# Ignoring (blocking) other members.



## Şafak

Hello,

I've already blacklisted many people on the forum (for so many reasons). I wonder if the forum has any restrictions on how many people one can ignore. If it does, I'm inclined to suggest removing the restriction.   Can someone enlighten me on this?

With kind regards,


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## merquiades

I really doubt there is a limit.  Why would there be?  You can follow or block whom you want.  
If that ever happens, I'd contact a moderator a.s.a.p.


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## merquiades

Speaking of blocking forista(s), as this thread has been opened....
Is it possible to block a moderator?  Of course, I am not suggesting to disregard any rules or the role of the moderator(s) to enforce them.  I mean a moderator when (s)he is participating actively in the forums like any other member.
I suppose not, but I wanted to inquire anyway.


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## Şafak

merquiades said:


> Speaking of blocking forista(s), as this thread has been opened....
> Is it possible to block a moderator?  Of course, I am not suggesting to disregard any rules or the role of the moderator(s) to enforce them.  I mean a moderator when (s)he is participating actively in the forums like any other member.
> I suppose not, but I wanted to inquire anyway.


I asked this some time ago. No, it’s not possible. 😁


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## Peterdg

Another question: why would you want to block someone?  

If you don't want to read what he/she writes, just don't read it. Honestly, I don't see the point.


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## merquiades

Peter, you are very lucky you have never been attacked or harassed by anyone here.  There are some rude people around. When I joined WR it happened a lot, but now I'm more selective in the threads I answer.  You also get experience, develop intuition and it's easier to avoid them.
If you decide to block someone the person doesn't exist for you anymore so even if they write something nasty, you will never see it.  Also they have no access to your private mailbox.


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## Peterdg

merquiades said:


> Peter, you are very lucky you have never been attacked or harassed by anyone here.


Oh, I have been attacked and harassed many, many times; but I want to know, so I can react (and make them  shut up  ).

If I say something and the "harasser" replies something stupid, I want to know so I can react to it. Otherwise, my valuable and intelligent   contribition could  be disregarded by the general public, and that would be a real pitty, wouldn't it?


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## Şafak

Peterdg said:


> If you don't want to read what he/she writes, just don't read it.


Easier said than done.



Peterdg said:


> Oh, I have been attacked and harassed many, many times; but I want to know, so I can react (and make them  shut up  ).
> 
> If I say something and the "harasser" replies something stupid, I want to know so I can react to it. Otherwise, my valuable and intelligent   contribition could  be disregarded by the general public, and that would be a real pitty, wouldn't it?


No, I don't want to react to silly messages. I just want to browse the forum without even seeing them. I can't say I blacklist only those who disagree with me (let's say on political issues). The biggest chunk of the ignored members is comprised of those whose behavior I find peculiar (they either ask weird questions or provide weird answers, or act like they want they are talking about when they clearly don't). I've received a couple of strange private messages, too, but they are usually sent by those who are very new to the forum and more likely won't participate in two days.

I honestly can't imagine using the forum without blocking people.  

Here's an anecdote: one day I came across a thread with a simple question in the English Only forum. Well, of course, I'm not a native speaker but it doesn't mean I can't answer a simple question correctly, especially if the question is about grammar. That's exactly what I did, I answered the question. The person contacted me and told me, literally, to stay away from his threads because he was only interested in what native speakers had to say. I find this type of behavior very offensive. I must admit I stopped browsing the English Only that much and explaining what I can explain because I feel like there're a lot of people who're more interested in native speakers no matter how basic their question is. Well, this is fair, I guess, otherwise they'd not be using the forum. The person is a proud member of my ignore list.

Here's another one: another day I came across another easy question in the same section. The thread was started by a Russian. It was a basic grammar question, so I replied right away. Unfortunately (with all due respect to the native speaker), one native speaker (a very smart one indeed) also answered the question but in a more detailed way (as he always does): "theoretically speaking, yes, but according to this, you need this, but this requieres that blahblah". Basically, my reply paled in comparison with his response (but we were of the same opinion). Can you imagine that the Russian guy sent me a private message, saying I was "totally incompetent" and that I "need to learn English first before teaching other people". The message was extremely offensive. Of course. I blacklisted his ass


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## merquiades

My experience is close to yours.  I have had people belittle my comments for one reason or another,  ask me not to participate in their threads because it dissuades others from participating, demand a native or a certain kind of native's answer, etc.  It is also true that some members pass themselves off as experts and won't accept being contradicted, and are downright rude.  I actually stopped frequenting two or three forums for these reasons.  

Blocking really helps making the experience more enjoyable, because you never see these people ever again.  I don't block people who haven't done anything specific to me though.  There are some people with strange behavior and strong personalities but that is their prerogative. 

But as I said, nowadays I have a feeling for the forum as I've been a member for a long time, so I know how to avoid these bad situations.  For example, I don't bother answering a thread that is going down hill.  I also gravitate to threads where there are foristas that I know and whose opinion I value.  I read much more than answer nowadays.  I don't follow people though because I think it's intrusive for them.


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## Paulfromitaly

People may want to ignore or follow other users for many reasons and Xenforo allows it.
I know one can follow up to 1,000 other members. I guess the same figure is set for the ignore feature.

Don't answer my questions; I want natives' answers

Once again: everyone can reply to any question in any forum, which means, no one gets to choose who can answer their questions and who cannot.


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## Şafak

merquiades said:


> I don't follow people though because I think it's intrusive for them.


I have no idea how the following function works. I think I do follow someone because I must have clicked the button out of curiosity. Hopefully, they aren’t offended 😁.


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## merquiades

When you follow someone, you can go into your news summary and you have all the messages they have written.  So if you follow John Smith, you go into your profile and then under the heading news summary.  You have the messages they have written in reverse chronological order.  You can see what they have commented on today first of all then yesterday etc... If you are a big fan of someone, you've got it all.
I just realized I'm following some people I didn't know I was following too.


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## Şafak

merquiades said:


> When you follow someone, you can go into your news summary and you have all the messages they have written.  So if you follow John Smith, you go into your profile and then under the heading news summary.  You have the messages they have written in reverse chronological order.  You can see what they have commented on today first of all then yesterday etc... If you are a big fan of someone, you've got it all.
> I just realized I'm following some people I didn't know I was following too.


This is some true stalking.


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## elroy

merquiades said:


> I don't follow people though because I think it's intrusive for them.


How so?


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## bandini

Şafak said:


> No, I don't want to react to silly messages. I just want to browse the forum without even seeing them. I can't say I blacklist only those who disagree with me (let's say on political issues). The biggest chunk of the ignored members is comprised of those whose behavior I find peculiar (they either ask weird questions or provide weird answers, or act like they want they are talking about when they clearly don't). I've received a couple of strange private messages, too, but they are usually sent by those who are very new to the forum and more likely won't participate in two days.
> 
> I honestly can't imagine using the forum without blocking people.
> 
> Here's an anecdote: one day I came across a thread with a simple question in the English Only forum. Well, of course, I'm not a native speaker but it doesn't mean I can't answer a simple question correctly, especially if the question is about grammar. That's exactly what I did, I answered the question. The person contacted me and told me, literally, to stay away from his threads because he was only interested in what native speakers had to say. I find this type of behavior very offensive. I must admit I stopped browsing the English Only that much and explaining what I can explain because I feel like there're a lot of people who're more interested in native speakers no matter how basic their question is. Well, this is fair, I guess, otherwise they'd not be using the forum. The person is a proud member of my ignore list.
> 
> Here's another one: another day I came across another easy question in the same section. The thread was started by a Russian. It was a basic grammar question, so I replied right away. Unfortunately (with all due respect to the native speaker), one native speaker (a very smart one indeed) also answered the question but in a more detailed way (as he always does): "theoretically speaking, yes, but according to this, you need this, but this requieres that blahblah". Basically, my reply paled in comparison with his response (but we were of the same opinion). Can you imagine that the Russian guy sent me a private message, saying I was "totally incompetent" and that I "need to learn English first before teaching other people". The message was extremely offensive. Of course. I blacklisted his ass


I hope you return to the English Only forum.


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## merquiades

elroy said:


> How so?


At first I thought following someone meant that you had a list of "friends", you could see if they were online to write private messages, and you could remember that way whose posts you enjoyed reading.  Then, by accident I was exploring all the functions of my profile and I saw that you could also see every post they had written, the time and day they wrote them, and what they were doing if they were connected or what their last activity was.  It does seem a bit like virtual stalking, and I wouldn't be surprised if the people I follow think I am prying into their "virtual" WR life.  That is if they even know.  I don't think you have to agree to be followed.


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## Loob

(You can see all the posts of people you _don't_ follow by hovering over their user name and clicking on their post count.)


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## merquiades

Ok, I see.....  Had no idea.


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## olivinha

merquiades said:


> My experience is close to yours.  I have had people belittle my comments for one reason or another,  ask me not to participate in their threads because it dissuades others from participating, demand a native or a certain kind of native's answer, etc.  It is also true that some members pass themselves off as experts and won't accept being contradicted, and are downright rude.  I actually stopped frequenting two or three forums for these reasons.


Não deixe de frequentar o foro de português! É um prazer vê-lo por lá!


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## Şafak

By the way, friends, how do we see those who're following you? I bet some people might have started to follow me. Where's a full list of my fans?


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## Peterdg

Şafak said:


> By the way, friends, how do we see those who're following you? I bet some people might have started to follow me. Where's a full list of my fans?


I don't think you can do that.

However, you can restrict who will receive your news feeds; if you don't receive a user's news feed, there is no use to follow that user.
There is a choice between:

Nobody
Everybody
Members only
People that you follow
The option is in your account under "Privacy".


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## Şafak

You're saying I can't know who's stalking me online? I don't think this is how the function should work.


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## siares

You should get an alert first time somebody starts, in the old forum it worked. I'll follow you now.


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## Şafak

siares said:


> You should get an alert first time somebody starts, in the old forum it worked. I'll follow you now.


Yes, I just got the pop-up that siares is now stalking me   . Thanks.


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## siares

Make sure it is worth my while! I think reactions in newsfeed are pointless. I don't look at it, when I have time I usually just browse replies to any topics and always discover something I didn't know I don't know how to explain. Reactions don't help any. It is as though I went to a website and set up alert for Douglas Adams's essays, regardless of topic; and then I got alert whenever he read another author's essay; not when he wrote something new.


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## elroy

Şafak said:


> I just got the pop-up that siares is now stalking me  .


I think that’s all you get, though.  You can’t check who all’s following you at any given point, and I think if they unfollow you you don’t get notified.


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## Peterdg

Şafak said:


> You're saying I can't know who's stalking me online? I don't think this is how the function should work.


It has been removed for privacy reasons. See *here* (and the following post).


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## elroy

You can still access the list of members you are following.


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## velisarius

What I get from previous posts in this thread is that if someone else is following me they are stalking me, but if I'm following someone it's because I love to read their posts. That can't be right.

I suggest we give up on the somewhat paranoid idea that following someone on WR is  "stalking". As others have noted, there are other, more subtle, ways of watching someone else's activities than by "following" them.


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## bearded

Şafak said:


> By the way, friends, how do we see those who're following you? I bet some people might have started to follow me. Where's a full list of my fans?


See here: Followers


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## Şafak

velisarius said:


> What I get from previous posts in this thread is that if someone else is following me they are stalking me, but if I'm following someone it's because I love to read their posts. That can't be right.
> 
> I suggest we give up on the somewhat paranoid idea that following someone on WR is  "stalking". As others have noted, there are other, more subtle, ways of watching someone else's activities than by "following" them.


Hm, if you got this impression from my messages, I'm sorry, I used the word stalking humorously. I actually don't give a hoot who's following me; I was just curious how the function worked. The only thing that made me scratch my head is that I can't see my followers. No matter what others have to say about this: it's for the sake of privacy, logic, Christianity and world peace, I don't think it's right. For example, on Instagram, you can see both: who you follow and who you're followed by.


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## velisarius

Şafak said:


> it's for the sake of privacy, logic, Christianity and world peace,


What would Jesus do? He only had twelve apostles, and one of them turned on him.

Perhaps we don''t know what we really want. I ignore a host of people on the forum, but sometimes I log in and think "Hey, where's everybody gone?"


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## Paulfromitaly

I guess the Xenforo developers didn't choose the best word (following) to call a feature that is nothing more than a simple post aggregator.
In a news feeder/aggregator we specify what kind of news we are interested in and the tool groups them up in the same location for easy reading. The following feature does the same thing, grouping up posts not by topic but *by user*.
There's nothing intrusive about it since we can easily get the same information by checking people's profiles.


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## merquiades

merquiades said:


> Speaking of blocking forista(s), as this thread has been opened....
> Is it possible to block a moderator?  Of course, I am not suggesting to disregard any rules or the role of the moderator(s) to enforce them.  I mean a moderator when (s)he is participating actively in the forums like any other member.
> I suppose not, but I wanted to inquire anyway.





Şafak said:


> I asked this some time ago. No, it’s not possible. 😁


As I think about this a lot, I forgot to ask @Şafak what reason was given.


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## elroy

merquiades said:


> I forgot to ask @Şafak what reason was given.


I'm not 100% sure, but I think it might be this:
When you ignore someone, they are not able to contact you via conversation.  Moderators need to be able to do this to do our jobs as moderators.
I actually just happened to ask Mike if it was possible to reprogram the Ignore feature to hide the person's posts but still allow them to contact you via conversation.  He said he didn't think it was possible.


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