14 DAY TRIAL // Pinterest is a social site at heart. Granted, the emphasis is on the visual side and on the user profile, but there is a lot of sharing and interactions among users. Any time you have interactions among users, you're going to have problems.
With Pinterest continuing to grow at a rapid pace, it was time for it to make it possible to manage some of those problems.
Hence the new blocking and reporting tools. Pinterest users are now able to block anyone they find annoying or to report users or content they find inappropriate or in violation of the site's terms.
"It’s important that you have control of your Pinterest experience. We’ve always offered basic features to control things like the emails you receive, social networking sites you connect your account with, and the ability to report pins," Pinterest wrote.
"We’re adding a couple of new features people have requested to give you more control, including the ability to block and report a user and more granular email settings," it added.
There is now a new flag icon visible on everyone's profile pages, to the right. The feature is still rolling out so it may not be visible to all yet.
There you'll find options to report the user or just to block them. Blocking a user means neither of you will be able to have any interactions, you won't be able to follow each other, pin items from one another or comment.
Users are not notified that you've blocked them, but they'll realize it if they try to follow you and are not allowed.
Alternatively, you can report a user for content or actions that you find offending. Reporting a user will notify Pinterest's Community team to look at that account. Pinterest already had the ability to report offending pins, you can now do it for users too.