The "Ignore" feature...your philosophy?

[Duke Newcombe]

No doubt in my time here on DU, I've found my way onto a few Ignore lists. For the past two years or so, I have tried to avoid putting folks in mine-I just figured I have to grow a thicker skin, or just suffer fools gladly, or just move on to another thread. But since GD:P started really spinning up into the maelstrom it is now, mine has grown from 0 to 6 in the space of a month. However, instead of bringing peace, it's a little disturbing to me, but I can quite figure out why.

What are the prevailing philosophies regarding using your Ignore function? When you tire of someone, do they immediately go there, or do you suffer them for a while before you killfile them, or do you try to avoid using the function at all costs. I'd like a range of opinions in order to conduct my own personal "thought experiment". Thanks for the help.

Duke

[LeftyFingerPop]

1. Never used it and never will. n/t

[OmahaBlueDog]

2. Fewer and fewer of my posts get responses

So I assume that I've been put on ignore by a bunch or Duers...or I've become boring beyond all reason.

[crimsonblue]

3. I'm quick draw mcgraw in this respect...

if you piss me off (not just disagreeing but being a retard or freeping loser), then you are joining my ignore pile. :evilgrin:

[Chan790]

4. I have three DUers who recycle mine constantly...

I really hate having them there...but every time I remove them, they talk themselves back into the (lack of) thought gulag within a month.

[KitchenWitch]

5. There are two people on my permanent iggy list

I usually only use ignore on a temporary basis. I will take most folks off ignore after I have cooled down enough to have a sane conversation with them.

The two people who reside on my permanent iggy list are folks with whom I know I can never have a sane interaction with.

[SeattleGirl]

6. My two main criteria:

1. They pop up in tons of posts, spewing the same stupid talking points, regardless of the subject.

2. They personally attack me and call me names.

Both criteria don't need to be met to land on the ignore list; either one can get someone there.

The main reason they end up there is because it cuts down significantly on my irritation. :)

[harmonicon]

7. I have this amazing ability...

... to just ignore posters that I know are going to piss me off. Sure, some times I run across complete crap, but I just don't spend any time on it. I'm happy to have a debate, or just a discussion or different opinions, with someone else, but I don't want to waste my time with someone who doesn't feel the same way. The thing is, there are people here in the lounge who seem great, and then I read things they write in GDP and can't believe they're the same people... horrible things happen to them. That doesn't mean that I can't come here and discuss films or recipes or something with them.

[khashka]

8. Never used it, never will

But just because you annoy the fuck out of me doesn't mean you don't have interesting things to say.

Only one person I thought about putting on ignore but I didn't. Total asshole. But I thought if I put him on ignore I was running away, being a coward. So fought it out with him. And it got nasty, but I think I won. (Khash being all manly!)


Khash.

[auntAgonist]

9. I've never used it.

[mwooldri]

10. I don't use it but then I'm more a lurker anyways. (nt)

[Monk06]

11. How do you know your ignore is working? Maybe the ignoree is ignoring you.

The only way to test that is to reply to said
ignoree in which case you are no longer ignoring
them.

Plus you are in the humiliating position of finding
yourself preemptively ignored by your ignoree.

The problem with the ignore function is that it is
passive aggressive which is an oxymoron when you think
about it.

[Duke Newcombe]

12. Okay gbrooks...my eyes are bleeding, now...give me a moment...

:)

Duke

[DarkTirade]

13. Never used it, probably never will.

Occasionally I'll see something that will actually make me mad... but then my choice is either walk away, or respond. Sometimes I'll respond and find that I didn't realize that person was being sarcastic or something like that, and they actually meant the opposite of what they said. In at least one case that I can think of recently, what started as an argument ended with :hug: icons. :)

There are a few other cases when I've been tempted to ignore someone, but usually those are the threads that are just so nasty that they get deleted and/or the poster gets banned so it's a fairly moot point anyway.

Personally, I'd rather know what's being said than not know and just assume it's said by someone who I choose not to pay attention to. If I see what's said, I can choose whether to pay attention to it on a case by case basis, rather than basing it on whose fingers it was typed with. Even a broken clock is right twice a day, and even the most assholish of people can still be right now and then.

[drmeow]

14. I have to confess

I have someone on my ignore list because their posts always include an animated gif that I just can't and don't want to watch - I know, a terrible reason to put someone on the ignore list but I just can't stand the gif and its harder to ignore than the text. Just seeing the gif raises my BP a notch regardless of what the post says.

Most of the time I just ignore people without putting them on my ignore list ... it takes a repeated pattern of either irritating the F out of me (and I do mean REALLY REALLY irritating me) or taking a position that is so fundamentally against one of my deepest core values that I really don't have any interest in engaging that person on any level. There are actually more people on my ignore list than I thought (5) and I don't know why they are all there (I know why 2 are there but not the other 3) so I may take them off just to see (I think they must not have been posting much or I haven't been reading the threads they've been posting on cause I haven't been seeing a lot of "ignoring this poster" or whatever the message is as I read).

I don't tell anyone I'm ignoring them - I don't think that is necessary. For me it is a personal issue not a weapon to be used.

It doesn't bother me if I'm on someone's ignore list.

On edit:

Looking again I noticed that 1 person has everything blocked (PMs, threats, replies). They must have REALLY offended me. Another was tombstoned so I guess I'm not the only one who was offended :)

[murielm99]

15. I used it during the last primary,

but only had three or four people on ignore.

This time is different. My ignore list is getting pretty long. My only rule has been to ignore people who have attacked me personally.

I will take them off ignore after the election. Some of them have been so obnoxious to me personally that I don't even want to see their names until we have a new President.

This is unusual. Normally I like to talk to people who don't think exactly like me. But I draw the line at some of the name-calling here.

[petronius]

16. I could never use it - as soon as I saw "ignored" in a thread, I'd want to know

who said it and what they said. It's just the way I'm wired.

That said, there are posters whose threads I never open and whose posts I just glide right over...

[Q3JR4]

17. I haven't used it before, but have

come close a few times.

I don't keep tabs on the people that bother me, so don't know if there are any "repeat offenders." That helps too.

Q3JR4.

[Rhiannon12866]

18. I've never put anyone on "ignore"

I want to know what everyone is saying.:shrug:

[Lil Missy]

19. I read GD and GDP, but only post on occasion.

I simply refuse to get all worked up or in a pissing contest with strangers on an anonymous message board.

However, I see no shame in using the Ignore feature, and I wouldn't hesitate to use it if I felt the need.

[last_texas_dem]

20. I can't stand using the ignore feature

I just can't get past feeling like I'm not getting my full DU experience or something. haha I've gotten pissed at people a couple of times and put them on ignore, but always removed them within a couple hours, 'cause I couldn't stand with feeling like I was avoiding reality or something along those lines.

[RainDog]

21. I Use It

before the primary ever started, I had some ppl on ignore. I've taken them off a couple of times then put them back on within a day. They are there b/c their posts, to me, are so over-the-top for one reason or another that I am better off not seeing them. In one case it's because I would get into a useless argument. The other two are just because I find their posts consistently annoying. I can't really say more - but none of these ppl have anything to do with the primaries.

Since I've been posting in gd-p, I've put about 30 ppl on ignore. Some of them are now tombstoned.

I put some on ignore so that I will be courteous -- as in, I am too tempted to engage in useless arguments to continue to read this or that.

Sometimes I know I will continue to argue needlessly over a particular topic so I will put someone on ignore until I step back and get perspective. I don't see it as passive-aggressive at all. I see it as a way to improve a user experience on a forum. I would think it would improve others' experience too b/c I wouldn't argue with them.

I have no idea who has me on ignore. I don't care who has me on ignore, again, b/c I see it as a way for that other person to enjoy the site more. Politics is a heated subject sometimes.

[Jamastiene]

22. Do what, now?

I can't hear ya? I don't see your posts. I have you on ignore. :P

I do have a few people, the ones who have badgered me, on ignore. I don't have any lofty principles or high reasons to refuse to ignore people, like some people do. I like for life to be simpler and better and with the great function called "ignore," it is. :P

[puerco-bellies]

23. I don't use it.

I think it is kind of like passing a car crash, morbid but compelling.

[old mark]

24. I have been here only a short time

and don't know anyone enough to ignore them.
I don't know if I would when I do...uhm...

mark