it. This is meant as an informational, education and helpful forum. There are a couple of common poster here who go by the names of Scorpio Wild Card and Dr Jello, whose sole purpose is to confuse people rather than educate. They continue to make misleading statements, while they block any answers from anyone who likes to help with real Information. You can tell who the true helpful and thoughtful people are because they continue to provide information in an open environment. Just continue to provide what you know or what you believe and ignore the propagandists. As long as people get answers to the real questions here, the idiots won't bother anyone.

It depends on the user. Given the conditions of your question, being blocked could very well be a sign of defeat or frustration. It could also be because the user only wants positive reinforcement because they are having doubts about their position.

From my perspective, in a category like Global Warming, which juxtaposes science, economics and politics, sometimes blocking is because those members give knee jerk responses that have more to do with an an ideology than a thoughtful and well reasoned response.

If you post a thoughtful question you deserve a thoughtful answer, not some ranting vitriol which does not even attempt to address the question.

If disagreement is expressed with reasoned argument or humor then it is appreciated. Especially if it is thought provoking or entertaining.

Blocking should not be allowed. It's primarily used here from preventing knowledgeable people from answering questions, and perhaps showing that the asker is lying. It should not be allowed, and all questions and answers should be public.

If people are worried about their questions being deleted it's probably because they're asking questionable questions. If you can't stand behind your questions and answers and keep them open to everyone, there is almost certainly a problem with them.

In this section, in most cases, yes.

Some people block others because they're paranoid (or so they claim) that their questions are being reported. To that I say, don't violate the community guidelines and you don't have to worry about that. Yes, sometimes a valid question will get removed by the less than competent YA staff, but for the most part questions are only removed if they're really in violation of the guidelines. The problem is that certain individuals (and we all know who they are) don't ask real questions. Often their questions are little more than thinly veiled rants, and thus are likely to be removed. When that happens, they get paranoid and start blocking everybody.

This isn't surprising. Since global warming denial essentially requires a conspiracy theory mindset (climate scientists are all in on a massive hoax), these same people are highly likely to be paranoid. As the top answerer in the section, I'm a target for denier reporting, and have probably had more Q/As removed than any denier. But I rarely block anybody, because I don't believe in censorship. I just make sure not to violate the site rules.

However, for some like the gelationus denier in chief and SWC, there's really no question that they block others so that they may ask questions and only receive answers from like-minded people. Their sole goal is to misinform people, and the easiest way to do that is to prevent people who are going to provide accurate scientific information from doing so in their "questions". So being blocked by them is a sign of defeat, admitting that they can't rebut your arguments, so they'll simply prevent them from being made as much as possible.

Jim Z - you can go ahead and block me, but if you do, it will be because of paranoia. I have never attempted to report you. I don't think I've ever agreed with you, but never reported you.

Jules - I do think it's a sign of defeat, and deception. I've been blocked, Scorpio Wild Card, but I know he just doesn't want anyone to see my opinion and the mainstream scientific websites I post. It's easy to understand why.

In open voting, it violates the opportuniity for participants to offer answers that might be voted 'best' and compromises the system. But there are other compromises that are becoming more apparent in the attempt to manipulate this forum.

I haven't ever blocked anyone but am considering blocking Johnnyrocket because I suspect he reported a few of my answers apparently because he has a problem with facts.

Yes! Some people on here don't want debate!

The persons in question only bloc those whom they suspect of falsely reporting them to Yahoo in order to get the question or answer deleted. It is this reporting that is childish not the defense against it by blocking those suspected of such terrorist activities.

Possibly.

It might be to prevent questions from being violated, just because they're good questions.

I think you're assuming that the reason is "losing the argument" when there could be other reasons. (Maybe the other person is just rude?)