I was going to suggest we all put Overnight on Ignore/Block, but I don't wanna be responsible for the death toll afterwards. He seems mighty miffed.
I aggressively use the ignore/block on any ET member that has made racist commentaries more than a few times towards Hispanics, Blacks, Jews, Indigenous, people of France, and U.S. Veterans. It's a little odd that many of them are also the same individuals posting disinformation/misinformation or trolling other ET members...often liking the commentaries of each other. Some of them have been either banned permanently for other reasons after I blocked them or banned temporarily for violation of ETs terms of use policy. My point is that Baron seems to have an issue with them (racists) too, and has the ability to do a lot more than I can. The other point is, why would you be easily offended by someone else or even Baron getting fed up with them. ??? Baron eventually getting rid of them is a plus. The other point is, do you have the ability to stand up to them too and tell them to fuck-off...tell them to go elsewhere with their bullshit, or are you the type that feels like you're accomplishing something behind an anonymous user name by arguing with them...not ignoring/blocking them ??? Seriously, have you ever gone to a large party and there are a few asswipes there that you do not want to socialize with nor have any conversations with...they then walk over to you to make some bullshit commentary ??? Do you walk away and they decide to follow you at the party to continue being an dickwad. Do you put on a smile or do you tell them to fuck-off ??? I'm a big guy, tall, athletic, former military, and proud veteran...I will look them in the eye and tell them to fuck-off. I'll continue saying it until they slither away back into the gutter. I had people like that (racists) in my military unit when I was an officer. We don't walk away from those types of people because they eventually threaten the unity...the community. You do not want to go into a battle with these people. The military will find a way to push them out or make life in the military very undesirable. Simply, make a stand...don't be a pussy instead of blocking their ass after they don't listen when you tell them to fuck-off. Also, do not whine like a baby if they block you first. Having the balls to stand up to them...its a sign of discipline and strength. It becomes very useful in other areas of life. wrbtrader
You interpreted my missive incorrectly. Not once did I indicate in my OP that I was talking about people who have ME on /ignore/block. I am speaking in general. People who ignore/block other people create problems with conversational flow on the forum. THAT IS MY PROBLEM WITH THE FEATURE! It messes up the FLOW of a thread. Person A responds to person B, person C responds to person B, Person A does not like what person C typed, so puts person C on block. Now comes along person D, who sees person A's response to person C, responds to person C, and person B be like, huh? Who is person D responding to? Person A or person C? I am not sure I mapped that out properly, but the idea is the same. It messes up FLOW. If you cannot handle the FLOW, just ignore the thread, and not the posters of the thread. Stop with the block madness.
If you need flow, might I suggest you join the local library book club. They meet once a month, take turns in the discussion, respond to everyone's questions, and if someone needs to go to the bathroom, everyone is still there when they get back. Good luck.
Are you sure you didn't mean the 50 odd people wearing the "Overnight smackdown stamp" on their Foreheads, who have probably placed you on Ignore over the years?
You should give a link to a thread as an example of what you're talking about !!! I'm confident that one of those persons has an issue with someone that has been trolling and is known to disrupt the flow of threads intentionally. Just as importantly, it is probably a thread not worth having a flow to other people nor do they give a shit as you do about the thread. Simply, it's just high school bullshit that's not going to give you a sleepless night unless it's a thread that you've created and consider it to be important to you for whatever reason. Seriously, if you think the flow of a thread is that important to you when it's obviously not important to others in the thread...you're the one making this forum too important as if it's just a few friends having a polite dinner discussion. It's not. Once again, give us a link to a thread that you consider to have lost its flow. If you don't give us an example, that's my point. It's probably not even worth highlighting/bitching about which would be the reason why it is a thread that merits remaining anonymous. Simply, it's a stupid thread and probably already buried in the backlinks (no longer on the first few pages). Personally, I no longer create important threads because there are too many people here at ET that come here for the sole purpose of intentionally disrupting a thread as if they've had too much to drink prior to heading to the next party to then intentionally be that asshole drunk that showed up under the façade of free speech. Just the same, there are too many people creating threads for the sole purpose to target and attack others that they don't share the same philosophy in life...also known as trolling. Baron has the following statement in the Political threads section... Not for the faint of heart. If you are easily offended, stay away from this forum! I would think it's a statement that the words above "this forum" should be replaced with the words "these threads". Yet, maybe the above statement should be a statement for the entire forum and not just for the political threads. Regardless, it is a well-known issue with public forums but typically not an issue with "private threads" or private conversations. Thus, there's a solution...you can create a private thread and invite those that are like-minded on the topic to increase the possibility of the flow that you seek plus you'll have better control of your own thread...something not possible in the public threads that you create. Your solution around the ignore/block feature that you do not like while others do like it especially when trolls abuse free speech by attacking the OP of a thread when they enter the OP threads while the troll is being ignore/blocked. Trolls are able to do such by clicking on the last message post icon while they're reading the thread while not logged in. That icon when clicked on will prompt the troll to log into the forum...enabling the troll to navigate around someone's ignore/block so that they can post a message in a thread that's blocking them. Simply, you have a solution while others can keep using the ignore/block tool. Yet, at the end of the day, the below solution is the best way to keep a flow of a thread and to eliminate the trolling. A secret weapon against ETs known antagonists (aka dickheads). Private Threads P.S. A different topic...the last message post icon should only be available for those that are logged into the forum and not available for those not logged into the forum. It is the most common way for trolls to navigate around the ignore/block feature of the OP of a thread that's blocking the troll. It will help to keep the flow in some threads but not every thread. wrbtrader
It goes both ways. If somebody doesn't like reading my shit, I don't mind people ignoring or blocking me; I just move on and talk to people who haven't ignored or blocked me. Has nothing to do with "intellectual flaccidity" or whatever; it's about having the emotional maturity of having positive conversations. Irl, we don't talk to everybody that we meet in our lives. Many people that we meet, we just don't want to talk to them or listen to what they say and when they talk,we walk away. That's the same as ignoring and blocking. If we can do it irl, why can't we do it on an internet forum? LOL You don't go to somebody who doesn't listen to you when you talk and shout to their face "you are intellectually flaccid and a piece of shit because you disagree with the ideas", you just move on and talk to people who are willing to listen to you, so why waste your time and energy to do it here on an internet forum? LOL And besides, we are not putting you on Ignore or blocking you, so what do you care? Who are you writing this "missive" for? Who are you advocating this for? LOL
And I have no problem with the flow of conversation because of people that I have blocked or ignored. I don't go around ignoring or blocking people for no reason. Every single user that I have ignored or blocked was all done with very good reason and after careful consideration and I have never regretted my decision except just once. Since I joined ET, I have only reversed my Ignore/Block on ONE user and that ONE user only. To me, not seeing garbage from users that I have ignored/blocked just makes every conversation flow lot better and the discussion lot more constructive and productive. And besides if it's a thread that's started by somebody that I have blocked, I don't look at that thread anyway because I don't see the starting post of the user that I have blocked just a summary of it anyway. It's annoying a bit to see the thread still popping up in the new thread list but with just a summary of the first post so maybe a better suggestion is maybe to have a thread started by a blocked person be completely hidden and not show at all in the new thread list on the forum page of the person who blocked that thread-starter? E.g. If person A is blocked by Person B, then Person A's thread is completely hidden and not show at all in the new thread list on the forum page of Person B so Person B is completely oblivious of Person B's crap. I mean logically it makes sense. If a user has already blocked another user, why should this user still continue to see the thread of the other user that he's already blocked when he can't even see his posts?
Exactly, the ignore/block function increases the quality level for yourself. You can throw out the garbage that has no value for you. In ET this function is really essential to survive. If person B loggs out, he can still read your posts. I already noticed that johnarb, whom I blocked completelly, pops up each time when I post something where I mention his name. So he is reading all my posts after being logged out. Really hilarious. I am sure his reacts on my post out of frustation. I enjoy that, because it means he is frustrated and has emotional problems of being blocked by me. So this should never be changed.