The way I understand it, and since I'm more of a lurker/new member perhaps someone else can correct me if I'm wrong, but every user is like an individual subreddit and being muted by a user is like being banned by a subreddit. Some users here are more prolific contributors than others, and while someone probably won't be bothered by a ban from /r/pyongyang or /r/shitredditsays, being banned from somewhere like /r/news or /r/politics is more frustrating, because it blocks you from contributing to a significant portion of the discussion. There is a slight difference, though, because Kleinbloo or 8bitsamurai have no monopoly on any particular topic or issue. If they make a post which you're blocked from contributing to, you can repost their link or make a separate post to air your grievances. There is no global rule against reposting, or off-topic posting here, atleast that I'm aware of.

I can see this becoming a bigger issue as the hubski power-users develop and should they choose to mute groups of people on an ideological basis, the discussion can simply fracture into multiple posts. How effective will this ultimately become for those seeking to manipulate social media discussions, or what affect will it have on those who seek opposing viewpoints in discussions? I'm not sure to be honest. While the absolute and arbitrary usage of mute may be similar to the absolute and arbitrary usage of subreddit bans, the difference here is you can't get muted or banned from "news" or "movies" or some other vague, general popular topic, just an individual's post.

If you're muted for being an asshole, whatever splinter discussions you make won't gain any traction, but if you're muted for making a good contribution that the person simply doesn't like or want to see, you're much more likely to gain attention and followers by making a discussion fork. Perhaps that could be an improvement to the mute system. As someone on the outside looking in, I like to see all the viewpoints. If mute is being used to hide opposing ideas, from the muting user's point of view, that's fine and is their right, but perhaps an automated way of informing readers that a related discussion is occurring elsewhere on hubski would be nice. Like I said, I'm a new member/lurker (though not lurking this morning) so if I'm off-base or misinformed, correct me please! Or you could ignore me too, haha!