Clothahump and his Ignore List

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1

Poster Clothahump has made it widely known that he takes great offense at the way some people respond to his posts in the Pit and that he has therefore put any poster he deems an annoyance on ‘Ignore’. Although it is of course not possible to know how many posters he has silenced in this way, the total may be more than two dozen, and I believe he has stated that he would give some of the Mods the same treatment if he could.

I’ll freely admit that I am less than sympathetic to this behavior because I simply don’t believe much is served by placing people on ‘Ignore’ and would rather see what they are posting, no matter how obnoxious I may find them personally. OTOH, hey, it’s the Pit. If Clothahump can’t take the sort of rough and tumble that goes on there maybe he simply should stop posting in that forum rather than blocking half the board, but whatever, I wouldn’t make much of an issue of it.

It seems to me, however, that taking this blanket silencing outside of the Pit, where people are prohibited from being insulting anyway, is really not on. For example, in this GD thread:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=20376452#post20376452

he made this post (#15):

It seems not at all unreasonable to question the sweeping nature of this statement, and I imagine there are posters who would like to challenge him further; by, say, asking him which specific immigration laws he thinks are being violated (one did, but the thread is now up to post 73 or so with no answer). Thing is, Clothahump apparently has so many people on ‘Ignore’ that it’s difficult to know whether he sees any particular post, other than his own or those of Moderators; therefore there’s no way to know whether one has actually engaged him.

Is this not a problem? I mean, if in fact fighting ignorance is an objective of this board what could be done about a person who is, figuratively, jamming his fingers in his ears in this manner? Should anything be done? If no one cares, fine, but I thought I’d bring it up for discussion.

I’ll hang up and listen. :slight_smile:

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This message is hidden because don’t ask is on your ignore list.

3

I’d say anyone who abused the ignore list in that manner isn’t worth engaging.

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The question as I see it should be “what problem for the board is his ‘ignore’ list creating?” I think one can fairly say, without taking sides, that it isn’t creating a problem overall for the board. Others might not have an extensive “ignore” list but might still choose not to read or respond to certain posters or certain arguments. That’s life.

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That’s impossible! I haven’t uttered the magic incantation “fuck off” yet!

6

Non issue to me.
It is similar to not reading every post in a thread, not ideal but eh.

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I can see issues in even minor threads. In one thread in Cafe Society, Clothahump posted a question in a thread. I actually knew the specific answer, but I’m on his ignore list, so he wouldn’t see my response.

Of course, I also got a warning in a different thread for insulting him, despite him not being able to see the insult. c’est la vie.

8

Who?

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For my part, I just hope that “more than two dozen” comprises far fewer than half the members of this board.

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If a poster doesn’t want to engage with another poster, what difference does it make if there is an ignore list or not?

Its just a message board, if he doesn’t want to read these peoples posts or respond to them in any way then he should have the right not to do so. The OP is basically saying that he should be forced to respond, which is a load of crap.

There are lots of people plugging their fingers in their ears on this board, lots of people who only hear what they want to hear and respond to what they want to respond to. They just don’t have a publicly announced ignore list to be used as ammunition.

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He finds you irritating, so he puts you on Ignore. You find him irritating. So…?

Regards,
Shodan

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If he wants to put a large number of people on ignore, he’s allowed to do that. And if he suffers as a result of that, well, he’s still allowed to do that.

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I find it takes less effort to actually ignore someone than to put them on ignore, but his mileage may vary.

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Actually, I’m not saying “he should be forced to respond” at all. I was questioning whether or not using one’s Ignore list to turn one’s posts into monologues was a problem. It appears the consensus is no. Fair enough.

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Is there any rule requiring us to respond to other posters? Would you like for there to be such a rule?

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No, given I just said I didn’t in the post before yours. :slight_smile:

To repeat: if no one thinks there’s any problem here, I’m fine with that.

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I don’t suffer. I am left with posters who are not moronic assholes (for the most part), who actually do try to carry on discussions instead of namecalling like little brat children.

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:stuck_out_tongue:

19

Well, I got my dose of irony for the day.

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Wow.

Reminds me of the time my father said “Where the fuck did you learn to swear like that, you little bastard?”