I have got to say that I am finding 'Thread Ignore' to be a really powerful tool that really helps increase my engagement with the site.
All off-season I have been dropping in the site from time to time but sooner or later would find a thread that I turned me off so much with huge doses of negativism if not rancor or bitterness that I'd move on to another site.
Now that I can just make those threads disappear, the threads I want to read come to the top of the thread list so I stay a lot longer.
Now I use it as a general purpose filter and put threads I'm simply not interested in on Ignore, instead of using it just when I'm annoyed by a thread.
I think people may resist using it because it brings negative connotations of censorship, but what it really is is a thread priority tool.
I often ask people if they don't like a topic or a user why not use the mute/ignore functions, and the response often is them telling me that they are open-minded, value all points of view, and are able to ignore things that I am unable to ignore.
My perception of that is that they are flexing about how much better they are at the whole communications thing than I am, and maybe they are.
My point of view is that I'm here to have enjoyable interactions, not to test how good I am at tolerating the deep negativism we often encounter, so I find block/ignore tools to be really helpful.
And of course other people can find my opinions on some topics are deeply negative, and if it gets to the point of them making is so they are not enjoying this site I hope they block/ignore me as needed too.
Regardless, yet again, thanks for all the things you do to keep this site so useful!
