Or maybe the moderators could inform users privately when they’ve been blocked by 10 other users, for example.
That kind of defeats the purpose of an ignore list, which is to pretend as if they didn’t exist. If you’re going to start a conversation with a person, why are you ignoring them?
I mean, when they reply to your message, you won’t see it.
…Why?
To rub it in? That is why I wonder whether it would be considered an insult.
As noted upthread:
We’re not supposed to say anything, and, once users are blocked, we can’t see their messages, anyway. In that case, maybe the blocked users remain on a list of all users that would allow us to contact them, but the point is that it might be a useful way for moderators to deal with users who are “becoming more trouble than they’re worth” (quoted from the rules posted here somewhere).
Not outside of the Pit, anyway. 
Which is pretty close to my personal threshold for adding to my ignore list: “no longer worth paying attention to.”
I’m good at scrolling past, but I did put one now-banned poster on ignore. His posts would start interesting, then devolve into misremembered misinformation. After I got hooked into his drivel too many times, I plonked him. FWIW, this behavior was pointed out to the guy in the Pit. He showed some interest in feedback, then proceeded to conduct a slow-burn freak-out, ending in his banning.
Individuals are individuals, but I’d be circumspect about informing a poster that he’s been ignored. Too many interpret that as a badge of honor: most people get perturbed when ignored on the internet or in RL, and too few have constructive temperament.
No, this is an undesired feature. Genuine trolls will treat that number like a score in a video game. DNFTT.
There isn’t an easy way for a Mod to tell, impossible for a general user.
We do get notifications if someone has been blocked by 5 or more users in a short amount of time.
I’ve never really looked into that except once to let a solid poster know a small change might help.
I don’t think it was well received and haven’t repeated it.
Besides most of the ignores are problematic posters or at least very confrontational posters.
<sniff> I tole ya I was sensitive… 
Seriously, I’ve blocked lots of people over the years. Eventually most of them have been banned anyway or just left. I guess my hexes are working.
I was blocked once. I had to take some big pills and drink lots of water.
Fiber, man!
Holy cow! 
Blocking works fine while I’m logged in, otherwise the blocked user’s messages are still visible. I usually log in only to post, so I’m still seeing the blocked user’s posts.
It’s not a complaint. I thought I’d mention it here for the benefit of anyone else who didn’t know that.
I would only add that it’s rarely a surprise.
That seems odd, why do you not log in? I can’t see an advantage to visiting the site without logging in, and lots of disadvantages to doing that.
I’ve just never heard of anyone using this site that way, and wondering what it is I’m missing here.
It’s okay; I don’t mind explaining. For short responses like this or if I think someone’s going to engage with me in an exchange, I’ll log in first. Otherwise, especially if I’m writing a longer post like a lengthy review of a film, I prefer to do it in a Word document. Gives me time to edit out the superfluous bits, double-check my assumptions and spelling, etc.
Much of that habit probably came from the days when you’d often lose an entire post due to disconnection and other delightful surprises.
To be fair, the late TubaDiva gave us all the ability to have avatars back in the later days of vBulletin. Which of course caused whining from the usual suspects, even though it was strictly optional. The new thing on Discourse was the ability to also post pictures.
How do you keep track of where you left off reading hundreds or maybe thousands of different threads without logging in?
Mmmm, I dunno, memory? I don’t have a prodigious memory. There’s usually some detail that I’ll remember.
Certainly not thousands, probably not hundreds, more like dozens each day. I skip a lot of threads entirely and generally try not to spend too much time browsing the Dope or anything else online.
For me, keeping track of where I left off reading a thread (which may be getting a lot of posts) is one of the really nice features of Discourse. The “latest posts” list is another. I don’t even remember how I navigated in vBulletin but Discourse is much more intuitive and organized.