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Underground > Policy & Help >

Ignore button

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07:26 / 21.02.02

Why does everyone seem to think having an ignore button would be the best thing to ever happen to barbelith? "So we can ignore you' is far too easy, think of something else.

Seems to me that ignoring one users posts could lead to big gaps in a thread meaning you would have to un-ignore that person just to see what the hell everyone else was responding to. And say I ignore Nick and he contributes to a project in the creation but I cant see it because I'm ignoring him. Now Im fucking up the thread because Im not following what has gone on before. With an ignore feature would I know that someone had posted but be unable to see the post or would I have no idea they were even there?

Please explain.

08:29 / 21.02.02

[rant warning]

Yarrr Bio! This is gotta' be the lamest idea ever. Self censor the 'Lith so you're not offended or stressed out or *forced* (as if someone's holdin' a gun on ya?) to see things from a way that might make you uncomfortable, ya? Sounds stupid to me, or rather, a way to promote stupidity! If ya' can't handle the voice of a poster then don't read hir posts: skip to the next one--we all got self control right, or do ya' gotta' read every damn word that's in front of you like ya' put everything in your mouth when you were two? Argh! It's a sad day when ya' gotta' tuck yourself into a warm cozy shell even when you're sittin' in front of your computer. Cocooning? Fuck that pedestrian Popcorn, get outside of yourself!

[end rant]

Yes Bio, I agree that it doesn't seem like the best idea...

m3

Watch out or I'm gonna' insist on bringing in the comfy chair!

10:01 / 21.02.02

Yes, use of an Ignore button may well leave gaps in discussion - that's unavoidable. Yes, one would have to weigh up whether that was a price worth paying in order to avoid X's posts. Yes, one would have to decide whether to un-Ignore.

Main advantage is, these decisions would be up to individual posters rather than being Tom's headache alone.

11:22 / 21.02.02

I think an ignore button is a good idea because it can serve as an impetus: if people realize that tedious bullshit-spinning, insults thinly disguised as obscure pseudo-philosophical rants, and directionless navel-contemplating (not to mention full-on abusive trolling) is more likely to get them ignored by other posters, they might be less likely to indulge in the aforementioned.

It has the potential to cut out a lot of idiocy.

[ 21-02-2002: Message edited by: Ierne ]

11:28 / 21.02.02

Although then a person might not know if they're being ignored, or IGNORED.

12:04 / 21.02.02

it could lead to an interesting situation if groups of people start ignoring groups of other people. You'd effectively end up with three different boards, with neither group seeing the other's posts but anyone not ignoring seeing a fascinating cut-up of two conversations at once. Could actually be quite pretty.

I'd never use an ignore button unless someone was an obvious troll, in which case they'd probably be removed anyway. Even utter idiots occasionally talk sense and it would be a shame to miss that.

I wonder if notification of ignored-ness would cause trouble... you could have a message on login saying "You are currently being ignored by X people". (Giving out their names would be a recipe for retaliation though.)

12:06 / 21.02.02

Of course if you were ignoring a troll you wouldn't actually see the retaliation, so I suppose that wouldn't matter too much...

Less searchable M0rd4nt

12:17 / 21.02.02

One for for ya: ELMO.

Anyhow, I'd sort of like to be ignored sometimes. It'd be like getting a bad grade on a test: yeah, it's a pisser, but it helps you to know what areas you need to work on. There's been many times where I've posted something and my points haven't been taken up, or the thread has ground to a halt. It would be useful to know if this was because my post was so awe-inspiringly insightful that nobody felt the need to add anything, or because they were all waiting for me to crawl back to the conversation and start talking about how Avon is sexier than Blake.

[ 21-02-2002: Message edited by: Mordant C@rnival ]

12:28 / 21.02.02

I think the simplest way to settle this question is to ask yourself, is there anyone on the board, RIGHT NOW, who you would use the Ignore function on, nevermind the anomalies like ELMO or Knowledge. I can't think of a single poster I'd want to totally ignore. The signal-to-noise ratio on Barbelith is pretty high, and the noise can be very entertaining.

13:18 / 21.02.02

imagine how lost you would have felt had you "ignored" knowledge early on and then came across the stream of threads about his behavior. my brand of ignoring gave me have enough trouble when I tried to follow them....

13:27 / 21.02.02

bk: In a situation like that, I suspect that the ignore button would have minimized the situation so that there wouldn't have been nearly so many threads about a particular poster's behavior.

Todd: Sometimes the noise is entertaining, sometimes it's merely irritating. For the latter moments, the button would be excellent. People don't have to use it, but it would be there just in case. And I doubt it would be a permanent thing – "I want to ignore this fucker FOREVER!!!" – it can be turned on and off at one's whim.

14:56 / 21.02.02

It can indeed be turned off at a whim. The post appears, with the poster's name, but instead of text it just says "This person is on your Ignore list, click *here* to view the post."

Ignore buttons are a fantastic idea.

pointless and uncalled for

15:21 / 21.02.02

I have a solution, have an ignore the ignore button for those that don't want it.

15:26 / 21.02.02

How complex can you make this? Maybe we could insist that people state certain details about themselves in their profile, and you can ignore people who don't match up with yours, like vegetarians, or christians!
Maybe we could have separate boards for each group, so people don't accidentally mix or exchange ideas... There are whole universes of exclusion we haven't explored yet!

[ 21-02-2002: Message edited by: BizCo ]

15:34 / 21.02.02

I still say "nah". for me. I take the good with the bad

but if people want it so bad, why not?

Our Lady of The Two Towers

15:44 / 21.02.02

I tend towards the 'Ignore' is a bad idea camp, but then I dislike killfiles and I'm also aware that Knodge posted some nasty stuff to other people on this board.

I'm assuming that as Tom hasn't said 'don't bother talking about this' it is something that could be done. I'm not particularly concerned by it as I was when it was first suggested because as Todd said 'can you think of anyone much you'd use it on'? That said, I'd ask for a few clarifications;

1) I think people have the right to know if anyone is blocking them. During the time they are blocked it would presumerably be a good idea that they can't PM an individual blocking them or get at their email address to harass them ( I tend to think that email addresses should be hidden anyway, due to potential for mischief and everyone should be automatically set to receive private messages anyhow).

2) The 'Ignore' function should not be permanent. It should be set at some length like two to four weeks, and when the time has elapsed someone cannot Ignore that person for say 24 hours to make them judge whether that person is still the nuisance they were (although if we ever got a persistent troll I can see the possibility of them marking the date on their calender on when they can start hassling 'poster x' again, though I don't think this likely).

15:54 / 21.02.02

The 'Ignore' function should not be permanent. It should be set at some length like two to four weeks, and when the time has elapsed someone cannot Ignore that person for say 24 hours to make them judge whether that person is still the nuisance they were... – Loz' Sweet Exile

I disagree about time limits for the ignore function. People can decide for themselves if they wish to pay attention to another person or not. Especially if they're being harrased or flamed by another poster.

15:58 / 21.02.02

Well of course the first thing to say is that we don't really know HOW they'll work yet - that's why we're having conversations like this. I find the best approach with things like this is to see what the INTENT is of the initial suggestion and see if the problems that YOU'VE identified with the execution can be resolved in some way. It's only if the intent is antithetical to your own that resolution is impossible.

My thoughts were similar to the last person to post - Ignoring someone just aids the process of being able to not pay attention to what they say, which should ease flame-wars and discourage idiots from wasting their time around the board flaming and trying to cause fights.

There clearly is an issue with the board factioning and with threads becoming incomprehensive - so we'll have to put SOMETHING in the place of the post concerned, even if it is just a subtle.. "This user has been ignored by you - click here to stop ignoring them." That way it's immediately clear that there is something there to read and that you are consciously ignoring it.

The best thing about this approach is that no flame-wars with trolls should start. If someone is just wandering around the place trying to start a pointless row then you can just step away from it - and hopefully, bored, they will then just leave...

Finally... It seems people are uncomfortable about moderators having the power to do a global ignore which you can subsequently opt-out of. This is fair enough. So what we could do is something different - if a user is ignored by a certain number of people, then they could be automatically ignored when you're not signed in.

16:24 / 21.02.02

Tom: could you clarify this bit –

if a user is ignored by a certain number of people, then they could be automatically ignored when you're not signed in.

Who gets ignored once who signs off?

Mr insensitive

16:36 / 21.02.02

You know the beautiful thing about an ignore button is that you can rip the piss into someone and they'll never be any the wiser. But seriously, this idea stinks.

16:42 / 21.02.02

But if a tree has the piss ripped out of it when no-one's around to see it, it doesn't mind. What good's being provocative without a reaction?

Which is why I'm all for the option - or at least the option to explore the option...

Less searchable M0rd4nt

17:23 / 21.02.02

quote:Originally posted by Mr. Todd:
is there anyone on the board, RIGHT NOW, who you would use the Ignore function on, nevermind the anomalies like ELMO or Knowledge.

Yes, but only one. And no, it ain't you....

17:34 / 21.02.02

It could also be the case that ignoring someone means you never see them spreading filthy rumours about you.

That's unlikely to happen round here, sure, it's the sort of thing that happens on big and social-based (or, to take a different view, fluffy) boards.

If things ever get to the stage when an ignore function is used regularly, it will take more than an ignore function to sort them out.

17:37 / 21.02.02

For me, the Ignore button would be more a safeguard against my making things worse - usually by being unable to reply to a troll when I really, really shouldn't (just did it again with RobotManReformed). If I don't see it, I won't be tempted to fan the flames...

21:02 / 21.02.02

or maybe you could learn to exercise some restraint and not resort to kneejerk posting. y'know, take a breath and look at something else before responding?

Haus about we all give each other a big lovely huggle?

21:08 / 21.02.02

Ommmm........
Ommmm.......
*breathes*
*breathes*
Oh look, a squirrel.
Ommmmm.......

21:16 / 21.02.02

Are things really that bad that you need an ignore button, they're useful in chat rooms because you get allot of crap on them, but since I've been here - which I admit hasn't been that long I haven't seen any real crap apart from Lord Knowledge, or are there parts of the board that I don't really go to that suffer badly from spamy trolls?

21:35 / 21.02.02

I haven't been here all that long either and I really haven't seen many trolls. Sure there's the occasional troll such as elmo, but you can't tell me he wasn't an entertaining troll.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

21:47 / 21.02.02

Ooooh, yes I can.

For those who don't want the button... don't press it. Irritable folk like me sometimes need a little help in the restraint department.

11:08 / 22.02.02

For those who don't want the button... don't press it. – Mordant C@rnival

Exactly. If people are requesting it, rest assured there are good reasons for doing so. Hopefully once the Ignore Button is put into effect, those reasons will dwindle away.

Whether or not there are "spammy trolls" in other areas of the board right now isn't the issue – putting something into effect now that can help us deal with future "spammy trolls" is.

Regrettable Juvenilia

11:19 / 22.02.02

My own freshly-minted problem with the individual ignore button idea is almost the opposite to most people's. We've talked before about one of the reasons why some people (myself included) feel the need to respond to trollish, offensive or just plain numpty statements: because however 'mature' it sounds, 'just ignoring it' can often read like tacit agreement. If the half of the board who can't shut up and put up with someone who, for example, continually makes homophobic and misogynistic remarks in their posts, if that half of the board has them on 'ignore' and so never sees their posts, surely it will look to new people as if that stuff is just taken as everyday chit-chat and amiably tolerated? Making us not much different on first glance than 95% of online discussion groups out there.

12:27 / 22.02.02

Flyboy: Surely that scenario could be deduced by other people's responses? Take for example Buttered Scones' "rape comment" in the conversation. Even if I had an ignore buttton and did not see hir actual post, the 5-6 "WTF???"responses it received would have made it clear to me that BS has really said something fucked, and I can then TURN OFF THE BUTTON and see for myself if it's something worth responding to, or if I'll just make things worse by giving BS my opinion of hir "rape comment".

It's a button. Turn it on, turn it off.

13:35 / 22.02.02

quote:Originally posted by kookymojo:
or maybe you could learn to exercise some restraint and not resort to kneejerk posting. y'know, take a breath and look at something else before responding?

Okay, I've taken a breath and arranged some tulips. My knee has ceased jerking.

Now... don't be so fucking snarky.

13:36 / 22.02.02

Please.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

13:47 / 22.02.02

I have to admit, I don't really like the idea of it, for both Flyboy and Bio-K9's reasons...
however, if other people do, then, hey, it's gonna be them using it, not me. If people want it (for whatever reason) then they'll obviously find it useful.
I probably wouldn't use it, though.

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