Originally Posted by
jimnyc
I encourage the use of the ignore function when folks get into feuds that don't seem to end and carry on into thread after thread. And eventually they end up hating one another, and inevitably someone ends up sending me messages about it. That's when I would initially push the ignore function ability.
It's very rarely used, but if and when it is used, you might as well do it the right way. But this isn't something we force upon anyone.
If someone wants to put another on ignore, and it takes away long feuds and many ruined threads, then I think that's a good idea. And if someone chooses to do so, they shouldn't be using the option to view the posts anyway, or replying to people on ignore, by replying to quoted posts. It defeats the purpose of having someone on ignore, and ending any feuding issues.
And if someone is on ignore and knows it, they shouldn't purposely reply to that person when they post, or reply to someone else when they quote them. They know they are on ignore, and should just leave it at that.
But I see ignore being used, and folks replying to that person anyway, and the person using the ignore function, also reply/post towards or about the person they are supposedly ignoring.
I say all the above in general based on 13-17 years of doing this and based on those I have seen that use the ignore feature for whatever reason. I have seen some use the ignore feature and never a peep again, so it works if one wants it to. And of course I have seen it defeat its own purpose many a time as well.
Ain't no perfect answer, but this one offers something without US doing any censoring. Unless of course the feuding goes elsewhere and not here where it was posted as it should be.
Now, if I were to monitor any further, and say something when things start heating up, to try and intervene before things get worse - then folks get angry with me for blaming them, even though both sides would be getting the identical message of 'let's just chill, ignore is your best bet...' message. And then someone wants to bail.
Short of my intervention when things like this happen, which none of us want, I honestly don't have the perfect answers. I say "reply in kind" and then folks get angry and things heated and then ultimately I get PM's and it starts up once again, and then my ass is blamed somehow.