Is the buddy/ignore list all that useful anymore?

[E-Man]

I've been thinking about the buddy/ignore feature this site has. For the buddy list, all it feels like is just an easy way of PMing certain people when the task is hardly any trouble at all to begin with. Also, since there's no way to publicly show who your buddies are automatically (as in not editing your signature manually or something like that), I don't see that much of a point to it. I know it also keeps track of their activities, but I could generally do the same thing with the "Who's Online" bar at the bottom of the screen.

As for the ignore list, I don't imagine that getting a whole lot of use anymore. From what I've seen, I don't think any of the users here blocked anyone before. I assume that because they still read the posts left by other users and they handle the users who are acting immature with patience and let the admin deal with it. The only users I was put on the ignore list by are users who are actually rather immature. Since the ignore list feels generally like the DA block system, I have a reason to believe that it would be abused in a way that would cause members to tune out meaningful advice and critiques. As a result, it would stunt the mental and emotional growth of these users.

I can't speak for the people who actually use it (since it's not a question I bring up normally to others on this iste), but is this feature worth keeping around anymore?

[Kosheh]

It's not a matter of "let's remove it!" as it's not that easy to do so, being as both features are hard-coded into the board... :/

I mean, someone like Petie or Vipershark could fish around the actual board code and manually remove them, but it's kind of a day project in and of itself. It's one of those things to remove that it's actually more trouble to remove than just leave in.

[E-Man]

Point taken. I went through a similar conversation when I asked about attachments prior to when they were against the rules to use, so I can understand what you mean.

It just upsets me a little that there is a chance that the ignore feature would be abused like how the block system is on DA. If it can't be removed, then could it at least be better managed to prevent this from happening?

[Petie]

There is really no way to "abuse" the ignore feature. It's there so members can make a personal choice to hide posts and PMs from others that they do not wish to see. It's something that each individual currently does and absolutely have control over themselves.

And as Kosheh said, even if we wanted to remove these features, they're built into the forum and there is no simple way to just turn them off.

[E-Man]

Hmm… I see… What if I have the need to talk to them or they do this unfairly?

[Petie]

That's my point though. There's no such thing as being "unfairly" ignored. It's a personal preference made by a single individual and it's entirely their choice.

[E-Man]

Fine then. I was just bringing it up because I didn't want to have any repeats of my experiences on other web sites, such as DA.

[Dazz]

The best way to not be ignored is to not say things and act in a manner that will make people want to ignore you... It's as simple as that. The feature works perfectly if somebody decides to set you as ignored, and you're then unable to contact them.

You'll asking for a feature that allows people to ignore other people, when somebody else has the opinion to deem it "fair" - that's down to personal preference, as Petie said. There is no fair and unfair in who people wish to listen to and outright ignore as a whole.

Your experience on other websites are likely following the same mindset that people have a choice to not be disturbed if they don't want to be. We want people to be comfortable on the forum and feel like they can enjoy themselves and not see anything they don't want to see, including other users who attempt to contact them or continuously post things that they don't like.

[Rystar]

If somebody blocks you for no real reason, they're not somebody worth getting through to, wouldn't you think?