As is customary with the creation of a new blog, I feel it my duty to immediately express my more controversial views on subjects related to the indie web community. I'll put it flat out, I think DNIs are useless at the most fundamental level. Placing a DNI on your site will not, in the majority of cases, stop certain groups from interacting with you, and in practice, merely provoke the opposite.

Conceptually, I haven't anything against the Do Not Interact list (henceforth referred to as DNI). As I'll touch on briefly in the more opinionated portion of this post, I do feel as though they can have an unintended social impact, but some people do have a genuine reason to wish to not interact with certain groups. But, it's for people exactly like this that nearly every platform has implemented an 'ignore' or 'block' system.

DNIs do not operate at the system level; they are solely dependent on the goodwill of the very same groups you inadvertently targeted with your list. You already lack enough trust in these groups to even allow them to interact with you, and yet you are now solely relying on their ability to listen to you for them to not interact with you.

By publicly advertising the people you dislike on your website, in a conveniently bulleted list, you're essentially requesting for them to taunt you. Human nature often means that someone who is hated will hate the person who hates them reflectively, and because of this, the very parties you targeted your DNI against will now be going after you in the easiest way possible, by interacting with you.

None of this would have, or could have, happened if people were to simply rely on the conveniently available blocking features on nearly every modern social service, or even just simply IP ban those who bother you from your guestbook, should they indulge in it's usage.

And quite frankly, it's because of how easy it is not to use a DNI, and how dysfunctional a DNI is at fulfilling it's advertised purpose, that I feel as though many utilize DNIs for an ulterior purpose: virtue signaling.

The DNI is not inherently a list of people you don't wish to interact with you, but rather, a convenient demonstrator of the morals which you adhere to; it's reducing your beliefs into a simple list as to paint yourself as a better person than you are, for your own actions are unable to do so.

All a DNI has done, is doing, and will do, for a website is cause the exact opposite of the intended impact, and quite frankly, I don't believe people care. DNIs have been warped beyond meaning to the point where they merely represent a moral circlejerk largely participated in by impressionable youths who know no better.