Second Life users have the ability to block/mute those that people that annoy them, both voice and chat. One can also mute objects that are spamming them. Once blocked you cannot:

• See text chat, hear voice chat, or receive IMs from that person or object.
• See particles emitted by the blocked avatar or object.
• Receive items from the blocked object.

But, muting is not fool proof. You can mute someone in-world and it has no effect in, I think, group chat, the market place or in the new social features. I don’t do much muting…

Running on the release channel Magnum is a new update that has the code to move muting from the simulators into what the Lindens call the People API’s. These are the API’s that will become the primary call for all communication tasks in Second Life. The People API is or will be queried to get the information needed to establish a communication cannel. So, it is in a perfect place to control the communication.

Moving muting code out of the simulators reduces their work load. It also makes it possible for the web services to access the information and extend blocking to all parts of the Second Life services.

If I understood, this release on Magnum has the new code and refactored existing code handling muting now. The new API calls are disabled and will be disabled until the code can be rolled to the entire grid. Oskar Linden is looking at setting up some regions in ADITI where the new calls can be tested.

The result when the API’s go live is going to be more efficient code and better… or more effective muting/blocking.

The user is not going to see any changes in viewer controls, or at least not significant ones. Things will eventually change over and hopefully just work better.

Well… there is the change from muting to blocking in the labeling. But, otherwise it stays about the same.

Jeremy and Boston Linden have a post in the Second Life Knowledgebase on Blocking. The ways to block a person in Viewer 3 are:

• Right-click on the avatar and choose Block.
• Select Communicate > NEARBY, right-click the person’s name and choose Block/Unblock. A small red icon appears next to the name.
• Click the Chat button at the bottom of the Viewer window to open the NEARBY CHAT window, mouse over the Resident’s name, click the small “i” icon, then click the gear icon and choose Block.

The new API’s will be in testing for at least a couple of more weeks before making it to the grid. The week of 20 to 26 is a No Change Window (NCW). So, nothing is going to change next week.