Personally, I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt. If they're rude, I give them an orange or red coloured tag. Everyone has bad days, after all. But if I see they already have a red coloured tag, I just block them instead. It goes the other way too though, kindness puts you closer towards green.

I think many people have a system like this. It's a small community, often it's the same repeat troublemakers being caustic. I can't speak to how others use the tags, though.

A tag is a user-defined attribute linked to your username. This may also include tracking how many times they up and down vote your posts/comments and aggregate displayed as a single number with a plus or minus sign, depending on which way it's going.

Think of it like a hashtag. But just for you, defined by only them.

Maybe it's "dumbass, racist, transphobic -11" or "sweetheart, inspirational, dogpics +9000"

Some clients for social media allow you to add tags to other users. Basically just a mark only you can see. That way if you encounter them again you know who you're dealing with. Generally used negatively, to mark people you don't like. Upgrading to blocked just means converting that into a full software block for whatever platform. Generally meaning you won't see that user and they won't see you again.

Tagging someone so you know what kind of bullshit they're on vs. blocking so you don't see their bullshit at all.

So others don't have to search for the missing context like I did: https://piefed.ca/post/887087#comment_5810045

It means that person had previously tagged you for being a suspected troll before deciding to block you entirely.