I tend to avoid filtering anyone because I want to keep on top of the discussion at hand. Of course, there are always one or two posters who have proven to me time and again that they are only interested in suckering others into hyping their favorite stock, the same type of person who would be defending management even if they were arrested for insider trading or fraud. Still, I tend to avoid filtering even those people because it is so easy to quickly skim over their viewpoints. But I do find e-mail filtering to be a valuable tool. That way those who are known to have a lack of emotional control can't fill up my mbox with vulgar messages. Yet, if they have something legitimate to say to me, they can say it in public.
Still, I don't know why those of us who have paid for a subscription should have to subsidize those who do not want to support Ihub. Filtering takes up resources that we all pay for indirectly, whether it is through subscription costs, extra advertising or merely less rapid system response. Probably worst of all, is the repetitiveness and lack of coherence that filtering encourages. I don't want to hear the same question asked (or answered) time and time again just because a few people have chosen to ignore a few other people. I think it detracts from the discussion far more than the irrational posts of a few idiots that we can just skip past without any particular inconvenience. That's why filtering should remain a premium service, you don't want to encourage those who have nothing invested in Ihub (and therefore nothing to lose) to use such an easily misused tool when the repercussions can impact the entire community in a negative way.
Finally, does free filtering encourage the type of participant you are after? Without any psychological studies to back it up, I would guess those who demand free filtering the loudest tend to be the most arrogant and short-tempered and the least able to constructively deal with opposing viewpoints and opinions. Why encourage those who are the most arrogant and the least accommodating to post on your site, and for free, no less?
On the otherhand, I can see the value of e-mail filtering, there are certain people that I don't want to consider what they have to say unless it is the type of thing that can be said in front of everybody. In otherwords, e-mail filtering cannot negatively impact the continuity of the discussion because it is separate from the discussion to begin with while general discussion filtering should only be available to those who support Ihub and have a stake in it's continuing success.
Once
The best way to convince a fool that he is wrong is to let him have his own way.
~ ~ ~ Josh Billings
