Hide Poster (again!)

[UltraBOF]

Hide me, hide me!

I think that it's time to revisit the arguments for this again: the site is much bigger and full of wankers than it used to be, and there is a lot of unnecessary conflict. Given that civilian moderators have been discounted, and that the community team's workload is practically Dickensian, don't you think that anything which will reduce personal attacks and thus the need for deletions would be a good thing?

I understand that Justine is worried that threads "won't make sense", but given that a) people mostly talk shite anyway and fly off-topic (eg Larkers in the face of Po-some OPs etc); and b) the hide button would be individually activated by choice and not compulsory, I don't think this argument really holds water.

There are many posters mature enough to never need to shield themselves from the profoundly irritating, and some folk are naturally imbued with a zen-like calm in the face of fucknuggetry, but for the rest of us, please please please give us the option to simply never have to read the posts of people we know invariably get on our last nerve.

I am convinced that spats will reduce; people will participate more widely and constructively in threads, instead of having to hide them once their nemesis appears; goading will become much less sustained; and the bill to MNHQ for gin at weekends will be slashed to pre-2005 levels.

What's not to like?

[ReindeerBOOOOllocks]

I have a fear of the hide poster button - that fear is that I'll be talking to myself

Wouldn't mind a

[Cahoots]

Please, Please, Please I really need to explode #####

[mignonette]

You are censoring because sadly hidden comments will skew the natural unfolding of debates/arguments/right royal rows from MNers who wish to engage fully regardless of its importance or not to the continuance of human existence...... Should you be at work, in a group, in class, you cannot always just walk away. Sometimes you have to listen and on occasions, defend your position. The net lays bare all manner of human pleasantness and the polar opposite. That is its nature....

[BigBroomstickBIWI]

But that's not censorship ...

[mignonette]

From Oxford online Dictionary-

Censor-


[with object]

examine (a book, film, etc.) officially and suppress unacceptable parts of it:
the report had been censored ?in the national interest?
the letters she received were censored

Your choice to hide posters skews the argument if certain displeasing people are not being replied to. That in effect has a censoring effect upon the true development of a thread.

[mignonette]

And 'official' pertains to either an person/organisation engaged in censorship or the official permission to 'hide' given by an organisation such as MN.

[Trills]

Of we had a hide poster button and someone posted the same message as someone else without saying "I agree with Thingy", would it be acceptable to say

"Oi, You, you just posted exactly what Thingy said, do you have them hidden or something?"

[BIWI]

It would only be censorship if the hidden poster's posts were hidden from everybody

[germyrabbit]

i think if op maybe thinks mn has now got full of wankers (nice) then maybe they should have a break rather than get wound up by mn

[mignonette]

No, censoring affects the development of the thread. Trills made a good point.

[UltraBOF]

It's always been full of nice wankers- I don't mind that at all (I'm one myself, after all). But with the huge growth in membership, there are definitely more personality clashes. I actually don't have anybody on my personal shitlist at the moment (well, I see them so rarely it doesn't exert me too much anyway), but I've noticed that some posters are getting into fight after fight. I even know of posters being eventually banned for allowing certain people to wind them up to the point of distraction.

It's harder to walk away from an argument once it has started than to avoid the argument in the first place, so I am suggesting Hide Poster as a way of a) reducing MNHQ's workload dealing with reports, and b) helping people have a more harmonious MNing experience by removing people they know invariably enrage them .without impacting on anybody else's ability to participate.

[HesterBurnitall]

Lots and lots of forums have a hide poster button. It really, really doesn't create any of the issues people fear. We all read threads differently anyway so there is no single true thread that will be distorted by a button. Most people use it sparingly, I've never bothered and couldn't pick else who has or hasn't.

It's highly unlikely that features that are standard on so very many sites would be a disaster on MN.

[HesterBurnitall]

Besides, so long as trolling is allowed to flourish as it is here at the moment, there are lots of posters who will continue to drift away to less infested places. The option to customise, which is what a hide poster button is, can really help with that and generally leads to a decrease in trolls and a calmer atmosphere.

[zillyzilly]

Good posts, Hester. Calm is good.

[zillyzilly]

And less gin would be needed at MNHQ, so more salary could be spent on forrin holidays.

[amillionyears]

Spats I think would reduce, but
a. I would hope that everyone can learn from everyone else, and
b. I think it does help to make us all more restrained and calmer in rl. In other words, it teaches us all valuable skills and life lessons.

[amillionyears]

As regards possible trolls,
MN does need to act faster, much faster.

[HesterBurnitall]

Lots of sensible people won't hide anyone, though Maryz. Some will hide one, others a handful and a tiny minority might get trigger happy.

[UltraBOF]

They won't though, Mary. It's just not the way it worked on other sites. Some people wouldn't hide anyone.

I don't really want this thread to turn into a HQ-bashing exercise either: they do their best with the time and personnel available, and it's free for us to post. I doubt they are sitting around polishing their nails while the trolls run rampant. Hide Poster might stop enough spats to free them up a bit though.

[Hullygully]

What was yesterday's? I aint seen owt of interest lately

[zillyzilly]

"all the people who are wrong just chat to themselves" - that's probably what they want to do!