okay maybe its just me but can't you just look at the poster and skip over their post?

It is easy to ignore a poster when they start a certain thread as you can skip over it, but when they get involved in a thread already going, it is hard to ignore it.

Exactly. Especially if the member is one that tends to quote you and make snide remarks that you'd rather not have to read and risk getting banned replying to.

For the first and likely only time, I agree completely with FREEJG.

We don't need it.

You don't need it. Just like some people don't need signatures. Some people don't need profiles. Some people don't need image support. However, if something is not a drain on the system, then I see no reason why to not enable it. Prevention is a key to building community. I think that if there is someone who is destroying the community, in your opinion, you ought to be able to completely ignore them. The whole out of sight out of mind concept.

Alyoshka - Can you tell me what type of posts you want to avoid seeing?

Yes - there are a couple that I can think of off the top of my head. I won't name them because they are still around. However, one that is no longer a member is a good example. There was once a poster who posted barely anything but wild stories. It got repetitive, dull, and often filled the front page of the forum he posted in. Seeing it was nothing but an eyesore to me. Often it was things that I found personally offensive towards females. So many times I wanted to voice my disgust about the threads. I did a little, but kept things appropriate. There are certain subjects that I feel so passionate about that I am not sure if I could keep my cool.

Another example is in threads arguments (debates) often get pretty heated. Sometimes there is clear flame-bait. It'd be nice to just block that person and report to a moderator. That way the continued bait doesn't push one over the edge.

Another example is that certain posters definately have styles of posting. While it's difficult to generalize a person, most of us do. It'd be nice to be able to ignore this or that person because you normally don't find their threads to be of use to you personally. Some of us simply don't have the time in our day to browse through all the threads to find the posts we want. Even the search is not always enough.

Finally, I think that us wanting the ignore feature brought back have been pushed into the defense on this. I am just as curious as to why people would want to limit an option that won't hog system resources.

What is your reasoning?

There is no real logical reason not to have the ignore feature.

I just hate to think that someone might miss a chance to post or read something valuable because they are utilizing the ignore feature. But I guess that's their decision. If I had the ignore feature I'm sure I would have blocked JustinS a long time ago and I never would have seen that we atleast agree on something.

As I said before, there probably is no logical reason (that I can articulate anyway) to not have an ignore feature. But I still hope Geoff doesn't bring it back. Who said I have to be logical? I can't express it intelligently enough, but I just think something would be lost. Hopefully someone who can express their reason to oppose the ignore feature more intelligently than I will come forward.

Just a thought ... couldn't this lead to problems? For example, what if someone posted a question (Poster A) and the first response was from someone Poster A ignored (Poster B) and no one else responded? Poster A would bump the thread and ask for any feedback. Poster B would realize that Poster A had him/her on their ignore list and may start to flame poster A. Who knows what that could lead to? That's just one scenario (not that unlikely). I'm sure there are MANY others.

Anyway, if they are actively participating in a discussion, they'll probably be quoted and you'll see what they have to say anyway.

Well, I think that one of the main reservations I have is that it simply doesn't promote community. I could foresee a situation where everyone is ignoring a person or two, some people ignoring more. Nobody knows what is happening throughout the forum.

Someone might say something that has already been said because they couldn't read it from the person they ignored. That would get very annoying really fast.

Possibly little squibbles would come up over it. I'll ignore you if you do that again...don't make me ignore you. Or, worse, people bragging about how many people they are ignoring.

I also think there is something to be said for us all being, well most of us, adults. We shouldn't have to resort to silly things like this, should we?

Even though I argued the other side a little, I changed my mind. At first, I truly did hate the idea of having this feature; it seems so ridiculous! I changed my mind after considering it for awhile. I think that most people won't bother ignoring users...especially if the feature is hidden somewhere in the user cp. Also, I think the benefits far outweight the negatives.

I just think that it would be a pretty nice feature to have overall. Convenience and it will help to make dvdtalk a more user friendly experience for everyone.

okay, i'm confused cuz geoff said its a huge resource hog

Yes, but the VBDeveloper said it will not add strain to the server now, so there is no reason not to bring it back.

oh, i didn't notice the sig....if its not a server strain i guess i wouldnt see a problem but what if the guy who has ignored someone posts the same stuff since he won't know its a repost? i just wouldnt ignore anyone but i guess to each his own

I truly believe that the amount of people who will utilize this feature, especially if located somewhere in the user cp, will be few and far between. I doubt that repeating info will be a bigger problem than it already is (and it currently does happen often), so I think it should be tried out.

If something does show to be a problem...then the feature can always be turned off. I say -- just give it a try.

IGNORE USER is a great feature. There are some frequent posters whose postings are essentially smart aleck "padding" that don't have either useful or usable info in them.

I have put those on my IGNORE list. The IGNORE feature has been working for dvdTalk for some time now.

And as for missing out on ignored posts, what appears is a one-liner notice replacing the ignored post. You can click on that to see the ignored post. So, there is no real threat to missing an ignored post if you really want to read it in a good thread you are specifically following ALL comments in.

Thanx, Geoff, for leaving the IGNORE FEATURE in place. As you can see from my list of ignored users, they are the padders and removing their posts has simplified the USEFULNESS of the forums for me.

hey Startide, can you see this?!?! *testing*

twikoff, heh heh.....

IGNORE USER has one additional benefit. Some of the padding users frequently make long quotes of prior material and all they add for their post is one of those rolling smiley faces. Not much contribution there and the bold quoted material only upsets the look of the forum page. Ignore User has cleaned up my display and shortened my downloaded pages. It's very nice to use because I display 40 messages per page instead of the dvdTalk default 20 messages.

<b>Startide</b>, I couldn't agree more concerning needless quoting. Gets my goat it does.

And on the main point, I posted two replies in a short thread on the PC forum and a time later what I'd said was more or less repeated. It made me think that <i>I'd</i> been "ignored" until I realised that a Moderator wouldn't be using the function!!

So how do you ignore? I can't find it anywhere.

Since Geoff took the functions like "Private Messaging" and "Ignore User" offline through the usual approaches, I found a sort of indirect approach for things like "Ignore User" and the usual trick to force display of images even when turned off.

I have the feeling that there are a few people out there who have discovered how to do it with a little thinking about how users' privileges are implemented in dvdTalk....

Bump, never mind, figured it out

BTW Startide, your email bounces back, says the email addy is dead.

*test*

HEY DEK!

Hey Twikoff

<font color=blue>Originally posted by dek:
Bump, never mind, figured it out
BTW Startide, your email bounces back, says the email addy is dead.<font color=black>

Ooops! In the hecticness, I forgot to change the email over since it went straight to one of my Metricom Ricochet wireless modem accounts. I've updated the email forwarding address so no more bounces now (I hope). Maybe some of the spam will stop following me due to the bouncing. I miss that Ricochet wireless modem something fierce.<font color=black>

Anyways, I wasn't trying to hide the feature from users. If you've made a legitimate try to discover the method, and still can't figure it out, send some email listing the methods you've tried.

The successful method used is closely related to one of the tried and true methods of visiting etailers, especially back in the "big coupon discount" days of 1999.... If you've done it then, you can do it now...

I just want you all to go through just a little struggle....you'll get better and better at navigating etailers.... Surely, you've seen those nice discounted products which don't show up on etailers "search" function pages? It was that way on many etailers' sites in the past. It was that same way with Dell in their somewhat recent one-penny-sale of support/misc items.... Through practice, you'll be the ones to discover more bargains....

Hmmm. I hope I made sense. If not *shrug*

A prime instance where the ignore user feature might not be a terrible idea...

http://dvdtalk.com/forum/showthread....1&pagenumber=5

you'll see why I bring this up.