Th0r S1mpson

Up until now, I've never bothered with the "ignore" feature here. I have no enemies really or anyone who has gotten personal with me. "Other" is a main source of entertainment for me and I try to keep things on an entertaining level, only delving into the serious/personal when people talk about their fascinating lives / bathroom stories / marriages / appliances and what have you.

I've always thought that even if somebody has little to contribute, I still want to see what they are saying about issues so that I can respond if necessary. But lately I've been wondering if I would enjoy it much more here if a few things were "mysteriously absent", specifically when it comes to political threads. While there are some genuine good posts, there are some people (on both sides) where 90% of their comments are virtually the same constant rhetoric with little to contribute either to the discussion, entertainment value, or informational aspect of these threads. Some people who can't lay old issues to rest, and some whose comments have sickened me so greatly that I wish I never read them, but they are entitled to their opinion so there's not much point in reporting it. I should add that the number of these people is VERY small... but their impact is large.

So long story short... I've been tinkering with the idea of finally using that "ignore" feature, but have a few reservations.

1) If I'm ignoring somebody and they start a thread, do I not see the entire thread at all?

2) Will this person show up if I use the search tool?

3) Will this person know I'm ignoring them (if not, I'd want them to know so they don't expect me to respond to something)

4) If somebody quotes this person, I assume I will see that quote (which is fine)

Anything else abot this feature I should be aware of before trying it out?

Thanks.

X

If you can still read this...

Why don't you add somebody who's started a thread and replied in it and see what happens? Then search for their posts, etc.

Numanoid

What's going on here? I clicked the link and just see a blank page.

DVD Josh

Thor,

1) You will see the thread, but not their initial post

2) You can search for the person

3) No, they won't know unless you tell them

4) I'm not sure

5) I'm very, very sorry.

Bacon

Ignores thor for not putting this in feedback


I may be mistaken but yes on 2, 3 & 4 but I think you'll still see the thread started by the ignored person

bfrank

I actually dont know the answer to your questions maybe for the admins because I have never used it.

However I agree totally with you. Not sure what to do about it though

We have tried with the sticky but people are very emotional on these topics and past debates leave them with baggage towards others that shows up in new threads. Look I was there in the 2000 election so I can see how it happens

The question is what to do to make this place best for all?

(moving to feedback)

LurkerDan

Thor, you can see that they have posted in a thread and its very easy to then view the post. I used the feature for a while when one particular poster was bugging the crap out of me. I still read almost all of Bandoman's posts, but having to do the extra click made me remember to let it slide over me...

And yes, you can still see their posts when quoted by someone else. Of course, someone may have "fixed" that quote, much to chanster's chagrin...

But you can't read this now, can you.

Bacon

what did Lurkerdan just post?

Th0r S1mpson

AAAAAAAAA!!! Sorry I should have known this belonged in here.

Thanks, got all the answers I needed... I didn't want to "test" the feature when people already know how it works.

[pegs everyone who has Thor Simpson on their ignore list in their bellybutton with a cracker]

Th0r S1mpson

Oooooh... I see. It still shows that they posted but you don't have to read their garbage. Yeah... this I can embrace. Thanks.

Numanoid

Th0r S1mpson

Yup. It works.

Luc TC

Hey maybe all the Democrates can put all the known Republicans on their ignore list and vice versa. Then we have peace and everyone is happy because they think everyone is in agreement.

All parties must put the Nader supporters on their ignore list .

Luc TC

For one: name callings like profanity against someone should not be allowed. I mean they should be told that in the post not to attack someone personally.
Forum is like the road. People shows no courtesy because they can get away with it and they don't know people personally.

There's a few I wouldn't mind putting on my ignore list,

das Monkey

I'm not going to criticize the mods, since I know how difficult their job is and how much we go out of our way to make it even more difficult than it has to be, but I've reported a couple of obvious personal attacks that have gone completely unchecked. If you let people get away with it, they'll keep doing it. It's that simple. Worse, if you don't call them on it, posters won't have faith that "reporting and walking away" is an effective measure, and they'll start responding back.

The worst, IMO, is this wonderful new trend of derailing the thread on the second or third post. Someone will start a thread, often political in nature, and within minutes there's a post that says something like, "patiently awaiting idiotic response from the Bush haters/apologists" or "I'm not even going to respond to this, because forum members can't handle the complexity of this issue." If IBTL posts aren't allowed, I can't imagine how we can tolerate this, especially when one poster will do it 3/4 times in a day.

Since <b>bfrank</b> has posed the question, I'll offer a thought. How many posts are reported in a given day? If it's not that many, perhaps when a reported post is not going to be addressed by a mod/admin, someone could send out a quick email to the reporter explaining why it wasn't a violation of forum rules. Not only would it help relieve the feeling of mod/admin apathy that comes from not seeing something addressed after a request, but it would also help us to know what is and is not tolerated so we don't keep reporting things that aren't against the rules. When I report a post and nothing happens, I'm forced to conclude that either 1) I misunderstand the forum policies or 2) mods/admins are too busy or 3) mods/admins don't care. I try to assume it's 1 or 2, but without any response, it's hard for us to know what's up. Just a suggestion.

das

Luc TC

I think most people don't really read the rules before they post in this forum. IMO, most things are common sense. If you don't go around telling people to put x up my arsss, then don't tell me that. I think a majority knows the rights and wrongs of public forum because they've been online for many years. Unfortunately there are always a few bad apples that drive the rest of us up the wall! I think the moderators should monitor these individuals to see if there's a pattern and address the issue to them. I'm sure they are already doing that.

RandyC

I will humbly suggest you don't know if they have gone unchecked and if any action was taken that was not visible. I appreciate when people report posts, and we get quite a few each day. In some cases, I frankly don't agree with the person doing the reporting. In some cases, a person is offended... but that is not the same as the post being offensive or a personal attack. In some cases, people just don't don't like when other people disagree with them.

In other cases, the post is discussed (as you know) in the mod forum.

As far as political derailing, it is being addressed. It looks like we have one person who will no longer be posting in Other as of yesterday. There may be others. We are working on the problem.

fnordboy

This is good to know. It has been bothering me for a while how a number of people were getting a seemingly freeride with some of their comments, threadcraps and just plain derailments. I was suspended a while back for simply making a comment about how a movie sucked and acknowledging that it was a threadcrap. A very minor offense compared to some of the crap that goes on in Other. (on a sidenote I see plenty of the same type of posts that I got suspended for go unchecked).

I hope the political issues (bad apples) get resolved because it will only get worse as the election nears.

das Monkey

My apologies. That was poor wording. I did in fact mean "visibly unchecked," and by that I mean something that the rest of the forum is aware of. In fact, that was the point of my post. I often have to <i>assume</i> it's being taken care of (which I do; I always give you guys the benefit of the doubt), but when you see the same guy continually "get away with" (i.e. no visible warning) the same thing after reporting each incident, it's hard to know what's going on. Am I reporting something that's not in fact an infraction, or are you preparing to ban the guy? I don't know which, and I think it would help if there were a better way to inform us of that (which I accept may not be possible).

I guess I believe in the power of warnings. If someone does something in a thread that's wrong, and a mod/admin jumps in and says, "stop doing xyz," then everyone sees it and knows that such activity won't be tolerated. However, if you let it happen 3 or 4 times, and then the guy gets banned or suspended a week later, we're not really sure what led to that. While that's good for getting that one guy to stop doing what he was doing, I think in-thread warnings would actually do more to discourage <i>others</i> from doing the same thing (which is the goal here), since they'd see exactly what was said and why it isn't allowed.

In the end, though, I think what I would most like to know is when something is being addressed and when it is simply dismissed. Perhaps it would be possible to set up an "exemptions" system, whereby any post that is reported is <i>assumed</i> to be valid, and the mods/admins are addressing it in due time. Anything else would trigger a quick email that says, "your post report was petty ... we're ignoring it" (but a lot more eloquently than that).

While it's obviously not true, I think there might be a perception that reporting posts isn't always effective; and when it comes to discouraging similar behavior or thread-derailing retaliations, perception may be more important than reality.

I should note that these comments are simply suggestions. I have no real problems with things as they are now.

das

RandyC

das, totally agree. Good suggestions.

aerobson

I hate to hijack this thread, but my problem is that I can't see the "New Thread" button, the "Edit" button or the "Quote" button. Without the new thread button, I can't really start my own thread, I just picked the most recent post.

Anyways, I can see and use those buttons on my work computer, but they are not visible on my home computer. It's obvious it's one of my internet options or something along those lines, but I don't know which one. Can someone please help? Thanks.

RandyC

Read here

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=194140

aerobson

Thanks. I tried, but I still can't get the damn things to work. I guess I'll just have to turn off my ad blocker when I'm on DVDTalk.

Josh H

Exactly. Additioanlly a lot of people have a "crap" e-mail account they use just to sign up for forums and what not, so they don't get as much spam at their main account. Thus they may not get warning e-mails.

I think any rule violation should be addressed in the thread (either edit the post, or quote them and give a warning) in addition to e-mail.

It makes a clear statement of the rules and what is not tolerated, as das said, and makes it much more likely that the offender sees the warning.

chanster

I just wanted to add something to this discussion. I never reported any posts from this thread, but I feel like this was a thread that gotten boderline personal

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...5&pagenumber=2

Why are there specific call outs regarding me? All I said was I need to see proof or evidence instead I get insults hurtled at me like:
What do I have do with the story? I merely posted that I would like to see evidence before a story gets published saying "Reuters, NBC Staff Abused by U.S. Troops in Iraq"

Can't say I am not guilty of it in these type of threads, but this sure seems like a series of exhchanges that makes me feel uncomfortable.