About the "ignore" feature:
many boards have had that feature and many people are happy to use it. I'll admit that it is tempting to ignore someone you don't like. It is also easier. You don't have to deal with your own emotions and perhaps end up losing your control and say something that you regret. But I have never yet used it. I chose not to indescriminately ignore any username until I have first heard what they have to say. Sure, it takes time to read and filter out the crap. But you really get a better result in your own mind when you can honestly say you evaluated all sides of the issue, even those you personaly find distasteful or completely stupid. Occasionaly I am surprised to read something from someone who until that time has only spouted off with infantile and stupid comments. I have even seen some board members grow up and start making sense. I would have missed that evolution in their life had I chose to just ignore them.
I do sort out what I choose to read though. Sometimes I see where a thread is going and decide to pass. Sometimes just the subject line combined with the username is enough to pass it by. All this is a kind of on-the-fly filter and is done in real time as I go. So far I haven't needed the help of software to make my judgements of what to read and what to skip. But if you want to put that in the software, Simon, I think that will be fine. I like software that has lots of options whether I use them or not. Go for it.
Someone said something about it taking too much time, or something like that, oh, here it is, from gravedancer,
"I like discussion forums where they save me time, effort and annoyance."
My thought when I read that, gravedancer, was that anything worth doing takes time, effort and annoyance. I can't think of any conclusions I have made about my life as a JW, and my curent life as an ex-JW, that havn't come through a lot of time, effort and annoyance. Just today I was feeling annoyed at what I was reading from you on a similar thread. Yet, having stuck it out I am now willing to give what you said a little more thought. It took time, effort and annoyance on my part to get to this point. But now, just maybe, I'll get more out of what you say. Maybe not. But the point is that if I had you and/or teejay on ignore neither one of you would ever get a chance in my book. It's up to you but I suggest that you try harder to put up with who you think as idiots and listen to what is said, rather than getting discouraged by someones tone. I made the same suggestion to someone else in this thread once and I think it stands as good advice for everyone. But, I won't be too hurt if you just ignore me and think me a big wind bag who thinks he has all the answers to online conflict. This approach works for me and I realize that not everyone thinks it is the best approach. At any rate, so far in my short life of 38, I have decided that there is no easy time-saving and annoyance-free way to learn anything.
Sean
