# Feature suggestion about Topic muting/ignore **URL:** \ **Category:** Site Feedback\ **Created:** [June 27, 2022, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feature-suggestion-about-topic-muting-ignore/966938 "2022-06-27T03:25:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2022, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feature-suggestion-about-topic-muting-ignore/966938/1 "2022-06-27T03:25:47Z")
It would be nice if you could also Mute a Topic for a certain period of time, like if you know you’re getting a bit too upset and need to cool down, just like with the poster Ignore feature. This may have been brought up before, but it didn’t show up as a “similar topic.” ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2022, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feature-suggestion-about-topic-muting-ignore/966938/2 "2022-06-27T03:42:15Z")
If you mean mute a thread, you can. Go to the drop-down menu below the thread and to the left with a little bell next to it with the word, ‘NORMAL.’ Use the down arrow and select ‘Mute.’ That’s all you need to do. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2022, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feature-suggestion-about-topic-muting-ignore/966938/3 "2022-06-27T03:57:19Z")
No, I mean muting the thread **for a specific period of time** , like you can with ignoring posters. You can choose to ignore a poster for a day, a week, a month, a year, or forever. I would like to do that with threads (what Discourse calls “Topics”). That way I can kinda give myself a “time out” when I know I’m getting too heated, just like you can with a poster. Sure, I could just remember which Topics I got heated in and not read them for a bit. But I could also remember which posters got me heated and not read their posts. The Ignore feature makes it easier for posters, and so I’m suggesting it would also be good for Topics. Plus it’s not exactly easy to unmute a Topic. You have to remember a special URL to even do it. And you have to remember the Topic exists. If you’re going to unmute it anyways, it’s easier if it would do it automatically after a set period of time. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2022, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feature-suggestion-about-topic-muting-ignore/966938/4 "2022-06-27T04:02:59Z")
That would be nice, wouldn’t it? I don’t know if that’s an option Discourse will give us and I’ll leave that answer to the perfessionuls. But it is easier to unmute than that. Go to Preferences in your profile, then click on Notifications and then Tags. You’ll see a tag at the bottom, 'Muted." If you click you the plus sign on the right, it will show all the topics you’ve muted and you can unmute them as you like. Hope this helps. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2022, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feature-suggestion-about-topic-muting-ignore/966938/5 "2022-06-27T04:09:20Z")
Well, strike the above. I used to use this feature all the time, but now all it’s doing is giving me a drop down menu of optional tags and not showing any ‘muted’ threads. Or I may be confusing that feature with the forum ignore feature. Anyway, I think I gave you bad advice here, so please disregard. So sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2022, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feature-suggestion-about-topic-muting-ignore/966938/6 "2022-06-27T04:13:59Z")
Amended advice. Do all of the above, except instead of clicking on the plus sign, click on ‘Show,’ right above the plus sign, instead. That shows all your muted threads. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2022, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feature-suggestion-about-topic-muting-ignore/966938/7 "2022-06-27T04:16:34Z")
Thank you. I thought I remembered **codinghorror** saying that there was no way in the UI to do this, and just giving us a link. (But maybe that was about something else, or it’s not where he expected it to be. Or they fixed it.) I’m glad you found it. I may use the feature a bit more often. This is actually the first time I’ve ever wanted to mute a thread for a short time. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2022, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feature-suggestion-about-topic-muting-ignore/966938/8 "2022-06-27T04:18:39Z")
No problem. I used to mute threads more often before I was a mod. I found that reviewing them periodically, I could turn them on again easily if I wanted. ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2022, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feature-suggestion-about-topic-muting-ignore/966938/9 "2022-06-27T04:52:43Z")
Try muting the thread and bookmarking it with a custom time to remind you about it. I am not at all sure what will happen, but it might work for your purposes. ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2022, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feature-suggestion-about-topic-muting-ignore/966938/10 "2022-06-27T05:04:47Z")
Seems to work. I set a bookmark reminder for midnight and muted the thread. I got a reminder to visit the thread a couple of minutes after midnight. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2022, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feature-suggestion-about-topic-muting-ignore/966938/11 "2022-06-27T05:20:52Z")
I spoke too soon. When I go to my profile page and click Notifications, the only options I see are Responses, Likes, Mentions, and Edits. I clicked around all the other parts of my profile, and I don’t see “Tags” anywhere. What is the URL of the page you find this on? (Don’t worry, I won’t be able to access your Notifications.) ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2022, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feature-suggestion-about-topic-muting-ignore/966938/12 "2022-06-27T13:05:36Z")
Sure. Here you go. h ttps://boards.straightdope.com/u/(your nickname here)/preferences/tags As you can see, I broke the link by adding a space between ‘h’ and ‘ttps’, so you could see the exact text of the link. Obviously also eliminate the parentheses along with ‘your nickname here’ and replace it with your own nickname. Hope this helps. ETA: I use the Vincent scheme. Not sure if this makes any difference. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2022, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feature-suggestion-about-topic-muting-ignore/966938/13 "2022-06-29T07:16:24Z")
I did find how to get to that page. It’s Profile \> **Preferences** \> Tags (not Notifications). But I don’t see any “Show” right above the plus signs, even when I switch my theme to Vincent. Here’s a screen clip showing what it looks like to me: [![](https://i.imgur.com/PKlsDaG.png) ](https://i.imgur.com/PKlsDaG.png) ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2022, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feature-suggestion-about-topic-muting-ignore/966938/14 "2022-06-29T16:33:57Z")
That’s… really weird. It’s gone on mine today, too. I did notice Discourse made some changes recently. Maybe it took that option away? A terrible shame if they did, because I have no idea how I could review the threads I put on Mute before. I certainly didn’t make any note of them, because I knew I could review them whenever I wished. It was a feature I really liked. I’m sorry, @BigT. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2022, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feature-suggestion-about-topic-muting-ignore/966938/15 "2022-06-29T17:27:31Z")
Fortunately, I found the URL after searching on Google a bit. If you want to see your muted threads, you can follow this link: [https://boards.straightdope.com/latest?state=muted](https://boards.straightdope.com/latest?state=muted) I actually had more than I remembered. I thought I’d only done it twice. I even once muted a pinned thread, likely because I didn’t realize I could unpin it at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2022, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feature-suggestion-about-topic-muting-ignore/966938/16 "2022-06-29T17:30:07Z")
Thank you! I’ve copied the link so I have it handy. I really do hope they tweak Discourse again and put the ‘Show’ button back. That was much handier. But this will work in the meantime. Thanks again! ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2022, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feature-suggestion-about-topic-muting-ignore/966938/17 "2022-06-30T04:17:10Z")
Turns out it’s still there. We were just in the wrong place. It’s Profile \> Preferences \> Categories where you will find the “Show” option beside the “Muted” label. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2022, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feature-suggestion-about-topic-muting-ignore/966938/18 "2022-06-30T14:34:35Z")
Thank you for solving the mystery. I apologize for all the confusion I created on this point. I hadn’t used the feature in so long that I _almost_ remembered how to do it! Glad you figured it out. ---
**Author:** ![Workingdude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f17d59/32.png) [@Workingdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Workingdude)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2022, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feature-suggestion-about-topic-muting-ignore/966938/19 "2022-07-05T03:05:02Z")
You got to excuse me as I am new to this forum. Does this site have an ignore feature where you can put a poster that you don’t like on ignore? Some forums do have that. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2022, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feature-suggestion-about-topic-muting-ignore/966938/20 "2022-07-05T16:04:36Z")
> [@Workingdude](#): > > … can put a poster that you don’t like on ignore? Yes, from the profile of the poster, change Normal to Ignored. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/feature-suggestion-about-topic-muting-ignore/966938.md?page=2)