Using your Ignore List

Joe Blow · 18 November 2013

On a forum of any significant size there will always be those whose posts irritate, anger and frustrate you, sometimes compelling you to post things that may inflame the discussion or that might fall outside of the forum rules.

An easy solution to this problem is to put these people on your ignore list, so their posts are automatically filtered out by the forum software.

There are two easy ways to do this:

1. Click on their user name and view their profile. At the top left of their profile you will see a list of options, one of which is Add to Ignore List. Simply click this option, then click Yes to confirm and they will immediately be added to your ignore list.

2. If you click on Settings you will see the option Edit Ignore List under the My Account heading. Simply click on this option to manually add and remove other members from your ignore list.

Although I do my best to enforce the rules and maintain order here at ASF, there's not much I can really do for those who get profoundly annoyed by the posts of another ASF member who posts within ASF's rules. At some point that person has to take some kind of proactive step to solve the problem. The ignore list is a very effective solution to this problem, will keep the peace and hopefully help you to retain your sanity.

I must make one additional point though. I will not look very kindly upon anyone who, after being informed that they have been placed on someone's ignore list, persists in making remarks about that person in their posts, or who continues to respond to their posts, knowing that person cannot see their replies. Once you have been told you have been placed on someone's ignore list, the onus is on you to back off and focus your energies elsewhere.

If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask.

MrBurns · 18 November 2013

Moving the general links to the bottom has changed the emphasis of the site toward stock chat I feel.

The general posts shouldn't appear in the right hand recent posts section.

Joe Blow · 18 November 2013

MrBurns said:
The general posts shouldn't appear in the right hand recent posts section.

I'm trying to develop a solution to give people the choice of whether or not to have General Chat showing up in both "New Posts" and "Latest Forum Posts".

Better to give people more choice than less IMO. Just going to take a little more coding.

MrBurns · 18 November 2013

Joe Blow said:
I'm trying to develop a solution to give people the choice of whether or not to have General Chat showing up in both "New Posts" and "Latest Forum Posts".

Better to give people more choice than less IMO. Just going to take a little more coding.

It already shows in "last post" at the thread link, I'd leave it at that if I were you.
Investors don't want to see the ravings that go on in general chat IMHO.

Joe Blow · 18 November 2013

MrBurns said:
It already shows in "last post" at the thread link, I'd leave it at that if I were you.
Investors don't want to see the ravings that go on in general chat IMHO.

Some of them might. You certainly participate in some of those ravings yourself. More choice is better than less choice.

MrBurns · 18 November 2013

Joe Blow said:
Some of them might. You certainly participate in some of those ravings yourself. More choice is better than less choice.

Yes I do and if I was running this site I wouldn't want share traders/investors to see that without looking for it, it's unprofessional.

Country Lad · 18 November 2013

Joe Blow said:
............ anyone who, after being informed that they have been placed on someone's ignore list.................

Is the person I place on my ignore list automatically advised of this?

Cheers
Country Lad

Joe Blow · 18 November 2013

Country Lad said:
Is the person I place on my ignore list automatically advised of this?

No, but I am willing to act as an intermediary if you would like them informed for some reason.

trainspotter · 18 November 2013

Joe Blow said:
Some of them might. You certainly participate in some of those ravings yourself. More choice is better than less choice.

I prefer the ravings to be limited to the "willing participants" and not polluting the main page for the serious investors. JMHO.

Julia · 18 November 2013

Country Lad said:
Is the person I place on my ignore list automatically advised of this?

Cheers
Country Lad

Joe Blow said:
No, but I am willing to act as an intermediary if you would like them informed for some reason.

Joe, have you considered the possibility of such public advice of a member being placed on another member's Ignore list?
Whilst I can see some usefulness in that, I suspect the overall downside would be even greater divisiveness than presently exists. It would also possibly provoke some people driven largely by spite to use such a facility.

The difficulty I see with the Ignore function is that one cannot see derogatory posts by the person on Ignore, thus eliminating the capacity to refute such comments.
You suggest it's up to the person on Ignore to cease making such comments. How is this going to happen if they either don't know they're on Ignore, or simply choose to keep on with their provocation?

Ultimately it gets to the point where in some threads it's just not worth the trouble to even attempt to participate.

Joe Blow · 18 November 2013

Julia said:
Joe, have you considered the possibility of such public advice of a member being placed on another member's Ignore list?
Whilst I can see some usefulness in that, I suspect the overall downside would be even greater divisiveness than presently exists. It would also possibly provoke some people driven largely by spite to use such a facility.

This would all be done by PM, and only in specific cases where remarks were still being made about someone in posts even after they had placed that person on their ignore list. I am definitely not in favour of politicising or dividing the forum any more than it already is, but sometimes the ignore list is a better option than allowing the conflict or angst to continue.

Julia said:
The difficulty I see with the Ignore function is that one cannot see derogatory posts by the person on Ignore, thus eliminating the capacity to refute such comments.
You suggest it's up to the person on Ignore to cease making such comments. How is this going to happen if they either don't know they're on Ignore, or simply choose to keep on with their provocation?

I would not permit such derogatory posts to be made once they were pointed out to me.

Julia said:
Ultimately it gets to the point where in some threads it's just not worth the trouble to even attempt to participate.

It's a shame that some threads end up like that, but I'm not going to pretend it doesn't happen. A little less dogmatism, and a little more respect for others goes a long way. I'm not speaking of anyone in particular, but in general. I think that everyone is aware that the sort of situation that you are referring to occurs almost exclusively in political and religious threads.

Country Lad · 18 November 2013

Joe Blow said:
.................but sometimes the ignore list is a better option than allowing the conflict or angst to continue.

I find it good just not to waste time or be tempted to read some peoples' posts where I have no interest in their opinions.

Cheers
Country Lad

sails · 18 November 2013

I have put Whiskers on ignore, but like Julia said, it's a worry how he is responding to one's posts. So I have clicked on "view post" and find he continues to reply to my posts which were not initially directed at him. My annoyed responses were. Maybe I should consider keeping out for a while.

MrBurns · 19 November 2013

sails said:
I have put Whiskers on ignore, but like Julia said, it's a worry how he is responding to one's posts. So I have clicked on "view post" and find he continues to reply to my posts which were not initially directed at him. My annoyed responses were. Maybe I should consider keeping out for a while.

I cant see the point in the ignore function, if someone is particularly offensive the should be banned for a week or 2 then permanently if they persist apart from that just ignore their posts, same as spam, just delete, no problem.

Country Lad · 19 November 2013

MrBurns said:
I cant see the point in the ignore function, if someone is particularly offensive the should be banned for a week or 2 then permanently if they persist apart from that just ignore their posts, same as spam, just delete, no problem.

To me, that is the point of the ignore function. We have some members who revert to name calling and abuse at the drop of a hat who would be banned for a while on any other forum.

Seeing that totally unacceptable behavior is allowed here, one thing I can do is trying to ignore these people by putting them on the ignore list. The other is to again leave this forum which I did for a number of years previously because there was virtually no moderation and that is tempting because I am already part of the alternatives.

Cheers
Country Lad

MrBurns · 19 November 2013

Country Lad said:
To me, that is the point of the ignore function. We have some members who revert to name calling and abuse at the drop of a hat who would be banned for a while on any other forum.

Seeing that totally unacceptable behavior is allowed here, one thing I can do is trying to ignore these people by putting them on the ignore list. The other is to again leave this forum which I did for a number of years previously because there was virtually no moderation and that is tempting because I am already part of the alternatives.

Cheers
Country Lad

All you have to do is report it to Joe, problem fixed.

Joe Blow · 19 November 2013

The point of the Ignore List isn't to ignore someone who is breaking the forums rules, it's to ignore someone who is posting within the forum rules but their posting style, attitude or opinions are particularly objectionable to you. It's possible for someone to be conceited, arrogant, condescending, dogmatic, pompous, repetitive, overly verbose or to have opinions that you find distasteful but still not be breaking any forum rules.

These are the people for whom the Ignore List exists.

trainspotter · 19 November 2013

The power is in your hands ... just don't respond to their posts and choose to not let them upset you. As for the moderation of ASF I believe it is both fair and equal. We are adults (most of us) and are being treated accordingly with the due respect we deserve IMO.

Julia · 19 November 2013

Country Lad said:
I find it good just not to waste time or be tempted to read some peoples' posts where I have no interest in their opinions.

Country Lad said:
To me, that is the point of the ignore function. We have some members who revert to name calling and abuse at the drop of a hat who would be banned for a while on any other forum.

Seeing that totally unacceptable behavior is allowed here, one thing I can do is trying to ignore these people by putting them on the ignore list. The other is to again leave this forum which I did for a number of years previously because there was virtually no moderation and that is tempting because I am already part of the alternatives.

Have you considered making a contribution with your own opinions?
There exists a catch 22 situation where people with a useful contribution no longer post because of the inevitability of some 20 paragraph dissection of a general remark. So the exchange - which must be mutually satisfying - between Whiskers and Trainspotter continues as they duke it out in what seems like some sort of competition to dominate.

sails said:
I have put Whiskers on ignore, but like Julia said, it's a worry how he is responding to one's posts. So I have clicked on "view post" and find he continues to reply to my posts which were not initially directed at him.

And that is the point I'm trying to make. One can ignore Whiskers, not read his rambling, verbose posts, and then make a comment about something unrelated, and immediately he's all over it, dissecting every word, including putting up dictionary definitions, and demanding a response. When such a demand is ignored, it gets repeated. Why would anyone keep trying to engage any sort of reasonable discussion in these circumstances?

Maybe I should consider keeping out for a while.

As above. You drop out also, following others.

MrBurns said:
All you have to do is report it to Joe, problem fixed.

Well, actually, no, it's not, Mr Burns. Joe explains below that :

It's possible for someone to be conceited, arrogant, condescending, dogmatic, pompous, repetitive, overly verbose or to have opinions that you find distasteful but still not be breaking any forum rules.

MrBurns · 19 November 2013

Julia said:
Well, actually, no, it's not, Mr Burns. Joe explains below that :

conceited, arrogant, condescending, dogmatic, pompous, repetitive, overly verbose or to have opinions that you find distasteful but still not be breaking any forum rules.

I just ignore people like that I don't need to have them hidden from me.
I was talking about abuse.

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