h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Pleae please please please *please* can we have an ingore button?

I know that this has come up before, (a *very* long time ago) and the Community sort of thought it wasn't *very h2g2*, but it's a really useful tool to have - both for members and for staff, and the site is so much bigger now.

If some people annoy us, we just pop them on ignore, and never have to see their posts again! It'll stop so much fighting, it really will, especially from those who just want to get on with h2g2 life. It won't stop those who want to fight of course, but it does give the Eds a really handy tool.

Community Member:
'He's following me around the site, posting after me all the time'
'She's being mean'
'He's pointing out out my typos instead of debating properly'
'She's calling me a troll and I don't like it'
etc etc

Ed:
'Put him on ignore'

Instead of having to go round checking to see what's going on, and getting involved in every little spat that breaks out.

It doesn't give people the ability to break the Rules, because other people will still be able to see their messages, but it would solve so many problems! I've worked on a site that had this button, and it did make life easier. If people wouldn't use the ignore button, well, they had to put up with reading annoying messages!

You can't have an ignore button... If you did then I'd spend all my time on here talking to myself!

Yep. I am also against an 'Ignore' button (I remember hoovooloo's idea of a Bozo-filter, way back when). You also gotta give people a second chance. If you ignore them you'll never hear him begging you for pardon on his knees.


HELL

This does strike me as going against the grain of what I've come to expect on h2g2. Wouldn't it just partition people off from each other? Build walls between us? I don't like the idea of that.

Would you still see the rest of the thread you were in? I mean, is this to save unsubscribing from threads if you're annoyed with one poster?

I don't think I'd ever use it as you never know when someone might say something interesting (eternally optimistic, obviously!)and it would feel odd cutting a hootooer out of my experience, as it were.

Jules

I don't honestly think I would ever be able to use it either... I assume something like that would just blank out the text of a post made by someone you wanted to ignore and replace it with a standard message - and if that was the case I'd be far too nosy and I'd be turning the filter off all the time to see what idiotic thing the person had said this time.

Yes, as otherwise when said poster was wittily come back at by the next researcher, you'd be playing 'guess what they said' the whole time!

On some sites it works by putting up a message that says the person is on your ignore list. Sometimes they have a button which lets you view it other times you have to take the person off your list to read it.

Other sites just show the message as if it's been removed for breaking the rules - but only to the person with that member on their ignore list.

I'm sorry to see that other people don't like it. I don't think it's 'very h2g2' to have fighting and offensive content all over the place! Everywhere I go at the momemnt, people seem to be jumping on and picking on one particular member of h2g2 because their use of the site is annoying everyone. If they could all just 'ignore' the person (something all hosts/Editors recommend as the best way of getting rid of annoying people, no-one would be bothered.

The thing about ignore buttons/lists is that if you don't want to use it, you don't have to. So if you're too nosy to miss anything, or if you don't think it's 'very h2g2', then just don't use it.

But there are people here who would really appreciate being able to ignore people. Well, maybe only me, but it would stop people who normally unsubscribe to threads because of one annoying git from having to do it.

I can see your point, Mina.

My question would be 'would the people engaging in fighting/picking-on sessions actually use it?'. If not, any bad feelings around hootoo would continue, you'd just be personally unaware of it. So you'd be happybut it wouldn't stop the malaise.

Jules

I can see the pros of an ignore button but I think its fairly easy to keep away from a researcher if you don't like them. In my experience the really prolific posters tend to be lovely intelligent and witty people rather than snipers. I once fell out with a researcher who I keep on my friend's list because his journal entries are very entertaining. He decided not to reciprocate so doesn't get most of my posts.

**decides against a SoRB-esque protest by ignoring this thread**

Much though it pains me to say it, once in a while people who I might otherwise ignore say things that spark of an interesting debate. One of my best friends on hootoo (I won't say who) was someone who I once seriously considered not worth bothering responding to.

I don't see how it would work in a Forum-style conversation otherwise. If Mr Ignore posts something relevant in Post 2, what am I supposed to respond to Post 1 if I can't see it.

Bozos are part of life on hootoo (and I'm walking proof of it). Let's just live and let live.

B

If I see that someone has posted and I have hitherto found that person's posts to be tedious or offensive, I ignore them anyway. The one time I complained about offensive and unsuitable posting, my complaint was yikesed.

If Mina's "Ignore" button were to be introduced, would the person being ignored be able to find out?

Good point about the yikes button. Surely if anyone on h2g2 were so horrible that you wanted rid of them, you'd just make a complaint?

I've never seen an ignore button in action so I can't comment about that. Mina has and thinks it would be useful.

I think it's all about choice. At the moment each and every member of the community actually already has an "ignore" button - in our own minds. We can *choose* to ignore someone and continue. Equally, we can *choose* to feed trolls for sport and some people do, or *choose* to respond to silly comments about what time of day it is etc.

So, if we had an actual button we could still choose to use it - or not. It wouldn't be compulsory. I wouldn't. I'd still use the one in my mind but then I don't rise to being baited. I take Mina's point about it reducing the tension arising from those people who can't/won't ignore people they don't like.

So, my vote would be for not having a button because we don't (or shouldn't) need nannying. But if it was decided to have one I can see the positive uses of it.

My concern would be about misuse of the button. Some people might use it to get some kind of power kick. Also there are some delicate flowers in the community who might feel quite persecuted if they knew they were being deliberately ignored.

Yah. Imagine people ignoring *me*!

Hell

I have never seen an 'Ignore' button in action (a sheltered netxistance!) and so I can't really speak with any certainty.

If I understand it properly only the person who uses the button knows that they are ignoring another contributor. That contributor does not know they are being ignored by the other. If that is not the case and the ignored knows they are being ignored I would *not* be in favour of the button on the basis that it becomes a weapon of abuse for the nasty, spiteful people of this world.

The current advice from the TPTB to not feed the trolls is sensible and sufficient but it takes a degree of effort and self-confidence to continue in a thread when one is the object of their mean-spirited attention. If I am in a thread where others start or continue their little internecine conflicts then I usually unsubscribe. I have found that when this starts the thread is generally derailed and no longer worth a visit.

Those that leave very publicly (ie or some such in a post) are effectively using an 'Ignore' button and letting everyone else know they are being ignored.

On balance I am against an 'Ignore' button. Mina

turvy

If someone didn't know they were being ignored then couldn't they end up spamming h2g2 with messages for the person ignoring them?

One must consider other people in conversations also. If lots of people in one convo were ignoring eachother, then in all likelihood, there would be much repeating of the same thing by different people, who couldnt see the person they were ignoring making the point. The main problem with this is it leads to spamming. Surely this is the internet variation of putting your hands over your ears in th middle of a discussion and saying 'not listening'! Perhaps one should attempt to settle their differences with someone, as it does indeed take two to tango. Are all these annoying people really evil at heart?

Are there actually that many annoying people on h2g2? I seem to fall out with just about everybody in RL, but on here I seem quite popular. Maybe we should give the few that do annoy us on here the benefit of the doubt, unless of course they are being deliberately malicious, in which case you'd make a complaint.

"but on here I seem quite popular"

Appearances can be deceptive.

B