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This has come up before, but the last thread I found on this was over a year old, and I thought it would be better to start anew than perform necromancy (that's an evil act in some realms, and I'm trying to keep my alignment up ;) ).
Anyway: please, please, please implement an Ignore feature if at all possible. They have worked well at other boards I've been at.
I like this board for the useful rules discussions and sharing of ideas. Many people here are very nice and great to interact with. I also like being able to submit feedback for Paizo products here.
However, despite its many great features, too often a few worms spoil the barrel of rich, juicy apples. Some posts a couple weeks ago left me so angry I haven't been here until today ("Yay!" everyone says, "Let's keep it up and this b*$$* will go away!"). Too often recently I've hovered over a thread, thinking, "Do I want to read this, or will I just read a bunch of trollbait that'll piss me off?" Especially when the Usual Suspects derail an interesting topic into a complete, repetitive flamewar, and any valid or interesting points get lost in the sidelines. It would be lovely just to be able to block out the ugly so one could just read the... well, the nice posts. And the constructively critical posts and the helpful posts and the on-topic posts and the mature posts.
I know you can flag offensive replies--which I do when I see something truly abusive. But a lot of the posters here are smart enough to stay on the sly side of sarcastic that you know they're saying something negative and derailing the thread, but aren't actually insulting anyone directly, so you can't find an explicit reason for flagging them (and besides which, I don't want to be sitting here all day flagging posts that irritate me, as I'd just be playing tattletale and I'm sure the admins would get irritated with ME as a result).
Ignore features have often helped me from getting tempted into an argument better not gotten into, and it would make it easier to sort through threads to find the comments that actually make a contribution to the discussion, rather than detract from it. They're a useful tool to help posters from getting baited by trolls, where the trolls cannot be outright silenced.
And hey! It means you could ignore me too! That's GOTTA be a selling point. :)
I am sure this itself will doubtless invite flames and attacks--feel free. I will do my best to ignore the stuff intended personally (but I'd love to have some help!!). Of course I'm sure others disagree for intellectual reasons which I understand and I hope they speak up constructively. :)
Why is this thread empty? Is this a message board bug?
Yes please.
Even though I suspect I'm one of the aforementioned "usual suspects." ;-)
The shortcoming of an ignore feature lies in the Quote function. Many posters are in the habit of quoting entire chains of responses without paring things down to the one or two sentences that are actually relevant.
Thus, even if you were to block someone you find objectionable, you would most likely still see their posts when others quote them.
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I think this may be the first "we need an ignore feature" that didn't reference me as a reason for the request.
I must be losing my touch...
I'm actually hoping for an "ignore everyone except Sebastian" feature, resulting in messageboards that are nothing short of pure enlightenment.
Wow. I found a thread that nobody has posted in. That's kinda weird.
Hmm...
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Alllll by my smurrrrrrf! Don't wanna be, all by my smurf....
I too would like to see an ignore feature.
Although, there are very few posters on these boards that I've wanted to ignore...
(And Sebastian's not included!)
TOZ and KenderKin, for what it's worth, I would not Ignore you. I like reading your posts!
I think this may be the first "we need an ignore feature" that didn't reference me as a reason for the request.
I must be losing my touch...
I want an ignore feature because of that Sebastian guy. He's mean to me and he makes me cry myself to sleep every night.
The shortcoming of an ignore feature lies in the Quote function. Many posters are in the habit of quoting entire chains of responses without paring things down to the one or two sentences that are actually relevant.
Thus, even if you were to block someone you find objectionable, you would most likely still see their posts when others quote them.
I don't know if this is possible here, but I've seen other boards actually be able to hide the text of people on your ignore list even in the quotes. The quotes display as "this quote is not displayed because this person is on your Ignore list." However, I think it works because the quotes in question will actually link back to the original post, so the software can track that.
The quotes here I do not think do that, so if it can't be implemented, you're right, that is an issue.
I think, however, it would still be an improvement. It's easier to scan past quoted text than original, at least for me. Plus, in the matter of two trolls flaming each other back and forth, you still would miss most of the conversation.
And neither Sebastian, Bugleyman, nor KenderKin would be on my list. :) I know Sebastian's infamous, ;) but I don't seem to see him in the threads I usually read.
Hey....
Wouldn't a poster, knowing they are ignored, just create another alias, etc. It is easy enough just to ignore someone and only respond to posts made by people you would like to converse with. Or maybe have the ability to create private posts, to only include people you want and make the posts invisible to anyone else (email is a good option or a private board, blog, etc.).
It would have to be self governing mechanism and it would probably need to avoid any perception of excluding anyone just because they don't support your view versus trolling or flame wars. That is a very subjective decision process based on your point of view.
People ignore me all the time ...
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No-one is being IM'd or RSS'd unless they specifically chose to follow a particular thread.
If there's a poster you can't stand to read, like that dweeb Andrew Turner, or our friendly space cadet yellowdingo, then just skip to the next post.
Features like a public ignore button or a voting button (or thumbs, or stars, etc) ultimately trend toward users leveraging the feature to inflict deliberate pain and suffering on their peers. We do enough of that with the words we sometimes choose when we write responses.
Now, if the feature were private (meaning only the activating user would know who had been ignored or blocked), that would be a different story.
Just MHO.
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In addition to quotations and making the environment less friendly, the problem with ignore is, you're giving up free content. I think there should be an additional feature worked into it. Whenever someone chooses to ignore a poster, it substitutes one of my random wise or witty posts for every one of their posts thenceforth for the "ignorer." Then we could just call the ignore button the upgrade button, which is much friendlier.
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Now, if the feature were private (meaning only the activating user would know who had been ignored or blocked), that would be a different story. Just MHO.
That's what I was asking for. I don't see any point in TELLING people they are being ignored, I just want to not see posts by certain people because I feel that more often than not their posts are not helpful or I find them personally irritating. I don't see a need to share what or who I find irritating with others, I just want to excise them from my board browsing experience :)
There are plenty of web boards that do implement ignoring or blocking users. I occasionally start browsing a site without logging in first (thus not benefitting from my ignore list) and I never have seen users complain about being ignored, probably #1 because it is not something that effects their own experience, at least no more than my non-responce to their posts. And all such ignore features I have seen all have had a 'view post' button so you can choose to view individual posts by the ignored user, and can easily un-block them if you want to - they still show up and you are aware they are participating in a thread, you just don't waste bandwidth on the content of their posts unless you click the 'view post' button.
I think there WOULD be value in an anonymous counter of how many other people are not 'listening to you', perhaps an educational opportunity for those who may enjoy the feeling of a captive audience who must see their every thought, no matter how often it has been repeated. ...But that is tangential to the main ignore function, which is much more a priority than anybody 'knowing' if they are being ignored by anybody in particular, or anybody in general.
I don't see why it would be that hard to block the MAJORITY of quotes as well: the automatically generated ones already include info linking them back to the original post# (and thus user), though quotes "hand-crafted" without that info would get by the system... not a reason not to implement the feature IMHO.
Though there are plenty of ways internet communications can enhance sharing of info, Having the inability to prevent dick heads from intruding into your conversations with others can't be said to be one of the universal good points of it. Certainly many posters' experience posting here would have been improved if the d$@@*ead posters like Trollman, et al, who were eventually banned, could have been ignored in the many months before they were eventually banned. As already said, it's ridiculously easy for anybody to weasel their way around rules against specifically insulting other posters. I don't see why people shouldn't be able to make their own decision for their own selves that they don't need to read a certain members' posts by default anymore.
...Anyway, on the subject of technical changes to the boards, I think the work done on Search is GREAT! Good Job!
I would also enjoy an ignore function. Having people cyber-stalk me across threads is a drag.
It got so annoying it put me off Paizo and Pathfinder for a year, so I made no purchases and spent no time on the forums. I mean, why buy Paizo products if I get harassed when I try to discuss them with the community? How am I supposed to get excited about new stuff so I can get my friends excited when there are people actively trying to make my experience less enjoyable?
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Just a thought: since I came here, I've benefited from not being able to ignore people I might have been tempted to ignore initially. I can only think a few exceptions to this out of lots of folks. Character building? I'd much rather be able to close Confrontation Threads than ignore individual posters.
I agree with Mairkurion I feel an ignore function is harmful in the long run to the feel of a board really. You can always choose to not respond, something I often fail at but the option is always there.
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In addition to quotations and making the environment less friendly, the problem with ignore is, you're giving up free content. I think there should be an additional feature worked into it. Whenever someone chooses to ignore a poster, it substitutes one of my random wise or witty posts for every one of their posts thenceforth for the "ignorer." Then we could just call the ignore button the upgrade button, which is much friendlier.
<head explodes>
In addition to quotations and making the environment less friendly, the problem with ignore is, you're giving up free content. I think there should be an additional feature worked into it. Whenever someone chooses to ignore a poster, it substitutes one of my random wise or witty posts for every one of their posts thenceforth for the "ignorer." Then we could just call the ignore button the upgrade button, which is much friendlier.<head explodes>
I'll take this as an overly enthusiastic endorsement of my proposal.
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I don’t really see the benefit of an ignore feature. Why not just choose to ignore people you don’t like, just not read their posts.
As for certain people derailing threads, I don’t see an ignore option really preventing this, unless EVERYONE chooses to ignore certain posters – threads will still get derailed, the only difference is if you have people ‘ignored’ you probably can’t see the disrupting posts, just their results.
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No-one is being IM'd or RSS'd unless they specifically chose to follow a particular thread.
If there's a poster you can't stand to read, like that dweeb Andrew Turner, or our friendly space cadet yellowdingo, then just skip to the next post.
Features like a public ignore button or a voting button (or thumbs, or stars, etc) ultimately trend toward users leveraging the feature to inflict deliberate pain and suffering on their peers. We do enough of that with the words we sometimes choose when we write responses.
Now, if the feature were private (meaning only the activating user would know who had been ignored or blocked), that would be a different story.
Just MHO.
WHOAH--NOT supporting a public feature. I hate those "popularity"/"karma" things where people thumbs up/down your post. That's NOT what I'm talking about, and I'm in total agreement with you on why.
All I'm talking about is something like what they have at GiantITP: you put usernames on a list, and then when those people post, the post is marked, "This message is not being displayed because this person is on your ignore list." There's even a link in case you really want to read the post anyway; Quandary noted something similar. No one knows you're ignoring them but you (and I guess the site admins)--which also solves Uchawi's issue at least partly, as no one knows they're being ignored. There are aliases here, but I reckon the feature would be tied to an account and therefore all its aliases here.
Why not just choose to ignore people you don’t like, just not read their posts
I'm sure that's what we all try to do, but it isn't always easy. For example, let's say there's a discussion going on about something somewhat controversial... frex, what a arcane warrior/"gish" type base class should look like and if it should exist at all. Poster 1 starts the thread looking for serious ideas, poster 2 responds with a really cool build idea and lists some pros and cons about the concept... and then poster 3 comes in and starts complaining about the word "gish" and how it's horrible. Then poster 4 starts arguing about how gish is the most wonderful word ever invented. Poster 3 and 4 have a lot of time on their hands, apparently, and start arguing ad infinitum back and forth about the merit of the word "gish," taking the argument up through three pages' worth of thread; meanwhile poor poster 1 and 2 have only had a chance to post a couple more really cool, interesting ideas worth talking about, and they get buried under the terminology flame war.
It is VERY hard to "just ignore" people like poster 3 and 4 in that situation, when their in-spam-atory posts occupy half the thread. An ignore feature would collapse all their argument, leaving the cool stuff poster 1 and 2 posted behind. Someone who was seriously looking for build ideas could then easily and quickly scan through the thread without having to "manually" skip through the several pages of noncontributory, argumentative nonsense. It's situations like this that ignore features exist at other message boards.
DISCLAIMER: all of the above example about the argument was ENTIRELY hypothetical and I was NOT trying to single anyone out. (There have been enough actual arguments about gishes that I realized I ought to clarify that. I was just trying to pick an example people could relate to. :) )
You run into another situation that makes things a bit more complex. Unlike those other systems, we are given the capability to switch between aliases. It may be more complicated to construct a system to filter out certain posters when they could easily switch to another alias while remaining on the same account.
I'm not saying it couldn't be done, but the existing capability would make implementing that type of feature into the coding a bit more difficult, I imagine.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think any of the other systems mentioned allows such lattitude in alias changes under the same account; right?
Dude, how are you still talking? It's like that episode of South Park with Brittany Spears.
Uh...I'm part troll. Whether that includes the messageboard variant all depends on who's ignoring me. ;)
I can definitely see the usefulness of an ignore function in the scenario you've mentioned, DQ. While I doubt we'll sway Paizo, I'd imagine that such a feature would be keyed to people's accounts rather than to a specific alias. Although, it could be interesting if you have the option to un-ignore certain aliases (i.e. for following a PbP or something perhaps).
One option that could be cool is if there was something like a "tag pool" at the top or bottom of the page showing all the users who had thus far contributed. You could then on a per-thread basis, check/uncheck users if you wished to hide/reveal their posts in that topic.
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Yeah sometimes I see a thread with 500 posts, but 200 of them are from people who habitually argue and bicker or insult others. If I could click a link and say "Filter out all posts made by user X" and the thread reconstitutes itself from 500 posts (and 10 pages) down to 300 posts (and 6 pages) then that'd be sweet as cherry pie.
We already have a "Show all posts by...X" link. I just want the opposite :)
We already have a "Show all posts by...X" link.
We do? Where? Are you talking about the "RECENT Posts" link? Or do you mean there's really a way to show ALL posts by a user?
Because personally, I always wanted to see the FIRST several posts by certain users.
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Because personally, I always wanted to see the FIRST several posts by certain users.
Heck, I want to go back and see older posts by *me!* (Why cyberstalk other people, when I'm so darned interesting?)
Seriously, though, I'd love a 'See all posts by X' feature, if such a thing is possible. I've written some stuff here about Gnolls and Osirion that I'd love to fiddle around with, if I could just find it!
There's only one poster here I'd ignore, and he and I don't frequent the same threads, so it's all good.
Other posters I'd consider ignoring, just because I have no idea what they are talking about half the time. Pretty much anyone with a dog/wolf/hyena avatar, really. :)
It exists off the user profile, but it only shows the last (most recent) 50 posts.
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I'm actually hoping for an "ignore everyone except Sebastian" feature, resulting in messageboards that are nothing short of pure enlightenment.
Actually, someone already built that feature, it's right here:
*Ignore everyone except Sebasian!*
I use a couple of similar features every day:
*Ignore everyone except Joshua Frost!* - because if Josh has something to say about Pathfinder Society, I wanna hear it!
*Ignore everyone except James Jacobs!* - because he's a prolific poster and always has interesting stuff to say about Pathfinder rules and products.
The benefit of bookmarking Ignore everyone except Josh/James, is that you get to read everything they have to say without having to wade through pages and pages of everyone else's drivel (... sorry everyone else).
While it doesn't solve the original poster's need, it's still pretty darn useful.
Edit: Ninja'ed?
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Yes! Thare's gold in them thar archives!
Now, if the feature were private (meaning only the activating user would know who had been ignored or blocked), that would be a different story.Just MHO.
I think this is what is being asked for.
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Personally I want an 'Ignore Smurfs" feature - if some one has been turned into a smurf I don't want to know about it.
Personally I want an 'Ignore Smurfs" feature - if some one has been turned into a smurf I don't want to know about it.
How does that happen?
Oh my goodness!!!