[montsnmags]

Originally Posted by RockdaMan

I guess we all have our different ways of seeing the world, but it seems to me that you just said the same thing that I did in my post.

I did, but not in the way you imply. You say that you "just shrug my shoulders in disagreement and life keeps moving", and the Ignore function is a technical way of shrugging your shoulders (whether in disagreement or disinterest) and keep moving, filtering once for your own personal noise-information ratio. You said that you "don't get it", and so it is explained how because we not only all "have our different ways of seeing the world", but also our own personal limitations on time, preferences for receipt of information, interests, personalities, coping mechanisms, the Ignore functions can be useful feature for filtering to your desires.

I passively filter information when I skip over a thread. Making it disappear, going to lengths to make it disappear -- means taking overt action against a person and their ideas and opinions. Call it filtering or call it disappearing -- it's all the same.

There are important semantics involved. You emphasise "overt action" above, but not the "against" part. The idea of "Ignore" and its similars is that it enables you to no longer see posts or threads or subforums you don't wish to see. From the point of view of the person or thread or subforum no longer being seen, no "action against" is perceived (unless, for example and as I specify, you ironically make it a point of pointing out who you're pointedly ignoring, which becomes an overt action against them).

As I say, it is "all the same" in result, but the means enables customisation to an individuals circumstances, desires, personality, etc. And it is a non-obvious/public means of filtering someone's opinion, or a thread's content, or a sub-forum.

I live and let live. I like variety and respect others rights to hold and express opinions different from mine. And I'm sure that you do too. I've been a mod on other forums and you can't do it justice unless you're willing to wade through all the opinions of all the different posters.

Then, if you do "live and let live", and you do "respect others rights to hold and express opinions different from mine", then that would seem to imply that you would actually be able to "get" why people make use of the Ignore function without resorting to an unrelated generalisation questioning their treatment of neighbours and workmates.

People have different needs, desires, personalities, psychologies, means of functioning socially, ways of filtering information, and so on, as you know from your experience being a mod on other forums. Much has been discussed elsewhere, for instance, on the differences between a small aspect of personality, introversion and extroversion, and how people with different tendencies along that scale related to each other. That there are tools that allow customisation for whatever reason in any forum (be it "Follow" in Twitter, or Ignore on forums, or subscriptions to preferred newsfeeds on news or other topics, or filters on incoming email) is the point I wished to make and which I hope you "get" from it, and that I hope you can see as a useful function for some for a variety of personal reasons even if it is not yourself that makes use of it.

Cheers,
Marc