Okay, can we talk about this rationally? Hide Poster Option

[Grin] Tee I think we all have the potential to feel the rage and be that person! I know I can. But to me it would be like I was censoring other peoples opinions. I don't want to be that person.

Everyone has a right to their opinions, and in some cases personalities, and I don't have to like them. But I don't have to engage or read or respond either. I don't need a button to do that. I just need a bit of self control.

I can't think of a single poster who I would ignore. There are brief 'visitors' to the site who target specific areas to goad. The ignore button might help but I doubt would get used because people would have been drawn in to the argument before they used it...even if they then deployed, there would be a new turn over of posters drawn in ...so the goaders wouldn't get bored.

Now that would be useful TiredDog!

I'd disagree Tee. No need to call people cunts. IF they are breaking TGs report them. If they are being sly and carefully insulting, exercise the ability to ignore them, or 'take them on' appropriately - they are v probably unhappy individuals who want to blight others and you'd be giving them that capacity.
< I've become embroiled with particular posters in the past, but you live and learn...>

I rarely used the ignore function but did actively ignore. It was liberating to do that.

I sometimes wish I had a button to hide posters from each other. You know when a thread is being horrifically derailed because two posters are having a private spat?

I can't name one! They must have failed with me. There is one irritating one at the moment but I will have forgotten the name next week. She isn't a troll, she just holds views that are opposed to mine. I like MN because you get odd views, in RL I find people much more sensible and predictable.

Why do youhave to 'deal' with people you disagree with? You don't. You can dismiss the people's opinions in your own head and move along. You know like you might if you were with a group of friends in RL.

Is this you?

There are posters I disagree with entirely, I don't engage. But I do sometimes read their posts, and occasionally surprise myself when they say something sensible! I don't think there should be a hide tge poster option.

I agree Pan.
I am surprised you all remember who you want to hide, I am very bad with names.

Do not degrade the female parts Tee!

Awful idea. For all the reasons already given.

See I like to think of the trolls as pets.... Troll taming is the game, the troll whisperer has a ring to it...

As much as some posters, or comments, annoy one, no-one is contractually obliged to respond to anything they read on a website. It's a choice you make. You know, like as adults we make choices all of the time and respond to people and circumstances as best we can. Hiding posters, whilst I can see the immediate attraction, just infantilises grown ups and means they aren;t required to exercise any 'social' capacity for resilience or engagement.

And no, just calling a 'cunt a cunt' simply isn't up to scratch - it's an act of self-indulgence in public. Aspire to something a bit more 'adult'?

I'm on a forum with this option and I like it a lot. It takes a fair bit of goading for me to use it but it can be lovely to make them go away.

I've never been bothered by the 'gaps' in the conversation and the option of looking at the post is there if I really want to know.

It can conversely be a great relief when someone puts you on ignore and stops bloody arguing with you. This is esp good if you are righter than a right thing and they are a fool.

Excellent post Tired... If you ignore a toddler it shouts even louder.

OK, to back up what Tee is saying.

I used to use a hide poster button on Mumsnet which my brother made for me based on one he had made for another forum. (I lost it due to a change of browser.)

Easy peasy to use. You just got a 'Hide poster' option next to the 'add message/report/message poster' buttons. It turned the ignored poster grey and deleted their actual words, so you could still see that they had posted, so holes in a thread simply weren't an issue. You could see their posts again at the click of a button - it was a bolt-on widget rather than something in your profile you had to sign in to change.

It is the nature of Mumsnet threads that there are often several sub-conversations going on anyway - on a fast-moving thread no-one replies to everyone.

In any case, the whole purpose was that it simply made it easier to ignore someone who you were TRYING TO IGNORE anyway.

I used it on:
-a large number of MRA troll types
-a VERY small number of regulars (c.3, one of whom is now banned).

It enabled me to stay on the threads and continue the conversation about feminism when the MRAs appeared, and stopped me responding with inappropriate snippiness to the genuine posters and thus raising the temperature unnecessarily.

I don't see how paranoia about being hidden is any worse than paranoia about being deliberately ignored, which you already get.

I find the possible trolls a real puzzle. Love it. I just want to find out what makes them tick...

I'm nosy aren't I?

I posted yesterday but did not see the rest of the discussion before it was deleted

What are people's experiences of this on other forums?

Mine: Same regular poster was ignored by rest of the regulars for her trolling goaty behaviour. The ignore button made her easy to ...er ignore. This enabled her to become even more outrageous because there was no natural tempering of her behaviour caused by peer feedback.

However for 40% of her posts she was amusing and the arguments were fun to watch so she attracted newcomers...but then turned them away after a short time. The oldies also stopped ignoring because they missed the rows and outrageous behaviour (it livened things up). But then they got irritated so more really quite personal and nasty rows started. Leading to the same old cry of if you don't like it, use the ignore button But people wouldn't because they missed half of what went on....

So the ignore button plastered over a posting style (goady troll) but allowed it to get worse.

Far better if they'd dealt with goady troll in other ways. What does the website editor's handbook of dealing with goady trolls say

I would not want it. I like being challenged - it makes me examine my own views. If people agree with everything I say all the time, to me it feels like they are not really engaging, because what I say is not always perfect, I liked to be pulled up on things if I am wrong. A thread full of deleted posters would feel very lonely.

After a while, if posters have not name changed, you usually get to gleeb some of their back stories so you can ponder upon why they might hold the views they do. You then start to feel more empathy for them and maybe even actually like them.

Also I would probably do this by accident, like the time I have hidden threads, which would be very annoying. I hate it when I have hidden a post by accident, this usually happens on the i-pad. I end up having to do advanced searches to find out what has happened.