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Ignore Button

A

Anonymous

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Click on 'control panel'. Along the top you will see a list of options. Click on 'edit ignore list'. Add a user name. Posts by that user will magically vanish. Sorted. :)

Oh, and do not feed the trolls.
 
I was just on the "Toys!!" thread in the General Forteana forum and oddly enough, there was a post saying something like "You have this member on ignore. Click here to read the post." The strange thing is, I have no one on ignore. I double-checked, in fact. What could be causing this? Does anyone else see this (it's on the first page of the thread)? Thanks!
 
The only thing I can come up with is that someone hacked in using your name and password
and fiddled around with things. The other day I got a private message from myself asking
how the weather was up here, now that was strange. Does anyone know how this could have
happened because I was online at the time it was sent?:confused:
Try changing your password, but if they got the one before it wouldn't be that hard to get
the new one.
 
Cursed have i missed another troll attack, or is this for reference?
 
I was just on the "Toys!!" thread in the General Forteana forum and oddly enough, there was a post saying something like "You have this member on ignore. Click here to read the post." The strange thing is, I have no one on ignore. I double-checked, in fact. What could be causing this? Does anyone else see this (it's on the first page of the thread)? Thanks!
Click to expand...

It's there for me too. Is that a post by Tang Mallow? Perhaps it's the changing server thing?
 
Originally posted by AndroMan
Perhaps it's the changing server thing?
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I don't think Tang had anything to do with it, because I've never ignored anyone. If it's a post by a deleted user, it still gives their name, so I doubt if that's it. I think the more likely thing is what you suggested about the server. I have it set up so I always have cookies going and don't need to log in; however, the past couple times I've been here, I have had to log in, even though my Options read otherwise. Kooky. It's almost like someone did hack me, but if they did, they avoided doing anything damaging. Because of this, I think a hacker's not the case.
 
That might have been the case in the past, Si; however, I no longer drink as it's a violation of my parole agreement. It seems to be fine now though, so it might've been a glitch from switching servers, as AndroMan suggested.
 
From a post of mine in the New Welcome Page thread (this forum):

"Put them on your Ignore list - then you you don't have to read any more of their nonsense!
The simplest way to do this is to click on the Profile button under the post, scroll to the bottom of the Profile page and click the 'Add to Ignore List' link. (You can also edit your Ignore list from Control Panel.)"

I prefer this method to using Control Panel since you don't have to type in the offender's username, thus avoiding problems with odd spellings and variations with/without spaces, etc.
(Important as Trolls often use small variations on other folks usernames.)
 
Well, this thread hasn't seen much action in the last 15 years!

I don't particularly wish to put any poster on ignore - even the biggest dimwits or political activists occasionally say something of interest - but could we have a Dislike button under each new post?

Then if someone is banging on 'ad nauseam' about their particular hobbyhorse I don't have to reply (which just gives them the oxygen of publicity) as I could just click Dislike instead. This might make some posters wonder whether constant repetition of their views might just be seen as annoying and counter-productive. Repetition of an idea doesn't make it any more true, even assuming it had any truth to start with! :twisted:

And collecting a specified number of dislikes could result in automatic ejection from the MB - but perhaps that's going too far.... :evil:
 
Considering the concerns that the FTMB is struggling, a "dislike" button is likely to kill it dead. It will certainly become a more hostile place. Do we really need that?
 
Ulalume said:
Considering the concerns that the FTMB is struggling, a "dislike" button is likely to kill it dead. It will certainly become a more hostile place. Do we really need that?
Click to expand...

I agree totally.
 
Ulalume said:
Considering the concerns that the FTMB is struggling, a "dislike" button is likely to kill it dead. It will certainly become a more hostile place. Do we really need that?
Click to expand...
I find it hostile the way it is, with self-elected 'experts' forcing their various opinions on the rest of us.
I was looking for a non-hostile way of defusing this attitude.

Perhaps we should just ban Politics intead....
 
rynner2 said:
I find it hostile the way it is, with self-elected 'experts' forcing their various opinions on the rest of us.
I was looking for a non-hostile way of defusing this attitude.
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I take your point, Rynner, and I know you're not a bad egg, but I honestly think that your proposed solution would exacerbate the problem markedly.
 
Ulalume said:
Considering the concerns that the FTMB is struggling, a "dislike" button is likely to kill it dead. It will certainly become a more hostile place. Do we really need that?
Click to expand...

No, we don't ... It strikes me that it would help to step back and look at the bigger picture ...

We now have multiple threads (one with a poll) on the subject of expressing one's opinion on one or another poster and / or posting and whether / how FTMB should be handling such expression features.

IMHO all these derive from, and / or point to, a bigger problem ...

Over the last decade, the following trends have been evident on the FTMB with regard to posted content:

(1) A huge increase in personal / 'social' chat as our ever more numerous members come to know each other, and

(2) A parallel shrinkage in the proportion of FTMB threads / posts in which anything even remotely construable as discussion of Fortean topics occurs.

During this same timeframe the following trends have been discernible with respect to posting behavior:

(1) A growing inability or disinclination to stay on topic within any given topically-defined thread,

(2) A burgeoning tendency to slip into extended series of quips (and nothing more ... ) piled on in response to a post, with these quip-fests often serving as pivot points into tangents (cf. item 1),

(3) An increasing number of items posted as new threads, even though there are obviously one or more established threads within which they reasonably belong (alternative phrasing: an increasing avoidance of searching before posting), and

(4) The growing prevalence of cursory 'drive-by' postings (most particularly links to external content) without any contextualization or comment.

In summary, the FTMB has been inexorably mutating in the direction of trite 'social media' interplay and away from the sort of discussions that initially attracted me (and, I'd venture to claim, other longstanding members).

We're now at the point where we're caught up in debating features and capabilities dedicated to such 'social' aspects of board participation.

The latter-day tail is now starting to wag the original dog. This, I believe, is a danger sign.

As to the 'ignore' issue itself ... Given the overall (board-wide) trends cited above, it might be more helpful to provide 'ignore' (or equivalent) options at the level of entire sub-forums / sections (e.g. Politics) rather than individual members.
 
while i agree with everything youve said re posting quality and relevance, it is easy to ignore entire sections of the board simply by not visiting them, or unsubscribing from the thread(s) if necessary

when i look through my posting behaviour historically i only used to post in ihtm, perhaps a little in ghosts and ufos ... with the advent of up-to-the-minute recent/new posts lists its easy to be drawn into posting across the board ... not a bad thing but it does promote a chipping-in posting mentality
 
Christ this is all getting a bit complicated. If you like it get involved, if you don't then don't is the best method I reckon .. anything else is social engineering.
 
EnolaGaia said:
No, we don't ... It strikes me that it would help to step back and look at the bigger picture ...

We now have multiple threads (one with a poll) on the subject of expressing one's opinion on one or another poster and / or posting and whether / how FTMB should be handling such expression features.

IMHO all these derive from, and / or point to, a bigger problem ...

Over the last decade, the following trends have been evident on the FTMB with regard to posted content:

(1) A huge increase in personal / 'social' chat as our ever more numerous members come to know each other, and

(2) A parallel shrinkage in the proportion of FTMB threads / posts in which anything even remotely construable as discussion of Fortean topics occurs.

During this same timeframe the following trends have been discernible with respect to posting behavior:

(1) A growing inability or disinclination to stay on topic within any given topically-defined thread,

(2) A burgeoning tendency to slip into extended series of quips (and nothing more ... ) piled on in response to a post, with these quip-fests often serving as pivot points into tangents (cf. item 1),

(3) An increasing number of items posted as new threads, even though there are obviously one or more established threads within which they reasonably belong (alternative phrasing: an increasing avoidance of searching before posting), and

(4) The growing prevalence of cursory 'drive-by' postings (most particularly links to external content) without any contextualization or comment.

In summary, the FTMB has been inexorably mutating in the direction of trite 'social media' interplay and away from the sort of discussions that initially attracted me (and, I'd venture to claim, other longstanding members).

We're now at the point where we're caught up in debating features and capabilities dedicated to such 'social' aspects of board participation.

The latter-day tail is now starting to wag the original dog. This, I believe, is a danger sign.

As to the 'ignore' issue itself ... Given the overall (board-wide) trends cited above, it might be more helpful to provide 'ignore' (or equivalent) options at the level of entire sub-forums / sections (e.g. Politics) rather than individual members.
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Can I suggest that there are several reasons for this?

1) There really isn't the same quantity of Fortean stuff out there that there was say 20 or 30 years ago. (Or maybe there is but the media both new and old is inimical to individuals saying they've been abducted by aliens or whatever). Put another way, one's experiences are much more exposed to public ridicule than they were, and people in the wide world seem to me to be much more confrontational.

2) There has been a lot going on in politics which has raised the heat and length of discussion . It was the Blair Labour party that ran ads basically saying everything is politics, and a lot of people now think that way.

3) Not many new members - I'm relatively new, but I've exhausted my supply of Fortean anecdotes and said my piece on those topics that interest me. So there is a lack of fresh tales and insights.

4) This forum is, unlike most others I've contributed to, generally polite and respectful (thanks mods). So one feels confident to share ones views knowing that there will be sensible, and sometimes opinion-changing, discussion.

And personally, I kind of like you all, and am interested in other's opinions. I suspect if we all met up together we wouldn't stop talking for about three days. But it would be much better if we had more Fortean stuff to discuss. Perhaps we need to advertise ? :)

Just my twopence worth.
 
Notwithstanding the above, I've run a forum myself and the problem is always one of keeping thing more or less headed in the right direction, and at the same time making the place something which fits with human nature, and by the latter I mean the 100% inevitable tendency for people to socialise, whether in-thread or in dedicated threads.

While I personally could care much for the loss of (say) politics threads, I know from experience, that if you get too 'strict' about thread wander and try to keep people from interacting as people, you'll end up with a much different place and, frankly a much smaller and narrowly focused one.

Like all enclosed communities that do not allow other views or behaviours, it will then disappear up it's own wazoo in the end.

Imho the facility to ignore threads will help, as it allows individuals to construct the forum they want to see, without creating or imposing a forum that will only appeal to narrower demographic.

Of course, you may end up with overlapping communities, but that might be more likely to have legs than having one very narrowly focused one. Even if we take the view that all posters are interested in the Fortean, it's a very broad church and different folk have different interests within it, so keep the forum wide and a little loose, but allow individuals to easily avoid what they have no interest in.
 
Opt-in subforums are a non-option--technically speaking--while opting out could be possible.

However...

I think that one problem is that we have the standard-issue of the message board and while additional functions exist they aren't all free. There is almost no-scope for additional expenditure on the board and this limits our possibilities.

Stu knows infinitely more about this issue that me, having spoken to the Tech people directly.
 
Cochise said:
Can I suggest that there are several reasons for this?

1) There really isn't the same quantity of Fortean stuff out there that there was say 20 or 30 years ago. (Or maybe there is but the media both new and old is inimical to individuals saying they've been abducted by aliens or whatever). Put another way, one's experiences are much more exposed to public ridicule than they were, and people in the wide world seem to me to be much more confrontational.
Click to expand...

I wonder if the universality of high quality camera phones is a factor in this. It becomes less and less credible that someone who has seen a ghost, or an alien or a cryptid would not have taken a snap.

2) There has been a lot going on in politics which has raised the heat and length of discussion . It was the Blair Labour party that ran ads basically saying everything is politics, and a lot of people now think that way
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Can't really blame Blair for that. People have argued that everything is political for centuries. I think the surge of interest now is because with Brexit, Trump, Corbyn etc there is a lot more controversy and excitement. Nothing wrong with that and discussion is as you say usually polite and respectful.

I don't get this desire for an ignore button for threads, however. If you want to ignore a thread, just don't click on it. I don't understand why any technological solution beyond "don't click on topics that don't interest you" is required.
 
Quake42 said:
I don't get this desire for an ignore button for threads, however. If you want to ignore a thread, just don't click on it. I don't understand why any technological solution beyond "don't click on topics that don't interest you" is required.
Click to expand...
this i think is due to a change in how we locate threads we re interested in ... browsing forums would effectively allow us to avoid uninteresting areas of the board but who does much of that any more ... these days its refreshing the new/recent posts list which is used, showing unfiltered results, this is the equivalent of "trending" on social media ... im guessing if you could construct an intelligent search which only presented updated threads in subforums youre interested in, avoiding subforums youve specified as out of scope, would give what was requested above
 
henry said:
this i think is due to a change in how we locate threads we re interested in ... browsing forums would effectively allow us to avoid uninteresting areas of the board but who does much of that any more ... these days its refreshing the new/recent posts list which is used, showing unfiltered results, this is the equivalent of "trending" on social media ... im guessing if you could construct an intelligent search which only presented updated threads in subforums youre interested in, avoiding subforums youve specified as out of scope, would give what was requested above
Click to expand...

Oh I see. Am I doing it wrong then? When I go into each forum I just see the full list of topics with any with unread posts showing in bold.
 
Quake42 said:
I wonder if the universality of high quality camera phones is a factor in this. It becomes less and less credible that someone who has seen a ghost, or an alien or a cryptid would not have taken a snap.
Click to expand...
On the other hand, in my mind the literature is full of examples from the pre-smartphone era of people forgetting to remove lens caps or load film rolls. I know from personal experience that my phone never has enough charge in it when I need it for something more pressing than a round of Candy Crush. I know for a fact it will expire if I'm ever on hand to see Nessie and family show up for their lochside synchronised swimming display. So arguably the fact that almost everyone has a decent digital camera about their person simply increases the opportunities for trickster-like goofs as opposed to well-framed portraits of cryptids.

Quake42 said:
I don't get this desire for an ignore button for threads, however. If you want to ignore a thread, just don't click on it. I don't understand why any technological solution beyond "don't click on topics that don't interest you" is required.
Click to expand...
I'd like the facility, myself. As Henry says, if certain threads weren't thrown to the top of the new posts list, I could just ignore their presence. As it is, I am forcibly reminded that they exist, and that does act as something of a disincentive for me to call by. I'm sure not everyone feels like this, but it would make a positive difference to me. If the facility were to be implemented, would it have a negative effect on your usage of the FTMB?
 
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Quake42 said:
I don't get this desire for an ignore button for threads, however. If you want to ignore a thread, just don't click on it. I don't understand why any technological solution beyond "don't click on topics that don't interest you" is required.
Click to expand...
So? Just because you don't get it doesn't mean it's wrong!
 
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