The ignore function here is really great!

Man, I love the ignore function in these forums. I only have one name on my list, but I think it's doing wonders for my blood pressure.

I've never argued with the person I'm ignoring -- I've always just rolled my eyes in disbelief in how somebody with a Freeper-like way of thinking could accumulate 1000+ posts here.

The ignore button - try it! You'll like it!

The alert button isn't bad, either!

Did someone post here? :)


Fair & Balanced Buttons — The Cronus Connection

I just counted 27 on my list. I will never again have to read about how Dean is the new Dr. Mengele. :eyes: Of course, now I'm going to be accused of subverting someone's right to free speech. I love that one.

> Of course, now I'm going to be accused of subverting someone's right
> to free speech. I love that one.

Naaahhh...

Along with their right to free speech comes your right to free
listening (or not).

I read someting like that in an airport once, and it's still posted
outside the Nashua City Hall, last time I checked.

BTW, here's my "ignore" poll in the Lounge:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=86076&mesg_id=86076

Atlant

And I agree - a lot of people don't seem to get the corollary to freedom of speech, or religion, for that matter -- there's an accompanying freedom from speech or religion implicit there.

defending them they become stronger.


I use to go to a board and debate right wingers for hours.


Look at the Catholic Church.

Before they confer sainthood on someone they encourage their critics to come forward and say the worst about them . I forgot the Latin word but this is where the term "Devil's Advocate" came from.

> By Having Your Views Strenuously Challenged And Then defending them
> they become stronger.

This is true up to a point, and after that it's:

     "Standard reply to idiot question #37"

At that point, you just get bored/tired.

Atlant

But debating is not the main reason I come here - everybody who frequents DU has his or her own reasons - I'm here to read the news and to see what people think about what's going on. I really don't participate all that often.

Once I see somebody with a one-note, Freeperish attitude again and again, enough so that I remember the person's handle, I know that I should add that person to my ignore list.

I'd always wanted to try it out - and I did for the first time this morning - because it felt so good, I had to start this little thread.

(I remember seeing other threads like this in the past, but I never thought using the feature would feel this good.)

when a poster causes your blood to boil. I just put my first person on ignore yesterday. I've been a board member for 2-1/2 years and I believe this poster has been here about that long. I should have done it long ago. Nearly every post I've ever seen of his makes me angry. He doesn't debate, he insults and infuriates. He's probably the most radical far-left person on the board. I'm happy not to have to read those posts and I'm sure glad I don't know that poster personally. I haven't responded to one of his posts in well over a year.

There are some pretty far left people on this board and that is their right.

It reminds me of grad school. I consider myself a garden variety liberal but in grad school some folks considered me a conservative.
I once read an article by Gore Vidal where he basically said Ted Kennedy was a conservative. Actually he called him "Banksman Kennedy"


In the real world, to some I'm a flaming liberal.

I guess it's all what it's comapred to.

Whenever I take those "Political Match" test I always end up with > 90% agreement with Dems and Greens and some guy here called me a Demnot.

I don't mind reading post by posters with whom I regularly disagree. But when you read 4,826 by the same person, posting the same thing, in several threads each day, it's easier to put them on ignore. They have nothing new to say and it enables me to quickly get past the clutter.

I, too, used to be on a board in which I would argue with wingnuts for hours. No minds were ever changed. In 11 years, none of those people were ever enlightened by anything I said or vice versa. The "debates" would quickly turn into, "Taz, you're such a dyke!" or some similar highly-relevent "point." It finally became analogous to the "never try to teach a pig to sing" line and I had to ask myself, "Why the HELL am I doing this?" Then I found DU and, for the most part, it's been a fairly pleasant experience, with 27 exceptions. B-)

the ignore button weakens debate. In Skinner we trust! If there is something unworhty of debate, it will be pulled.

I support Dean, love Kerry and Kucinich, and want the best candidate to unseat Bush to receive the nomination. Talk to me about Clark and Edwards! Explain Leibermans claim to the Clinton legacy. Help me to understand. I really want to understand.
:dem:

so called Dean supporters (not you) are pretending to be Democrats just so they can trash everyone else. They don't want Dean to win the nomination because the repukes are labeling him as a liberal. That way when (or if) Dean loses, they have the high post numbers to bash the Democratic winner as they pose being a Democrat.

You just watch.

{sniff} {sniff} Hmmmm.... :eyes:

Y'know, if I were to form my opinions of candidates or political ideologies predominantly on the basis of the behavior of those who (often speciously?) proclaim themselves supporters or proponents, I'd probably join the "great unwashed" (the target demographic of some misguided partisan souls) who eschew both voting and discussing politics.

Even moreso, if I invested most of my attention in whom I believed and valued rather than what I believe and value, I'd probably be totally awash in cynicism and disillusionment. As such, I'd undoubtedly be amongst those whose interest in politics was akin to a vandal's "interest" in art and architecture or a truant's "interest" in schooling.

But that's just me. YMMV, and apparently does. :silly:

> For some strange reason, I have this feeling that a lot of so called
> Dean supporters (not you) are pretending to be Democrats just so
> they can trash everyone else.

A little work with http://www.google.com/ and
http://www.opensecrets.org/ will confirm that I'm a
donor to quite a few individual Democratic candidates
(although I don't give a dime to the national or NH
state Democratic parties*). This will also confirm that
I never give money to Republicans and haven't yet given
any money to Greens (although I do confess to giving
unreportably-low amounts to Bernie Sanders, Socialist
from VT, from time to time).

Someday, they will also confirm that, this year, my money
is firmly behind Dr. Howard Dean. I also have the Nashua
Regional Director of the Dean campaign living upstairs in
our spare bedroom.

So I'm clearly a Democrat and equally clearly a Dean supporter.

Your theory may or may not have some validity, but it
certainly doesn't apply to me, and I don't think it applies
to any of the Dean supporters I've met in person.

Atlant
(my real name, in Nashua, New Hampshire)


*Full disclosure: Last year,I did pay the entrance fee
for myself and my wife to attend the New Hampshire State
Democratic Convention as delegates. I also donated $100
to a legal fund that the state party organized that was
fighting a redistricting case regarding our State Government.
I don't consider either of these payments/donations to be
general donations to the State Party.

EOM

if i could say 'screw you' i would, just to see if it was me.
but i can't say that so, Good Morning to you, instead.

:hi:

(jumps up and down--it's not me it's not me)

:hi:

LOL...just kidding...thought everyone needed a lighthearted joke before this gets out of hand...;-)

post - it is not there at all. You don't even have to look at the poster's name. :-)

Hey Born_a_Democrat, are you any relation to DemocratSinceBirth, above?

Atlant

but as to why we both may have chosen a similar name:

Great minds think alike *






* Disclaimer: I reserve the right to completely disagree with him in the future as I do not yet know his politics that well (other than the fact that he will never be anything other than a Democrat).

So my screen name at the Miami Herald Dolphins site was Dolfan Since Birth.

We also had some threads that were devoted to politics. There were about three liberals including me and about one dozen conservatives.

or rather I'm in Miami and a dolphan (doesn't necessarily mean you have to be in Miami)....where are you?

If someone wants to be critical of a candidate I like, I'd rather hear it from them first than GW in the summer of 2004.

If I may add to what you said Kingler: Reading opposing viewpoints provides new information. As I already know what's inside my head, it's good to learn new things — information I didn't have and perspectives I did not formerly agree with. Listening to those with whom one disagrees is how people go from being ignorant, uninformed, and wrong to a more enlightened position. It's called learning.

But having heard from them once, do you need to hear the same
message from them a thousand more times?

Atlant

I put people on ignore when, if I make a point about something and they ignore the point and attack me. I don't need that, thank you very much.

And, on a totally unrelated point, if I were jacinto, I'd put everyone who says the word "Carlos" in the title of their responses into my ignore list. After all, there's no point in dealing with people who have pilonoidal cysts with your moniker on them - nothing you can say will make them feel better.

I'm hoping for a feature where I can put myself onto other people's ignore lists so they won't get upset any more.


Fair & Balanced Buttons — The Cronus Connection

I've put around six people here on it. That way I don't waste time with people.

is I'd go CRAZY wondering what said people were doing. Call me crazy, but I'd rather raise my blood pressure by KNOWING what certain people are saying than by wondering what they might be writing.

Where is the ignore function on DU2? Do you need to donate to use it? I found the list under options but can't figure out how to add names to it. Thanks for your help.

At the top of the target's posts. It tooke me about three days to relocate all my ignored people because I had to wait for them all to post something. It's a pain, but worth the effort.

Now if I can only find a way to get term limits on moderators....


Fair & Balanced Buttons — The Cronus Connection

I could probably find their profiles using the directory too.

I never used Ignore with my old handle on DU1 but I've decided that life is simply too short to pay attention to 1 or 2 people who never contribute anything resembling dialogue.

on edit: Damn, you can't put people on Ignore through their profiles. There should be some way to ignore people without waiting for them to post.

> I could probably find their profiles using the (profile)
> directory too.

No. That feature was asked for during the Beta Test of DU2,
but as far as I can see, it was never added. If you still
want it, ask for it again in the "Bugs/Features" forum.

But it's pretty hard to find a given profile in the "more
popular" letters (such as "S"). Trying to access one of
those bigger lists toasts the particular browser that I'm
using at this second.

Atlant

why is it so important to have them on an ignore list??

:eyes:

because the casual and dismissive arrogance of the occasional post I do see really pisses me off.

I guess the optimist in me wanted to believe that all Democrats are, by nature, reasonable and non-stupid people. Unfortunately, it just isn't true.

Some Dems can be as vicious and separatist as your average Repuke, and I don't need myself or anyone else on DU having to read a flame war.

In fact, I'm about to put someone on ignore this very minute! Keeps the blood pressure nice and low. :)

Cat

They just 'disappeared' from DU. :-) I had resisted it for my entire time on DU but today I realized this poster always posts the same stuff that infuriates me. Bye, bye. I'm happier now.

For over two years I've refrained from using that function, but I'm starting to think that the only way I'm going to get through primary season will be to use it.

Serious critical comments are always welcome. But there's a new breed of DUer that twists facts like I've never seen here before. I'm sick of them....and every candidate has a few of them, but there are a few that have more than others.