Ignore/block function

[AutumnRose1]

Good morning MNHQ

I know it’s been suggested by others, but just coming on to say how useful it would be to have an ignore/block option for posters. We’d have fewer sea lions, fewer goady folks and presumably a lot less work for MN mods.

I’m sure a lot of people would love to block my random singing interludes and rants about overpopulation too!

Not sure.
A block function would change the dynamics. However, it could be worth having a trial period of a blocking function to see if it improves the debate.

If it gives the mods a rest...

I’ve been on other forums that have it and I think the main reason is to give the mods a rest!

MN did ask what users would like and a block facility was mentioned. I do have some of the topics blocked, but I would like to block individual users instead.

There's so much name changing I am not sure it would work. A while ago there were a few posters who I would have loved to block/ignore but I couldn't name one now.

Chic I thought there might be an appetite for this.

I didn’t mention name changing because I know sometimes posters do it for safety or privacy reasons, but often I recognise the tone of a sea lion etc so would know to block.

Is this in specific topics?

Sparkling no, I would think it works just generally.? But I don’t know.

When I’ve used it before, if you hit the “ignore” button, it hides their posts on all topics and just says “this is by a poster you’ve blocked”. And they can’t PM you either.

So if someone was going to endlessly post on vaccination threads about being anti vax, everyone could ignore - the mods had less work to do and the discussion flowed better.

I haven't seen sealioning, but I have a lot of topics hidden. There used to be a time that if certain posters appeared on a thread i would just hide the thread because it wouldn't be worth bothering with any more.

The topic blocking? I have blocked them showing up in the 'active' screen for me. If you are logged in and have the 'active' screen open then you can hide individual threads from there, but if you go into your 'active' screen (I'm doing this on a laptop) and look at the 'talk' above it, you should see a down arrow. Click on that and it takes you to another menu, pick 'customise' and then scroll to the bottom of that menu to get the 'ignore topics in active conversations'.

Sparkling I don’t want to resort to that because of the odd troublemaker, especially on topics that mean something to me, with other posters who are very supportive.

X post with Chic

No, it’s people blocking I mean.

I also think you can predict who will go on a thread about religion and tell everyone their beliefs are stupid. I say this an atheist. So that’s another good example of blocking bring handy. I always report, but it’s so rude.

I think it depends on how you use MN. I have no particular interest in any of the topics really so quite happy to hide threads as and when because it's just not worth the bother.

But if there are regular topics you post in and know the names of the users that are going to post and derail etc then I can see how it would be useful.

Part of the problem is that you could block a poster simply because you disagree with them, and that could make threads where they're making a decent contribution rather weird.

Milk not really

Even if it is a film thread or something, I don’t read all the posts.

No I don't read all posts either, but sometimes someone contributes something significant which gets referred to for the rest of the thread and if you've blocked that person anything you add to the thread could potentially make you look like the one who needs blocking.

Milk oh I had that on the other boards.

It doesn't matter. If everyone else keeps referring to whatever they've said that's great, you probably wander off anyway. But if someone says "the great thing about the Little Stranger is the unreliable narrator" and the whole conversation revolves round that, they'll have quoted it anyway, so you can still talk about the unreliable narrator.

but there are so many examples where you know who the problems are, who the sealions are, and on threads where you "know" the posters well, you can hear the sharp intake of breath at the passive aggressive nasty remark....and you can see everyone stepping back trying to ignore it.

*sorry, other people will have quoted your blocked person and you will know the chat has moved on to "unreliable narrator".

I don't think you can unless you get rid of the name changing bit. Which I wouldn't be sad to see the back of.

What's a sea lion?!

MN is not Facebook where you "own" your own FB page and can choose what to put on your own wall etc. MN is a discussion forum with all views welcome. A block function will be abused immediately an OP disagrees with a point of view being aired, irrespective of how reasonable.

stinky online it's this

www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Sealioning

but there are so many examples where you know who the problems are, who the sealions are, and on threads where you "know" the posters well...

This sounds like you just want to, at best, shut out opinions you don't like or even use it to form cliques where people on a thread agree to block someone out.

Not a good idea for an open discussion forum.

Milk "This sounds like you just want to, at best, shut out opinions you don't like or even use it to form cliques where people on a thread agree to block someone out."

I admit freely, on the forum where I used it before, anyone who thought "pull yourself together" was a good response to a poster with mental health issues - yes, I disagreed, and I blocked so I never saw those sorts of replies and you feel less ragey while trying to help said poster.

but I don't think that causes any issues with free flowing discussion, with loads of posters engaging with each other. You can't engage with everyone anyway? Or certainly shouldn't feel you have to.

No one knew if they were blocked. No one was in the habit of PMing so I'm not aware of anyone ganging up to block certain people, though yes, in fairness, I think certain people probably were blocked more often than others. But no one ever talked about it and we had meetups in real life. (I know MN does this but I've never been).

But no one ever talked about it and we had meetups in real life.

The first rule of Fight Club... 😁