Topic: So, You Can Now Ignore Users

@antdickens Sorry - which features in particular did you mean? I arrived late to this discussion...

@antdickens Sure but they are sites with millions of users and there are targeted attack there. Here I have never seen anything like that besides some new trolls that post one hateful thing and they are gone.

Hiding your own posts (for me at least) is because you know you are doing something irritating or spam and you know that regulars will report you to the moderators.

This is the ONLY thing I do not like about this feature.

You can say that there are lots of people and they will react but we all know this is not 100% true.

@CANOEberry I’m just talking about the ignore features in general.

However I believe there is merit in what RubyCarbuncle is suggesting. It all comes down to personal preference and different people will ignore/block people for different reasons. I can see the rationale behind wanting to hide posts that merely mention/reply people on my ignore list, it would make things more complete. I can also see why people wouldn’t want that, which is why it’s the way it is now.

I actually think having a toggle (maybe on a per user basis) to hide mentions/quotes as well would be the solution, but ultimately it’s probably a step to far for now and I’m content to keep them as they are.

And by agree to disagree, that’s exactly what I’m saying, you both have valid views but they don’t align, which is ok.

@Zuljaras I’d be pretty sure it’s a very, very small number of people (if any) who have blocked you from seeing their posts and if they have it’ll be likely because of something you said that they disagree with, not because they trying to post spam. You can only block a limited number of users therefore it would be a pretty bad way to try and post spam.

@antdickens Thank you for clarifying. I agree that a toggle would be best, but I don't know how hard that would be to implement. Live and let live, I guess.

@antdickens I am sorry. By spam I meant spamming the same opinion over and over because well ... people are entitled to their opinions

And the smaller userbase, especially in the forums, matter

Anyway just like you said, let's agree to disagree.

@Ralizah @Eel OK that loophole should now be fixed, it will check when you try to ignore someone if they are a staff member on another site and prevent it. I've also removed all ignores that managed to use the loophole. I'll see if there is a way in future to allow ignores on the sister site, but not on the site where they are a member of staff, but for now it will have to be like this.

But this is the entire problem.

Right now in it's current form, the ignore and block features offer a user too much power. You control how another person's experience on the site works.

If someone you have ignored is minding their own business having a conversation with a user you haven't ignored, if the ignored user then gets quoted or @'d by the other, you can now see that conversation and force yourself into it/hijack it. The ignored person has no say in this and will remain excluded from their own conversation, should your replies not be quoted, as they can't see your replies anymore (unless they log out).

That means the ignored person has no power at all to control the experience, while the person doing the ignoring has all of it and given in it's current form ignoring has no safety checks (for a lack of a better term), you could quite easily wall individual users out of the forum entirely just because you and a handful of users decide you don't like somebody.

If you have made the decision to ignore someone, it shouldn't be on your terms, it should be an all or nothing decision. If you want to interact with that person, even indirectly, through discussions they are a part of with other users, then you should have to take them off your ignore lost so there can be equal balance of interaction. If you choose to ignore someone, you should have to accept they will be fully erased.

Otherwise, you are just walling a person out when it suits you and that is *****.

I’m sorry but I just disagree with this entire thing, I mean if Facebook is what you want you can always just go use Facebook, I think too hide even the mention of a name is a bit much, and makes it way tighter then it already is.

@Snatcher agreed, I don't think it needs to be tighter either. The whole ethos of the feature is meant to be quite simple; the ability to help you skip over comments from people you tend to disagree with. Most users don't even need to do this, and simply don't pay much attention to them, but others felt the need to actually hide those posts to make that easier for them - that's fair enough. I think people are starting to overthink the whole thing.

@antdickens Yeah, I agree, I feel like people knew it’s very simple use, didn’t like or was getting harassed, just ignore, A user on here put me on ignore because they didn’t like my opinions, fair enough, pick who you want or don’t want to interact with.

I actually don’t mind just logging out if the discussion is that important.

@Snatcher thanks, I appreciate it — I'm trying to make it useful for as many people as possible. I totally accept it won't be perfect for everyone, and hopefully, everyone can accept it where it's useful to others if not themselves.

@antdickens Yeah, NP.

@RubyCarbuncle I wouldn't say it's a silly idea, it would make sense not to see all the replies to people you've ignored, especially for article comments. I can see why that system would have issues too though.

So my understanding is, if a user ignores you, you can see their name appear in the latest thread post, and see other people’s replies, but can’t actually see their post?

I think this may be the case for me, as exactly that is happening. If that is the case, that is really disappointing. I can totally understand the need to block users who harass or break the rules, but excluding people from a public forum discussion just because you may not like them or what they said is really damaging in my opinion.

So far I have really enjoyed this forum, but that almost makes me want to not even bother, if I’m going to be excluded anyway.

Just my opinion.

@exit I agree with you, the ignore button shouldn’t be used to get rid of dissenting opinion. It should be used to silence abuse and bullying, etc. Naturally there’s people that hate being disagreed with and ignoring comes easier to them.

Yep that's how it works and quite honestly I agree with you, sadly the owners of the site don't see it that way. Funny thing is excluding people from something is a way of bullying yet that doesn't seem to matter I guess.

Ah, so you too have figured it out, you will be surprised with how many people agree with you, including me. I conversation one time, because of being blocked, but what sucks is that I had no interaction with said person, they can do whatever they want, They don’t have to talk to me it just sucks I was excluded from a whole conversation because of it.

However you can still se a blocked person post if someone quotes it.

Thank you all for the responses. The great thing about forums is that they allow anybody to have their say, and form a real organic community, compared to say social media which in my view, is more like to a bubble of self interest.

By excluding people from certain conversations you essentially alienate them, which is more or less a form of online bullying. It’s completely different from being banned by a moderator for bad behaviour. That’s why I think it can be incredibly damaging, especially if you don’t know why you are being excluded. How do you think that makes the user feel?

If that is how Nintendolife, it’s owners and moderators want it, then fair enough, it’s their platform. However, if you cannot read certain conversations, people’s views and share your own on the subject, then what is the point? It would be more beneficial for your own well being, and mental health to go somewhere else where you can have a mature discussion and be respected.

This is not meant to offend anybody, just food for thought really.

When I ignore someone in real life, it’s because they annoy me. I don’t need to ignore people here because I can just not read their posts if they annoy me. Nobody just gets randomly ignored in real life or on the internet. If you find yourself ignored by someone, it’s because you annoy them in some way. It’s probably not that you have a different opinion than this person, but how you state your differing opinion. What annoys one person might not annoy another person. It’s just that way.