Blocking another user
Every Photocrowd user has the option to block another user on the platform if they wish to. This is done from the three-dot dropdown menu found on all profiles and images, and in your direct messages window if you have had a conversation with that person.
What does it do in practise?
Blocking a user has the effect of making you both practically invisible to each other on the Photocrowd platform.
You will not be able to see their profile, their images, their contest entries, or comments that they have made on images. And the exact same in reverse - they will not be able to see your profile, images etc.
It will not be possible for you to contact each other through direct messages any longer, and any existing conversation between you both will be deleted from both of your direct message pages.
The person who you have blocked will not receive notification that you have blocked them, and nor will they receive a notification if in the future you choose to unblock them.
Unblocking someone who you have previously blocked can be done in your Account Settings page, and this will restore full visibility of profiles, images etc between you both. It will not however restore any direct message conversation that may have existed between you, any reposts that might you have made of each others' images, and you will not be following each other, even if you were before you blocked them.
With one exception
There is one exception to the rule that you both become invisible to each other. If you enter an image into a contest with crowd rating, and the person who you have blocked chooses to rate images in that contest, they will still be eligible to rate your image. When your image appears for them in rating they will not be able to see that the image was uploaded by you (because images in rating are always anonymised) and nor will they be able to love, repost, share or comment on your image. They may however be able to identify the image as yours based on the content of the image, so please bear this in mind.
Do note that they will only be able to see your image in rating, and not in any other of the pages associated with a contest, such as the “All entries so far”, “Images you’ve rated”, “Entry order” or any of the results pages.
Reporting abuse
If you are blocking someone because you feel that they have been abusive towards you on the platform, then we would also encourage you to report them to us, which can be done with the ‘report user’ option in the three-dot menu on all profiles. You will need to do this before you block them, as their profile will not be accessible to you once you have blocked them.
For users of the platform before this feature was introduced in March 2026, please note that anyone who you had previously blocked from sending you messages will have become a full blocked user when the feature was launched. The ability to just block someone from sending you messages was removed at that time.