Site Changes

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

So now when I go to my mail box I won't see the messages from someone I have on ignore and he can't respond to my posts.

We're talking about two different kinds of filtering here:

1. The kind that hides someone from your view.
2. The kind that prevents them from writing to you.

If you go to http://www.investorshub.com/boards/filters.asp you'll see how it's broken out into two categories.

If you've got someone filtered so that you can't see their posts, that won't stop them from posting to you.

The PM-filtering has been expanded so that if you use it, now they can't post to you privately or publicly. And you can't post to them.

Also if I have in on ignore I can't sent messages to him?

Correct, if you use that second variety of filtering.

Is this feature for lifetime members only?

No. It's a free feature and I don't anticipate making it a premium feature.

This really sounds great and be should used by everyone who is annoyed by ONCE.

Well, it was he who indirectly is responsible for my moving this item up on the priority list (after seeing his posts elsewhere), but I should add that his conduct on another site will have no bearing on how he's treated here from an administrative perspective. But it did give me a bit more empathy for the user perspective, so I decided to go ahead and get to work on this. Especially since it's been presented many times as a remaining problem.

That said, I DO NOT recommend wholesale use of this feature on ANYONE. The whole Filtering thing has always bugged me because it DOES get mis-used. Like the guy who PM'd me some time back saying that he has brought hundreds of lurkers to iHub (a fabrication) and instructs them all to filter out Once. If he's eventually proven right in his warnings, I don't doubt that the few people the PM'er really did bring with him will be looking for blood because he told them to ignore Once.

Instructing others to ignore someone is very dangerous territory, IMO. Everyone should make that decision for themselves, with a clear understanding of the dangers involved (like being able to filter out semi's because they annoy you on the road, then stepping out in front of one you couldn't see). I very strongly disapprove of anyone using Filtering of any kind as anything but a personal tool. Whether it be public or private recommendations to Filter someone or public comments that someone has done so.

Even if annoying, the contrary point of view is very deserving of close attention, in any endeavor. Neither you nor I should be recommending specific use of the Filtering feature, although I support Matt's occasional recommendations of using it when dealing with people who just can't behave themselves when they see specific posts.