Being able to not read posts by a certain poster

[socialdilemmawhattodo]

Hi Mumsnet

I'm on a thread at the moment that, in my opinion, is being derailed by one poster, I would love the facility on here to be able to skip all posts by that poster as they contain little or nothing of interest to me at the moment. I am skipping manually and that slows down my reading of interesting posts on that thread by other posters. Any thoughts if this could be done? Thank you.

Was that the family set up thread?

I agree with other comments here (and just this week have several times mentioned it on threads) that posters are getting so snappy and sometimes actually offensive. Is it something in the water or just lack of summer sunshine? It's like everyone has horrific PMT at once ... that has lasted several weeks ...

That's correct. They can’t see any activity from you and you can't see theirs. @Beerlzebub

And that's on a forum? Like this? With set threads?

Am I asking too many questions? 😄

Yes it is. Very active too. Threads, posts, trending threads, different topics/boards, etc - Your regular chat forum. Unfortunately there's no namechange feature. Can't have it all, eh?

I can't post the name here as I don't think it will be allowed on this thread.

It's entirely possible you already are doing this

So for example, I think we mostly see each other on FWR, if someone is derailing or sealioning, I will ignore them. It doesn't have any effect on your participation on the thread.

To use an example that's not from there, it's a bit like if someone starts a thread about George Michael, and a poster keeps coming on and saying "what about Paul Young?" if I ignore that poster and keep discussing George Michael's music, me ignoring the poster - and having a button so I don't see their posts - wouldn't affect you in any way.

Thanks for the suggestion. We understand why a skip poster feature might seem appealing. The challenge is that threads are often a back-and-forth conversation so removing one poster’s contributions could make the discussion harder to follow, as replies and context might disappear or seem disconnected.

If you think a poster is behaving poorly, please report your concerns to us.

We really appreciate the feedback, though, and it’s always useful for thinking about ways to improve your experience on the boards.

So … let me get this straight;

You, @socialdilemmawhattodo block Zebedee’s posts from being seen by you on any thread you’re on?

But Zebedee’s posts will still be seen by other posters on that thread?

And other posters can reply/respond to Zebedee’s posts on that thread?

While at the same time each of those posters might have blocked seeing someone else’s posts?

So in a single thread we would all be reading and responding to only a portion of posts?

That would be incomprehensible bedlam. And not something I’d be interested in pursuing.

It’s very common on forums, they manage! MN just don’t want to or can’t.

@AstaEscapes "That would be incomprehensible bedlam. And not something I’d be interested in pursuing"

no, it would be exactly the same as if some posters aren't engaging with other posters now

We don't all engage with every single reply on the thread.

This is my objection. We'd potentially all be reading different combinations of posts - that's not a discussion, it's shouting into the wind!

You can scroll past certain posters' posts (I do) but if something raised in them gets discussed I can see what people are talking about if I choose. I wouldn't have that choice if they were removed/ hidden.

What about those who quote the blocked person and respond directly to them?

Would that quoted text also be blocked?

Surely that would make certain threads unreadable as responses wouldn’t make sense.

It's odd why mnhq and some posters are seeing this as something so complicated when it's the same thing that works on most social media sites. It's one thing to not want to do it, which is fair enough, but another thing to make it seem like such a huge feat and so difficult to navigate.

On a regular thread/social media, we don't pay attention to every single poster or replies to and fro between posters. You often couldn't tell who posted what as you're scrolling through unless a particular post catches your attention. Who you block doesn't affect any other person on a thread but you. Same as who others block only affects the blocker.

That said, I agree with a pp that this could be difficult because of the namechange feature. The complication for mnhq tech could be in making it so you can only block specific usernames but not block their whole accounts (and their other usernames).

Yes, you'd either have to just block that one username (at least now they can't change it mid-thread to get around it, but they could just change it on every other thread they go on) or get rid of the name-change function entirely which I think most posters would be up in arms about.

I'd stop posting here if the name change feature was removed.

(See the many previous threads on "can we block a poster" for why this - i.e. blocking an entire account for all variations of their username - would be used very easily to out the usernames of a single account).

I'd stop posting here if the name change feature was removed.

(See the many previous threads on "can we block a poster" for why this - i.e. blocking an entire account for all variations of their username - would be used very easily to out the usernames of a single account).

Completely agree.

Yes the nc feature is mumsnet's USP. Probably why many of us keep coming back. If it comes down to choosing between one or the other, I'd rather have the nc than block feature.

@YouMightLikeCats "I wouldn't have that choice if they were removed/ hidden"

but they're not being removed for you

If I block/ignore someone, using a mechanism embedded on a forum, then their posts are hidden from me, because I have blocked them.

They're not hidden from you.

I don't know why it bugs me so much that people don't understand this. 😂 I guess it's because I'm used to it being a norm. I've never posted on a forum where it wasn't enabled - until I joined this one.

I don’t get why people don’t understand it either