What is your opinion of the Ignore User feature here?

Do you use the ignore user feature at Gaf?

  • Total voters
    152
No, I don't put anyone on ignore here. There's a small number of posters on the far right, the far left and in the console warz I sometimes find mildly annoying but not enough to block them. Additionally I like to see differing opinions and don't feel the need to hide from opinions I disagree with.

Also as it turns out there are people I rarely agree with agree with, but occasionally they'll make a post that I think is brilliant.

And finally @EvilLore said it's a bitch move and I'm not a bitch ...... Actually I am but that's beside the point.
 
I've never, and will never, use the ignore/block feature.
 
You are almost cheating yourself from the chance to agree with someone, which would help when you do disagree.

Also ignore kinda says 'you are not of value at all' which is slimy. Just because someone has a different opinion.

I get the thing abbout professional trolls... but this forum doesn't have a lot of that. It's a nice forum.
 
I don't use it currently. There have been a handful of users who have been trolls, repeating the same predictable things ad nauseum, so I usually just scroll past their posts as they offer no value, but I am reluctant to use ignore because I like to be aware of the context in threads.
 
I never use ignore.

I rather just call BS out. The world would be a better place if humans challenged each others beliefs, instead of hiding from them.

The point of a forum is also to encourage discussion. If everyone is ignoring each other, what do you think the end result will look like? People will start segregating themselves into groups, and these groups will prove hostile to each other.
 
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JordanN said:
I never use ignore.

I rather just call BS out. The world would be a better place if humans challenged each others beliefs, instead of hiding from them.

The point of a forum is also to encourage discussion. If everyone is ignoring each other, what do you think the end result will look like? People will start segregating themselves into groups, and these groups will prove hostile to each other.
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Dude, plenty of people over the years challenged the likes of Lime and snitch on their endless BS and it never resulted in them changing their tune versus them playing forum runaround in their responses time and time again Ad Nauseum. Once a persons show their arse enough times there comes a point where you have to say 'nah' to retain your sanity. I dare say to a regular forum warrior like yourself that might seem like an anathema, but to some of us who place a premium on our time the ability to tune them out completely, especially during the dark times before the exodus was a blessing.

asqarkababi said:
Thank you ;)
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catspice2.jpg
 
Kadayi said:
Dude, plenty of people over the years challenged the likes of Lime and snitch on their endless BS and it never resulted in them changing their tune versus them playing forum runaround in their responses time and time again Ad Nauseum. Once a persons show their arse enough times there comes a point where you have to say 'nah' to retain your sanity. I dare say to a regular forum warrior like yourself that might seem like an anathema, but to some of us who place a premium on our time the ability to tune them out completely, especially during the dark times before the exodus was a blessing.
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My last sentence was in reference to what you describe.

Ignored people have their own enclaves. And unfortunately, these enclaves had the protection from corrupt moderators. It literally took a shape-up for Neogaf to return back to the status quo of debating viewpoints honestly.

You look at the other forum and tell me how is ignoring suppose to work? Again, they were quick to form their own clans and thus "ignore" becomes a "hydra". Cut off one head, and two more spawn in its place. You keep doing that, and you just end up with a heavily segregated forum.
 
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I wasn't a regular enough member back in the heyday to really remember many of the most infamous posters names, but yeah I remember some people were pretty consistantly ridiculous. At that time, I could understand people choosing, after a period of giving those posters the benefit of the doubt, to put them on the ignore list. Personally I just recognized avatars and zipped past people I was tired of seeing without having it really get to me.

When starting this thread though I had current Gaf in mind, I don't feel like those posters are really a problem anymore. I just noticed a post or two of the "welcome to my ignore list" variety and started wondering if the feature was providing any real benefit.
 
Nymphae said:
When starting this thread though I had current Gaf in mind, I don't feel like those posters are really a problem anymore. I just noticed a post or two of the "welcome to my ignore list" variety and started wondering if the feature was providing any real benefit.
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On old GAF, I used it twice. I forget who they were. In hindsight, I shouldn't have blocked them seeing as how I don't remember why they made me use the ignore button in the first place.

On new GAF? Naw. I do think that some of the people here on new GAF need to talk to a therapist about their feelings about women though. The Spiderman thread on the gaming side is where I'm basing my opinion.
 
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JordanN said:
My last sentence was in reference to what you describe.

Ignored people have their own enclaves. And unfortunately, these enclaves had the protection from corrupt moderators. It literally took a shape-up for Neogaf to return back to the status quo of debating viewpoints honestly.

You look at the other forum and tell me how is ignoring suppose to work? Again, they were quick to form their own clans and thus "ignore" becomes a "hydra". Cut off one head, and two more spawn in its place. You keep doing that, and you just end up with a heavily segregated forum.
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The problem going on here is a situation of people like myself talking case law (events that happened), whereas everyone else pontificating is talking statute (what ifs) in the abstract, and needlessly using it as a platform to throw sideways shade at anyone who thinks otherwise. As for ERA I can't really comment because I'm not a member and I don't frequent it. I vicariously witness some of its madness via the community thread about it for the occasional lulz, but at the end of the day, it doesn't strike me as a forum for meaningful exchange because of how coddled it is by a totalitarian moderation of unemployable autistics, so I don't really see what relevance it has to the ignore feature here tbh (no need to explain or elaborate, I simply don't care to derail into more 'what about ERA' talk).

As I said earlier no ones skating so close to ice here these days that I've felt the urge to set them to ignore (I just don't engage) but I like having the option to be able to tune people out and save me the time and energy to do so, versus having to constantly run the forum Roladex in my head of 'oh yeah it's this asshole again' and nope.gif the F out of there when it's clearly another thatsbait.gif poster. It's just automating the process in an IFTTT manner.
 
I've never used the ignore feature here, but I've used it once elsewhere. There was one person I just found irritatingly stupid, and I thought my browsing experience would be more enjoyable without him. The problem was, the forum software constantly drew my attention to the fact that I was ignoring him ("last post by [ignored user]", etc.), and I couldn't follow conversations because other people would quote him, but his words would be redacted from the quote. It was more trouble than it was worth.
 
In Sea of Thieves the only people I ever put on block were two jackasses who came on my brigantine, immediately voted me in the brig, and rammed the ship into rocks before exiting the game.

That experience cost me an hour of my time, I blocked the fuck out of them. A message board is child's play.
 
Nymphae said:
Of course even without the ignore feature you do have the option to simply be prejudiced against people at your own discretion lol. But I was assuming you were a member of the forum wanting to converse with others in good faith.
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Sure, what gives you the perception I am not? The mere fact that I don't think an ignore-button would be the work of the devil?
I agree, there is no point in arguing in a room full of entrenched positions. If you think that is what Gaf is, I would ask why you are here. If you do not think we are all entrenched in our beliefs, great, argue in good faith and assume the same of others until shown otherwise.
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For a second I thought we're making progress :)

Where exactly did I call the whole of GAF one big room full of entrenched positions? It was an example where someone might find the ignore button useful, not an endorsement to use it at anyone who looks at you funny. Someone once told me if you can't argue for or at least understand a different point of view on an issue, you might not have understood the issue. I've spent enough time on enough forums and message boards to understand that not everyone is happy to converse with others in good faith. That there are those who are just bored and want to cause a reaction, or have nothing better to do than shitpost. And yes GAF mods are pretty quick and good in their responses, which is the reason why I only have one single person on my ignore list (which I think was banned shortly after anyway). But just because nobody stole my wallet for a few years doesn't mean I remove the lock from my door.

No, you should "simply ignore someone" by doing exactly that
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... and exactly that is what the ignore button does! Again: I don't see where the fundamental difference lies between someone just not reading someones postings, or clicking a button that automates the process of ignoring someone. Or perhaps that's the issue, that it is a machine doing it? Would you feel better if someone actively skips your postings rather than having an algorithm hide them from a user?

I still will not ever use the feature myself though, just doesn't feel right when I can simply move past the content without taking action to further silence a person.
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Clicking the button does not silence the person, everyone else can still read it, right? Maybe we're just arguing over semantics here, but I don't think that hitting ignore is the same as censoring what someone says, since you can't control with the ignore button if other people engage with said person. If you were to ignore anyone in this thread, I could still read it, right? If anything you might actually hurt yourself in an actual debate by hitting ignore too eagerly, as has been pointed out by many.
 
Humdinger said:
I've never used the ignore feature here, but I've used it once elsewhere. There was one person I just found irritatingly stupid, and I thought my browsing experience would be more enjoyable without him. The problem was, the forum software constantly drew my attention to the fact that I was ignoring him ("last post by [ignored user]", etc.), and I couldn't follow conversations because other people would quote him, but his words would be redacted from the quote. It was more trouble than it was worth.
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The actual ignore feature here hides the user's posts as well as any quotes people make of them. They literally cease to exist save for an ignored content toggle at the bottom of the page.
 
Kadayi said:
The actual ignore feature here hides the user's posts as well as any quotes people make of them. They literally cease to exist save for an ignored content toggle at the bottom of the page.
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Yes, but the problem for me (and I think it would exist with this forum software, too) is when their quotes are removed from people's posts, it can make it difficult to follow conversations sometimes. So for example, the person I had on Ignore was a fanboy troll. I would see other people in a thread about Game X arguing about Game Y or Z. As far as I could tell, no one had mentioned Game Y or Z, so I couldn't understand why people were arguing about them. I would enter the conversation and say, "But the thread is about Game X. Why are we talking about Game Y or Z?" After a while, people said, "You must have ___ on Ignore." haha, yup, I did. Because his responses were not quoted, I couldn't see what the people were responding to. He was bringing Game Y and Z into the conversation, but I couldn't see it, so the conversation wasn't making any sense to me.

That was on a relatively small forum, though. Here on GAF, the dynamics are different.
 
Makariel said:
... and exactly that is what the ignore button does! Again: I don't see where the fundamental difference lies between someone just not reading someones postings, or clicking a button that automates the process of ignoring someone. Or perhaps that's the issue, that it is a machine doing it? Would you feel better if someone actively skips your postings rather than having an algorithm hide them from a user?
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In general I just don't agree with hiding things people say on a message board, and taking an action to preemptively hide things a person will say doesn't feel right to me personally. As I mentioned before, I don't feel like current Gaf is a place where we have too many personalities that would require being automatically ignored (vs. just not caring about their opinion/shitpost) - I started this thread because I was seeing people in some threads do the "welcome to my ignore list" for what I considered simple disagreements or simply opinions that were not shared. I think that's a shitty use of the feature.
 
Kadayi said:
The actual ignore feature here hides the user's posts as well as any quotes people make of them. They literally cease to exist save for an ignored content toggle at the bottom of the page.
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That doesn't remove them entirely. Unless all users agree to ignore an individual, extremely unlikely, part of the conversation from other users will be done with the ignored user's comments as background context for part of the thread. Potentially posts from other users will debate, elaborate, corroborate or take into account the ignored user's activity.

Reality cannot be blocked, it is like safe spaces, the real world keeps on moving, even in forums, and the uncomfortable people and actions continue to influence the rest of the world.
 
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I don't make a habit of using it as an outcome of a debate or disagreement with someone, but if someone is both obnoxious and has no coherent point to make then judicious use is warranted.

I do try to regularly purge my ignore list. If I can't remember why someone is on the ignore list or it's been several months I'm happy to provide second and third chances.

That being said, I do have one particular red lines in the sand - mocking disabled people. I have no problem relegating people to perma-ignore for that one.
 
OSC said:
That doesn't remove them entirely. Unless all users agree to ignore an individual, extremely unlikely, part of the conversation from other users will be done with the ignored user's comments as background context for part of the thread. Potentially posts from other users will debate, elaborate, corroborate or take into account the ignored user's activity.
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Again, you're new here (welcome). I'll reiterate what I said earlier on: -

I'm not sure you understand what this forum was like pre-exodus and just how rife with bad actors it was back then, or how if you did tell them to 'Eff off' you'd have probably found yourself perm banned in short order for doing so by a sympathetic mod. I think it's all very well to grandstand, about what one would or wouldn't do as an abstract on principle but what we are really talking about at the end of the day is ignoring maybe at tops a dozen fairly infamous posters out of a several thousand active members at the time. This isn't creating a personal echo chamber, it'd just muting imbeciles If it's any consolation there are at least two active posters presently who I consider fairly pointless given they just regurgitate well-worn groupthink in relation to their particular fascinations with eye-rolling frequency. Neither of which I've yet felt the need to set to ignore because since the advent of the Politics sub-forum I rarely encounter their vacuous pontificating for the most part.
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Reality cannot be blocked, it is like safe spaces, the real world keeps on moving, even in forums, and the uncomfortable people and actions continue to influence the rest of the world
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If you're looking for those advocating for safe spaces, I believe you'll find them moderating at www.resetera.com.
 
I haven't used the ignore function yet. I generally think that opposing views are fine but derailing the thread or posting something irrelevant is not something I like to see often. Thankfully, the users that do this get banned most of the time or are issued a warning so that really isn't a problem for me. The problem is when I read something based on assumptions, unsubstantiated rumors or very little actual data. I understand that a lot of threads are based on rumors, but over a few months, you'll start to notice users whose opinions really don't seem to hold much value, if any, because there is no consistency to their findings.
 
I've started using this a lot more frequently, and I must say, it's improved my experience here. Just tired of seeing some people's content. Nothing to do with specific opinions, more like, I've seen hundreds of posts from this person and it's always the same type of thing that I'm either rolling my eyes at or ignoring, etc., so fuck it, you're not taking up any more of my time here.

There's a little stat on the Brave browser new tab page that tells you how many minutes the browser's features have saved you overall. At first it was recording in seconds and I was like oh wow thanks Brave lol. But now it's up over an hour, and I realize that these little interactions and things really do add up. How many hours have I spent rolling my eyes reading something online? Too many.
 
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Life is all about opposing opinions, sometimes you agree, sometimes you don't. Sometimes the person speaks a sense and a viewpoint you never even knew before and sometimes... Well...

I don't block people, even those that drive me up the wall. I read the car crash and deal with it later. There's only one poster on here I ever came close to blocking, and to be fair if I did, the only person who would miss out on his crazy nonsense is myself.
 
I don't ignore anybody. I doubt anybody could push me to the point where I'd have to use it. Aren't we all family anyways??? I can't ignore any of you, no matter how crazy some of your views may be..
 
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I once was put on ignore by someone who I called out on being a public masturbation apologist. I can live with that.

I have one guy on ignore who was an unbearable console warrior. It's not thelastword btw. I actually just removed him from the list as everyone deserves a second chance :messenger_relieved:
 
One thing I can't help but find interesting is that there are people in here claiming they don't like the idea behind the ignore feature but instead they just manually ignore or refuse to like/reply to someone anyway.

For example, awhile ago I said something stupid to the OP along the lines of "welcome to my ignore list" for something trivial and harmless, it was a stupid thing for me to say. I apologized (got ignored), and continued to try and extend an olive branch, continued to get ignored.

Why not just put that person on ignore instead? I'd rather chalk up the people who don't like me to just having me on their ignore list rather than knowing they are reading what I wrote and just choosing to disregard every single thing I post.

Maybe we all need to have an annual "GAF Forgiveness Day" where ignore lists are wiped and everyone gets a clean slate.
 
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I'll never block anyone. It's a bitch move and should only really be used against spammers (Who'd already be banned from here anyway)
 
hargwood said:
I'll never block anyone. It's a bitch move and should only really be used against spammers (Who'd already be banned from here anyway)
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I used to think this way, but this board is small, and I get really tired of some posters that I have no intention of engaging with. Instead of just pretending they aren't there, I can make that happen.

JareBear said:
For example, awhile ago I said something stupid to the OP along the lines of "welcome to my ignore list" for something trivial and harmless, it was a stupid thing for me to say. I apologized (got ignored), and continued to try and extend an olive branch, continued to get ignored.
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I don't recall any apology. Around the time you had your account restored after self immolating, I had quoted you several times and asked you direct questions, and was not getting responses from you, so if I wasn't on your ignore list, you were doing a great job manually. I actually sent you a direct message regarding putting me on ignore, which received no reply. Got tired of your gif posts and thought I'd ignore back, I was sick of seeing so many posts from a user that was ignoring me for no good reason.
 
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Blocked one person because they blocked me and make a million posts per day so there's no point in seeing them.
 
How does it work? If i get ignored i will be able to see that user's comments but he won't see mine?

Or nobody will see anything from anyone?

I imagine this would look confusing in a discussion chain with posters quoting people you ignored or got ignored.
 
It's funny to put someone on ignore and then later see him show up on the Bans page with a Permanent.

I guess those of you looking down your nose at folks who use the feature think I should have just put up with the user dragging my day down until his posts got to be too much for the mods.

IMO, life's too short for that.
 
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It's a great feature and I use it to eradicate fanboys. They never have anything of interest to say, so what's the point in wasting valuable seconds reading their shit? If I were sat in the pub, I wouldn't choose to listen to some fucking mindless bore, so why do it here?
 
nkarafo said:
How does it work? If i get ignored i will be able to see that user's comments but he won't see mine?

Or nobody will see anything from anyone?

I imagine this would look confusing in a discussion chain with posters quoting people you ignored or got ignored.
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If you are ignored, you can still see everything that person does, they just won't see your posts or threads.
 
The feature is so seamless that I often forget I have it active until i get to a spate of posts that don't make sense or one person with several posts in a row not quoting anything. Other than that, I think I only missed one super active thread, turns out,I didn't miss much.
 
I'll NEVER use it. If I disagree with a fellow gaffer I'll just move on or I'll engage in a meaningful conversation.
I leave the ignore button to socialists utopia.
Neogaf is a relatively working ecosystem. If a user is particularly toxic, he'll disappear naturally.
 
I've used it on people who have resorted to insults or who ignored basic facts just to carry on arguing. I'm not going to waste my time on them.
 
I've only ever used the ignore feature on a forum that was (and still is) too short on moderation staff. There's a guy who flies under the radar while flamebaiting and goes unnoticed til he makes a scene when called out, and usually everyone involved catches a temp ban by the time the one moderator sees the situation. I figured if I wanted to keep posting at that forum then it's for my own good that I can't see anything he says. Sucks that the one mod there doesn't recognize the root of the problem, but c'est la vie.

I don't think I'll ever have a reason to use it at GAF.
 
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