Is it possible to have an 'IGNORE' feature for threads?

[Enid]

I have already asked mumsnet for this and they say they have no plans but I'd be interested to see if anyone else would appreciate an 'ignore' feature - like a reverse 'watch'. If you put an 'ignore' on a thread it wouldn't appear in your active convos.

Personally I would find this helpful after the huge number of distressing threads that can get very unpleasant.

Anyone else?

[Flossam]

But if you don't want to look at them, don't click on them? Or is the temptation too much?!

[Enid]

Well sometimes the temptation is too much to be honest, and also it might tailor mumsnet a bit more to how you personally want to use it?

[KatieMac]

Yep....I would quite fancy this....Some Topics upset me a lot and to just excule them would help.

[Enid]

I know lockets, but I think it would be nice just for a day to see nothing but 'which nappy' or 'whats for tea'?

[mummytosteven]

if you can't resist temptation, maybe you just need to try a little harder!

[Enid]

well, I don't think that is fair actually MtS.

[hermykne]

i usually only use the sleep and breast / bottle threads threads and curiousity gets the better of me for anything else but ti'd be happy with just those too in my last 50 conversations

[Enid]

If you can 'watch' then you should be able to 'ignore', IYKWIM

[Enid]

also mumsnet is so huge that it would be good to be able to filter it a bit more

[AnnieQ]

This is the reason I don't use Active Conversations. I go straight to Topics, and just click on the subjects that interest me. Which means I can ignore the headings I have no interest in, and don't have to wade through thread titles I don't want to be reading.

[Enid]

thats a good idea Annie.

I'd still like to have a more tailored 'active convos' though

[Enid]

yes exactement

[eemie]

I think it is a brilliant idea. Maybe you could set it to ignore whole topics - for some people it would be the distressing ones, others would choose breast and bottle feeding or nappies.

It's not just to do with 'trying harder', it's time. Scanning active conversations used to be a good quick way of picking up threads of interest. Now that Mumsnet is so huge that's no longer true (and I've had active convs set at 50 for ages). Scanning topic by topic takes longer than I've usually got, so I get out of touch.

I can easily suppress the urge to click on threads I won't like, but often nowadays that's all I seem to do on Mumsnet.

More fine-tuning would be welcome

[notasbraveasenid]

I don't feel able to post under my real name about this - its all too personal and too close to home and I try to ensure Mumsnet is a haven of anonymity for me.

I strongly agree with Enid, and think that an "ignore" thread would be really really helpful and possible, given that there's a "watch thread" facility.

Please Mumsnet team, could you consider this.

[redsky]

I thinks it's partly the variety of threads that makes MN so appealing. Even tho' I'm way past the nappies and bottles stage with my kids it's fascinating to read how mums are dealing with these issues - it's broadened my world enormously. If I don't want to read a thread I don't - simple as that!

[WideWebWitch]

I'd like it too.

[ladyhawk]

i dont really see the need for an ignore feature if there are threads you are not interested in then you can just ignore them yourself,its down to choice and you have the option to click on a thread or not,the topics are there so you can stick to the subjects that interest you IYSWIM.

[WideWebWitch]

But if we've got watch, why not ignore? diff sides of the same coin, surely?

[marthamoo]

I have reservations, myself. I used to be a regular on Babyworld - you could access all areas (they later changed it so that certain topics were member only: Losing a Baby, and Pregnancy After Loss) but because of the site layout you tended to stick to certain topics. There was little interaction between topics and thus the groups got very insular.

For example, I posted a lot on the SAHMs board - now I am a SAHM but that's not all I am. And the only time there was any dialogue between the SAHMs board and Working Mums board was when a massive row kicked off. One of the things I love about MN is that I get to hear so many peoples' opinions - not just people who are in a similar situation to me. If MN was run along the same lines I could restrict myself to reading/posting on..chat, other subjects, behaviour/development, in the news, health, food...But I'm bloody nosy and I want to read about everything else as well. Though I do find the sheer size of MN overwhelming sometimes I tend to treat it like a precipice - I don't look down!

Another example - there was a Special Needs board on BW but it felt very closed. I never went on it. Now, I don't really have any reason to read or post on SNs here - but I feel I have learned so much from doing that, and have a much greater understanding and empathy with parents who have SN children than I ever had before. I used to see children behaving badly in shops and tut tut (inaudibly - I wasn't that bad!) to myself. Now (thanks to jimjams et al) I think "I wonder if that child has autism, Asberger's" etc. I smile at every baby/child I see who has Down's because I always think of TC's Lottie. I put money in CP boxes and buy Scope Christmas cards because I think of lou's youngest ds. If I used an ignore function on the SN threads (and, in theory I should, I have no " reason" to read them) I would miss all that.

I don't breast or bottle feed, I'm not pregnant or TTC, I'm not part of a multicultural family, or a bilingual one, I'm not a student parent, or a lone parent...I could go on but I won't. I have read and /or posted on all those topics, and "met" people I wouldn't have met otherwise - I guess you could call it sticking my oar in but I don't care.

I have learned so much from MN, and heard such varied experiences and POVs - I don't want to restrict that at all. And I think it would be very sad if MN became like Babyworld - where posters tend to stick to certain topics and there is little cross-fertilisation. It's very isolationist and gives a distorted picture of parenting and the world in general.

Anyway, if it happens it happens. But I wanted to put my two penn'orth in (as ever!)

[HardcoreEnid]

Well I do check if I see a particularly heart rending thread title - but after that I'd like the option to ignore it.

If we have a chat room you automatically get an 'ignore' feature.

Anyway, if you don't like the ignore feature you can always ignore it