Muting a user

[CJay]

Is there a way to mute a user so you don't see threads started by them?

[nugglix]

Unfortunately not.
Only thing is to ignore a user, but you still see the user in the post list and all threads started by that user.
So basically the ignore is close to useless.

[Ampera]

There's a very easy way to accomplish this.

When you see an offending post, from the user you wish to not see

don't read it!

It's that simple!

[CJay]

It is that simple, yes, but occasionally I click by accident.

[Brumby]

Them just learn by your mistakes.

Personally, I've never "ignored" a member with the forum tools.  I just see the name and move along.

[TerraHertz]

It is that simple, yes, but occasionally I click by accident.

'by accident'.

Masochist in denial.

Now the fun party game: guess who each person would mute, if they could.
This would probably be a good way to wreck any actual party.

[CJay]

It is that simple, yes, but occasionally I click by accident.

'by accident'.

Masochist in denial.

Ha, you might think so but no, I often read the thread subject line and click before realising who starter the thread.

Now the fun party game: guess who each person would mute, if they could.
This would probably be a good way to wreck any actual party.

Oh it would be a great way to wreck a party.

[Zucca]

I hope it is not me.

[Ian.M]

OTOH the forum's 'ignore' feature at least lets you flag users that, from previous experience you know that if you engage them in debate, it will rapidly degenerate to pig-wrestling in a wallow.   The extra step to have to click to see whatever inflammatory pig slop they've posted can help remind you to bite your tongue and *NOT* click reply, even if you are following the thread out of boredom and schadenfreude.

Personally, I'd prefer an option to privately (so it only appears to me) tag a user with a popup comment that appears when I hover over their user name, possibly add an icon, and select if I want to disable replying to/quoting/thanking their posts. 

If anyone knows of a SMF 2.x mod like that, IMHO it would be worth suggesting it to Gnif.  If it also includes  the existing functionality + the 'consign to black hole' CJay wants, so much the better.

[HwAoRrDk]

You could probably do what you're looking for with a browser extension. Perhaps even an ad-blocker could do it via a judiciously-applied user-defined rule.

Edit: I had a play around with the user-definable filtering in uBlock Origin, and the following rules do the job of hiding threads and individual posts by the named user (in this example, 'CJay').

Code: [Select]

eevblog.com###forumposts div[class*='windowbg']:has(div.post_wrapper > div.poster > h4 > a:has-text(CJay))
eevblog.com###messageindex table > tbody > tr:has(td:nth-of-type(4) > a:has-text(CJay))

Add them to the 'My Filters' tab of the uBlock settings. By the way, the username will be matched case-sensitively, so needs to be specified exactly as it is written on the page.

Disclaimer: I've only given this the most cursory of testing, so no complaining if it wrecks your forum experience!

[Mr. Scram]

Them just learn by your mistakes.

Personally, I've never "ignored" a member with the forum tools.  I just see the name and move along.

I never quite got it either. It seems equivalent to sticking your fingers in your ears and going "lalalala".

The best part is when people threaten you with blocking your messages as if it's some form of punishment.

[CJay]

You could probably do what you're looking for with a browser extension. Perhaps even an ad-blocker could do it via a judiciously-applied user-defined rule.

Edit: I had a play around with the user-definable filtering in uBlock Origin, and the following rules do the job of hiding threads and individual posts by the named user (in this example, 'CJay').

Code: [Select]

eevblog.com###forumposts div[class*='windowbg']:has(div.post_wrapper > div.poster > h4 > a:has-text(CJay))
eevblog.com###messageindex table > tbody > tr:has(td:nth-of-type(4) > a:has-text(CJay))

Add them to the 'My Filters' tab of the uBlock settings. By the way, the username will be matched case-sensitively, so needs to be specified exactly as it is written on the page.

Disclaimer: I've only given this the most cursory of testing, so no complaining if it wrecks your forum experience!

Now that's handy, thank you, that is, if you can still see me 

Them just learn by your mistakes.

Personally, I've never "ignored" a member with the forum tools.  I just see the name and move along.

I never quite got it either. It seems equivalent to sticking your fingers in your ears and going "lalalala".

The best part is when people threaten you with blocking your messages as if it's some form of punishment.

I can spot the threads, they pretty much always start and finish the same way and I do usually manage to avoid them so it's no hardship if I click one by accident, it's just mildly irritating but I can just click 'back', I just wondered if there was an easy mute option was all.

Threatening to block seems very childish, it's almost never a hardship to be blocked by people as they're rarely world renowned experts (there are some) and yes, this absolutely applies to me too, I don't think I offer any wisdom that's not available elsewhere so I'm hardly irreplaceable if I get up someone's nose enough to get blocked.

[Fred27]

I was just searching to see if there was a mute feature too. Sure - you can just not read a thread, but I so often find that I see a title, think "WTF?" and "Oh - That idiot again". 

Some people just seem to have nothing better to do that ask stupid questions or post inane bollocks. It would be a nicer place if I just didn't see it.

[station240]

Setting is there, it's just hard to find and difficult to use.

Profile > Modify profile > (Hover over button) > Buddies/Ignore list... > Edit Ignore List
Yes you need to physically copy and paste their name into the list.

[TerraHertz]

How boring and dull the world would be, if we never encountered people whose antics gave us a pleasant glow of self-satisfied superiority? Besides, without NPCs we'd have to think up our own Quests.


What I *really* wish I could mute forever, are those blasted phone scam call centers. The ones where the phone rings while you are in another room doing something involved and delicate, or up a ladder, on the toilet, etc.
You make it to the phone, pick up, and there's a few moments silence then an electronic 'pooik' sound. That was their autodialing system recognizing that you picked up, and now they have an operator free to handle this new victim (you.)

Then some voice with an Indian accent cheerfully announces "Hello, this is product testing center" or "Hello, this is the Microsoft security center" (Hint, there's no such thing.)

Sometimes, rarely, the silence extends for up to 15 seconds (none of their staff were free to take the call) and then the system delivers an electronic "Goodbye" (which curiously is always the exact same recording, and which is quite hostile and sarcastic sounding) and hangs up.

Never, ever, be nice to these people. Doing so will get your number bumped up into some 'potential sucker' category, and you'll get many more calls for a while. I don't like being rude to people (probably poor Indians struggling to do a shitty job in return for poor wages to stay alive), so I usually just hang up. At most say something sarcastic then hang up. The *one* time I lost my temper with this and shouted at them before hanging up, typical of my luck, was possibly a disaster.  http://everist.org/valentine/20180214-valentine-dumbarse.htm

Sometimes weeks go by without any of these calls. Sometimes I get up to 5 a day. Those days really are too much. Incredibly disruptive and annoying. I *can't* not answer the phone, as I'm first responder to an elderly person's medical/accident alert button, that produces an emergency phone call.

How is that this shit is even legal? I've tried that 'do not call' listing, doesn't do anything. Can we please have a geographical coordinate, and just nuke them?
The operator centers seem to be in India, so some telecoms carrier is doing business carrying their international traffic. Can't we find out WHO, and burn their buildings to the ground?

[station240]

What I *really* wish I could mute forever, are those blasted phone scam call centers. The ones where the phone rings while you are in another room doing something involved and delicate, or up a ladder, on the toilet, etc.
You make it to the phone, pick up, and there's a few moments silence then an electronic 'pooik' sound.

I muted them forever, disconnected the phone
The scammers are the only ones that called on most days.

'pooik' sound = wait 5 seconds then slam the phone down hard.
If you're really abusive to them, they will call back too, I think they enjoy being abused.

Their offices are mostly in Munbai India somewhere.
It's NOT a low paid job, these clowns make a decent middle class income, if they just needed income they could get an honest job.
It's not legal, but they like to go nigh clubbing all the time, and that is what the money is for.

[CJay]

Their offices are mostly in Munbai India somewhere.
It's NOT a low paid job, these clowns make a decent middle class income, if they just needed income they could get an honest job.
It's not legal, but they like to go nigh clubbing all the time, and that is what the money is for.

There's a company called LBM or Convergys who's offices are half a mile from my home in Manchester UK, they're responsible for a huge amount of 'spam' phone calls related to mobile phone companies and other useless stuff.

They aren't the only ones, there are many many more companies that offer cold calling marketing campaigns in the UK, I've been unpopular at a couple for being thorough and not rushing my job when their servers have died because they get paid by call volume and if they can't keep a record of the calls made, they don't get paid.

[tszaboo]

Them just learn by your mistakes.

Personally, I've never "ignored" a member with the forum tools.  I just see the name and move along.

I never quite got it either. It seems equivalent to sticking your fingers in your ears and going "lalalala".

The best part is when people threaten you with blocking your messages as if it's some form of punishment.

I sure do ignores, there is a dozen user on the list at the moment. You typically need to be:
1) not knowledgeable
2) ignorant
3) with a lot of free time to do posts and start threads
If all 3 of this is valid, I really just spend the effort of placing them on the list. I left entire forums, where the majority of the users were from the above 3 category (IT forum, not electronics). Keeps the blood pressure low, I think it leads to longer and healthier life.

[Fred27]

Setting is there, it's just hard to find and difficult to use.

Profile > Modify profile > (Hover over button) > Buddies/Ignore list... > Edit Ignore List
Yes you need to physically copy and paste their name into the list.

Done. Thanks. I can still see some posts started by the users I added, so it seems to not work retrospectively. Let's see how it works going forwards.

[kizmit99]

What I *really* wish I could mute forever, are those blasted phone scam call centers. The ones where the phone rings while you are in another room doing something involved and delicate, or up a ladder, on the toilet, etc.

At the risk of sounding like a spammer, I would recommend looking into NoMoRobo.com
I don't know whether it works in Australia or not, but a quick google search leaves me thinking it *may* be an option for you.
This is a free service (for land lines) where your provider dual-routes your incoming calls to their servers, their servers compare the incoming number against their list of robo-callers, and they answer (and presumably hang up on) those calls.  This leaves you with a single ring at your place for spammer calls.  So not perfect, but much easier to ignore...  They also have something similar for cell numbers, but that's an app they charge for monthly (I don't use it, just never answer my cell unless it's a number I recognize).

I stumbled on this service a few years ago, and all I can say is it works great for me.

Just to be clear - I have absolutely zero affiliation with NoMoRobo, other than a satisfied customer of their free service.

[HwAoRrDk]

Setting is there, it's just hard to find and difficult to use.

Profile > Modify profile > (Hover over button) > Buddies/Ignore list... > Edit Ignore List
Yes you need to physically copy and paste their name into the list.

That doesn't really do what OP wants, though. It doesn't hide topics started by a user, and in threads with posts by a user on the list, it still lists the posts, and merely substituting the text with "You are ignoring this user".