Silencing certain posters

[schoolrummum]

There are some posters who, for want of a better description, are not on this planet and their advice is just tripe. Is there anyway of blocking seeing their posts? They just infuriate me every time I am reading a thread and they respond.

You don't have to take their advice just because they give it. Or, you could call them out on their "tripey" advice.

I am able to simply scroll past posters with a regal swipe of my hand.

There's a couple of names who I immediately allow my eyes to slide over whatever the post. It's quite satisfying actually. I usually tell them I am doing it.

They seem to always get replies and derail the thread because 20 people want to 'put them right'. It's the same as blocking folk you don't want to hear from on social media. It's giving fire oxygen and I wish they wouldn't get the attention.

No there's no block feature on here. Just ignore them and scroll past.

This isn't social media. Just scroll past.

Thank you all, you're absolutely right. I shall also resist the urge to respond to them with obscenities.

It's the same as blocking folk you don't want to hear from on social media

It's not wise to only hear to the voices of people you agree with.

We are sleepwalking into a society where freedom of expression is being eroded because people increasingly feel that they have a right not to be offended by what others think and say.

Hi OP,

As above, the best advice we can give is to scroll on by. We don't have a block feature (apart from PMing), and it isn't something we've thought about for the boards but we're happy to chat about this at our next meeting, feedback is always welcome.

Thanks Lilymumsnet, good to know these things are given consideration. It comes from seeing the usual suspects saying nonsense to the OP and you see the name and go 'them again, are they for real?!'

Scrolling on by it is 👍🏻

it isn't something we've thought about for the boards

@LilyMumsnet It really should be, since CarolineMumsnet commented in www.mumsnet.com/Talk/site_stuff/3806519-Ignore-block-function and there have been other similar threads many times.

There have been oodles of threads about this, and IIRC the majority do not want a ‘hide poster’ function

Scroll on by, do not engage, report the extreme examples (of goading, misinformation, whatever)

it isn't something we've thought about for the boards

I think you'll find you have, and that you have repeatedly rejected it (in response to user survey, as it's been roundly rejected so very many times)

This is a hardy perennial thread - comes up frequently!

Why not allow people to block each other? Unless you're just after more clicks from bunfights....I do think in the long run you'd get more participation if people could block.

It wouid be bad for the flow of a thread if people were not reading all of it. People on other sites my or may not mind that, but the expressed view of MNetters is that they do.

There are many other sites that have the feature, and so if it is important to you, it would be easy to go to one that does.

I just hide the thread, there are plenty more to read.

it isn't something we've thought about for the boards

Why on earth would you come out with such an easily disproven lie?

If the blocked poster derails the thread it will be confusing when other posters 'put them right', you'll have no idea what they are responding too. Don't see how it would work.

Why on earth would you come out with such an easily disproven lie?

I assume it's a mangling of phrasing rather than they genuinely meant it's not been thought about.

I think it was more meant as 'we're not thinking about doing this'.

If the blocked poster derails the thread it will be confusing when other posters 'put them right', you'll have no idea what they are responding too. Don't see how it would work.

I don't see why it would be confusing - you'd just think "they are responding to someone blocked."

I'm going to propose how block function could specifically work:

• you would be able to block posters by username,
• the user in question wouldn't know they are blocked,
• you would see that a comment by someone you'd blocked was there on a thread, but not who it was or what its contents were.

I really don't think there is a downside to this model of blocking and it would probably improve the quality of the whole site (less sniping, fewer sealions) as well as the quality of individual user experiences.

If the advice is dangerous or trying to stir/aggravate then report them!

How about if we could highlight certain posters, like we can with our own posts then you could choose a lovely shade of lilac for your enemies.

Since your main complaint seems to be that other people detail the thread by replying to them, blocking wouldn’t help with that. Given the number of MNers it’s unlikely that even the most annoying poster would be blocked by most people on a thread, so they’d still get reponses

Since your main complaint seems to be that other people detail the thread by replying to them, blocking wouldn’t help with that

That isn't my main complaint, nor the main complaint of many other people who would like a blocking function. We simply don't want to read comments we don't want to read.

Examples for me include sealioning posters, obvious liars, people who are aggressively dismissive about mental health issues, people who show the same posting patterns as known trolls.

There is absolutely no downside other than the costs of technical implementation.

The people who don't want that feature could simply not use it, and wouldn't be aware that anyone else was using it. For the people who do want the feature, it could massively improve their Mumsnet experience.

It would also likely have a very positive effect for the moderators as many people would choose to block annoying posters instead of arguing with them.

I don't think the function would confuse anyone for the same reason we just scroll by a deleted post on a thread. We see people reacting to that and just think they must have said something out of order. My issue is that I don't want to give these people the attention they so crave with their posts. They seem to thrive on winding people up and don't add any value to the thread, that was my point. Turning them lilac and a 'you don't care to see this twaddle' would work! 🤣