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Chat provides the ability to ignore users. However, it doesn't force everyone else to ignore them. ;) As such, you can still see responses to that user.

It might be nice if "Ignore this user" provided an option to also ignore responses to that user's posts, and potentially all posts with @ignored_user.

3 Answers 3

6

I support this. If you have 3-4 "busy" people on ignore and the chat room is busy, you may as well give up on trying to follow the conversation streams and come back later when there's nobody around.

If I have someone on ignore, I don't really give two hoots what they're talking about or if they're saying something interesting or if someone else has said something interesting in response to them. They're on ignore for a reason.

5

Ehhh I do not really like this idea.

I have ignored users before, but when I see others' comments back to them I decide that I might want to take them out of cherem and actually participate in the discussion.

If I see it going nowhere, then I might put them back into my ignored user list.

Other than that I don't think we should penalize ourselves from seeing other people's sometimes insightful responses to the aforementioned ignored user.

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  • 1
    I changed the suggestion to make it an optional add-on to the ignore.
    – wfaulk
    Feb 27, 2012 at 22:03
  • @wfaulk my answer still remains the same.
    – Naftali
    Feb 27, 2012 at 22:03
  • Good thing you linked a definition of that word.
    – Resorath
    Feb 27, 2012 at 22:06
  • @Resorath I thought so ^_^
    – Naftali
    Feb 27, 2012 at 22:09
  • @amanaPlanaCAnalPAnaMA fair enough
    – wfaulk
    Feb 27, 2012 at 22:26
  • 2
    Fully agree. Also worth noting how incredibly easy it would be to forget ignoring someone in the first place. Most people that I know don't stay irritated for very long, and this might lead to people forgetting that others even exist due to someone having a one off bad day.
    – user50049
    Feb 28, 2012 at 5:51
3

This is a problem with most chat systems, where you see one sided conversations. Luckily SO cuts down on the confusion with the @username format.

I oppose blocking the messages from a user who is replying to a blocked user, as you may be missing a good message. After all, you're not blocking the replier. What I propose as a compromise is a way to highlight that the replier is replying to a message from a user who you have blocked. One way of doing this might be a red strike through in the @reply. For example:

Resorath: @imajerk I don't think we should revive Hitler and make him our president.

(Except the @name would be red)

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  • It's an interesting idea, but the problem I see with it is that you're then effectively highlighting the response, which is almost exactly the opposite of what the mega-ignore option would do.
    – wfaulk
    Feb 27, 2012 at 22:28
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    @wfaulk True, ditch the red then, just keep it as a strike through. What I'm hoping for is to allow the brain to filter the messages instead of the software.
    – Resorath
    Feb 27, 2012 at 22:30

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