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

[Tee2072]

Without bringing up anyone's banning, who we want to hide or anything other than the possibility of Justine changing her mind and the feasibility of Tech being able to do it?

Main argument: will make holes in threads.
Counter argument: no more than a thread of a thousand deletions

Supplemental argument: You will still be able to see what others are saying to the hidden poster which could be even more annoying or confusing.
Counter argument: Take a look at how Delphi Forums does it. You have the option of seeing a hidden person's post if you want to.

Final argument: Total paranoia from people thinking people have hidden them.
Counter argument: there isn't one. nothing can be done about personal paranoia

I hate this idea. It is shit and childish. Deal with the people who annoy you, don't stick your fingers in your ears going "lalalala I can't hear you".

Except when I deal with the people who annoy me, I get deleted.

So I would if I could but I can't so I won't.

I agree SoupDragon. It seems so silly to me.

Madeleine mccan anyone ? ;)

Agree with soup . Fucking hide the thread or go and masturbate or something.

See, right now I want to tell all of you to fuck and off and call you cunts.

But if I do that? I get deleted.

So a hide a poster button would be perfect.

That last post was a joke. I am happy enough to be disagreed with!!!

Hugs Tee just for the joy of it

and because she is feeling put upon

sitting on the fence here but there could be a trial period in say one topic?

I think in general it wouldn't be used. People disagree all the time, that's one of the benefits of a forum like this. But I was on a thread recwntly with someone who was goading me, I asked her a few times to stop, and in the day or so before her posts were deleted it would have really helped me keep my cool (I managed - just!)

For the most part, I just ignore people who I think are morons are goading me or others.

But there are one or two who I would happily never read their posts ever.

And, as always, I maintain sometimes you have to call a cunt a cunt and take your deletion like a woman.

Problem is if you get deleted often enugh you get a ban
Presumably if you get a certain no of temp exclusions you're banned permanently

I think a hide poster or hide post would mean a much more civilised site. I think there would be far less deletions and far less cunt calling. I also think that those who troll the site on a daily basis, posting contentious views simply to goad and 'set off' other posters on purpose would soon get bored and fuck off when they weren't getting the responses they were after.

I love this site. In the main I think it runs very well and is a useful, informative, funny and supportive space, but the Goady Fuckers are ruining it. Hide Poster or Hide Post would go a long way to sorting that out.

Tee. You is funny

that said I can see how it could be misused and end up being a bit of a bad thing too.

Yes. Yes I am, LordP. Cute too.

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.

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

It is used, as I've said, very effectively on Delphi Forums. Eventually, I've found, the goady trolly fucker gets bored and leaves.

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?

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.

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

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.

Which is another point: be able to hide a troll and not feed it until HQ can deal with 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'?

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