Ignore turned on again - you can again ignore your fellow Neowinian

[Steven P. Administrators]

 

Some people decided to leave Neowin or decrease the time spent here. All I can say is that we managed to ban a few toxic members due to the fact they were no longer able to be ignored anymore, they got reported more often and our staff were able to investigate it better.

 

The problem with features like these is that long serving members will know which asshats to ignore, but new signups won't, and those end up being the target for - shall we say - a small "club" of members who make it undesirable to stay here for the new members.

 

Anyway, Neowin is better served if the good members end up staying while blocking one or more other members rather than quitting the site all together.

 

I want to add I am not totally behind the decision to reenable it, but I'm also not blind to the criticism of it not being an option either.

[+John. Subscriber¹]

...sorry, did you say something?

 

Seriously though, I welcome this. And I'm all for being able to personally silence the few certain people we have here to spare the many. 

 

On the other hand, I hope people can actually read this!

 

[Steven P. Administrators]

26 minutes ago, John. said:

...sorry, did you say something?

 

Seriously though, I welcome this. And I'm all for being able to personally silence the few certain people we have here to spare the many. 

 

On the other hand, I hope people can actually read this!

 

Staff groups can't be ignored ?

[dipsylalapo Supervisor]

Just to add to the above, if you're ignoring a user for whatever reason, more than likely they're an issue for others too.

 

Please report comments/bad behaviour and the mods will do our best to clean things up.

[Nick H. Supervisor]

Well at least people that are sensitive to differing opinions can use this option again and lock themselves in an echo chamber.

 

As has been said though, please don't use this as a substitute for the report function. Us moderators cannot be everywhere at once, we need you guys to let us know if you find something that breaks the community rules rather than just putting the person on ignore.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

As someone who has been a vocal supporter of the "Ignore" function, I am willing to admit that the forums are generally better now that the toxic trolls have been banished - which could arguably be due to them being reported more as they were now visible. But when a someone suggests that wanting to ignore someone who you consider to be of zero value is in some way locking yourself in an echo chamber because you're overly sensitive - it speaks more of them than anything else really. Sometimes people quite simply and quite rightly don't want what could be valid debate interrupted by idiots who haven't a clue and just seek to provoke or push an agenda.

[techbeck]

2 hours ago, Nick H. said:

Well at least people that are sensitive to differing opinions can use this option again and lock themselves in an echo chamber.

 

Sensitive?...umm, ok then.

 

Personally, I never used ignore but glad it was brought back for those who do not want to see certain users posts.  Some people just post crap.

[Steven P. Administrators]

Well it really does make the jobs of forum moderators harder when the type of people who are going to get ignored are allowed to spout off unchecked, fewer people (if any) report them as we saw. I came across these people myself but they weren't actually breaking forum rules, just being a bit  in topics. These people always slip up and it is easier to miss if they are being ignored by a lot of regular/frequent/posting members. 

[jnelsoninjax]

1 minute ago, Steven P. said:

Well it really does make the jobs of forum moderators harder when the type of people who are going to get ignored are allowed to spout off unchecked, fewer people (if any) report them as we saw. I came across these people myself but they weren't actually breaking forum rules, just being a bit  in topics. These people always slip up and it is easier to miss if they are being ignored by a lot of regular/frequent/posting members. 

Do you have the ability to see who is being blocked?

[Steven P. Administrators]

3 minutes ago, jnelsoninjax said:

Do you have the ability to see who is being blocked?

Nope.

[techbeck]

11 minutes ago, Steven P. said:

Well it really does make the jobs of forum moderators harder when the type of people who are going to get ignored are allowed to spout off unchecked, fewer people (if any) report them as we saw. I came across these people myself but they weren't actually breaking forum rules, just being a bit  in topics. These people always slip up and it is easier to miss if they are being ignored by a lot of regular/frequent/posting members. 

Well, for those users who are ignored for not violating the rules and posting crap, shouldnt cause any additional strain on the mods.

[+Random Stranger Subscriber¹]

7 minutes ago, techbeck said:

Well, for those users who are ignored for not violating the rules and posting crap, shouldnt cause any additional strain on the mods.

not breaking the rules - yet "slip up and easier to miss "

 

that surely sounds like moderating based on opinions not rules ? 

[techbeck]

4 hours ago, Steven P. said:

Some people decided to leave Neowin or decrease the time spent here. All I can say is that we managed to ban a few toxic members due to the fact they were no longer able to be ignored anymore, they got reported more often and our staff were able to investigate it better.

 

Not just toxic members although I do appreciate that there are fewer of those around.   People are leaving as well due to content that is posted.  I would subscribe again if certain areas were not as active and more of the technical forums become more active.

[Steven P. Administrators]

3 minutes ago, Jimmy #1 said:

not breaking the rules - yet "slip up and easier to miss "

 

that surely sounds like moderating based on opinions not rules ? 

What I meant was those types of members that intentionally post in a way they annoy others or staff but don't actually break the rules. A recent example is someone repeatedly posting off topic content in a thread that was intended (and required) for very different content, despite friendly warnings it continued and the result ended up with a ban due to escalation of the issue by the member. That's what I mean by a "slip up" - typical behavior eventually rearing its ugly head.

 

 

[Steven P. Administrators]

1 minute ago, techbeck said:

Not just toxic members although I do appreciate that there are fewer of those around.   People are leaving as well due to content that is posted.  I would subscribe again if certain areas were not as active and more of the technical forums become more active.

What can I say, we shifted undesirable subject matters into their own forum which can also be ignored from minispy, you need not ever see what is posted there - these things cost time and money to pay for those developments. I like to think we try at least, but I also don't agree on blocking the discussion altogether.

 

Maybe the tech areas could do with a little more movement, but I still find it cool how some tech related problems are usually answered quickly and by knowledgeable people able to solve the problem.

[techbeck]

Just now, Steven P. said:

Maybe the tech areas could do with a little more movement, but I still find it cool how some tech related problems are usually answered quickly and by knowledgeable people able to solve the problem.

For me, it is a problem when a technical/gaming site has a political thread that is the most active.  At least that is how it appears.  I, and I am sure a lot of other long time members, remember when technical forums were busy and lots were posting in those areas.  I would think the tech areas could use a lot more improvement.  Not trying to be all negative.  I noticed a few members who are no longer around and things have calmed down.  However, if you are a new person visiting the site, it is kind of off putting when the most active thread is political.  While other threads can go several hours, or days, with no movement.

 

Another feature that may help get people to participate in other areas is bringing back the feature where an OP can mark a reply as the correct/best post.  Some people consider this as a contest and may encourage others to post more.  Just a suggestion.

[+Random Stranger Subscriber¹]

1 minute ago, techbeck said:

 

 

Another feature that may help get people to participate in other areas is bringing back the feature where an OP can mark a reply as the correct/best post.  Some people consider this as a contest and may encourage others to post more.  Just a suggestion.

yes that was a good feature

[Steven P. Administrators]

Ah yes.. the Q and A I meant to look into this again, but it requires changing the format of the forum so it needs a bit of thought applied ? I will look into this.

 

I do remember that some OP ended up not marking the solve properly, which caused posts of frustrations as well!

[fusi0n]

ssh @neowin

./neowin -ignore StevenP

You do not have privileges to ignore StevenP

sudo ./neowin -ignore StevenP

--Fus10n has been banned

[techbeck]

2 minutes ago, Steven P. said:

Ah yes.. the Q and A I meant to look into this again, but it requires changing the format of the forum so it needs a bit of thought applied ? I will look into this.

?...TY

[Nick H. Supervisor]

1 hour ago, NJL said:

As someone who has been a vocal supporter of the "Ignore" function, I am willing to admit that the forums are generally better now that the toxic trolls have been banished - which could arguably be due to them being reported more as they were now visible. But when a someone suggests that wanting to ignore someone who you consider to be of zero value is in some way locking yourself in an echo chamber because you're overly sensitive - it speaks more of them than anything else really. Sometimes people quite simply and quite rightly don't want what could be valid debate interrupted by idiots who haven't a clue and just seek to provoke or push an agenda.

I certainly appreciate that, and I think we are on the same page with the point of being able to continue a valid debate without the inbetween posts trying to stir things up or take things off-topic. However, my point/frustration about the tool being enabled again is that I don't get to use it. To be clear, even if I were able to use the tool I wouldn't; for the most part I don't find it difficult to find the real debate going on and browse over the nonsense without the need of a tool. It just surprises me that others need that tool to be able to ignore the nonsense. I have a couple of examples in mind, but that would involve naming names and I'm not going to do that.

 

But hey, what does it matter? The people have spoken, and the tool is enabled again for those that want to use it. It's no skin off my nose, it doesn't affect me.

[adrynalyne]

I am happy that it is back, but yeah...I’ve not needed it due to certain people acting less like asshats, or maybe they just left. So I will give credit where it is due. Good job guys. 

 

Hopefully things don’t  fall into disarray again. 

 

 

[DConnell Member]

3 hours ago, adrynalyne said:

I am happy that it is back, but yeah...I’ve not needed it due to certain people acting less like asshats, or maybe they just left. So I will give credit where it is due. Good job guys. 

 

Hopefully things don’t  fall into disarray again. 

 

 

From what I've seen those who left have only cleared more space for the asshats. The people who are gone were useful contributors or at least helped make Neowin fun.

 

So now we can mute the negative again. That helps, but doesn't address the positive which is now gone.

[nekrosoft13]

10 hours ago, Steven P. said:

Staff groups can't be ignored ?

to bad...

[Steven P. Administrators]

6 minutes ago, nekrosoft13 said:

to bad...