I find myself adding more people to my Ignore List in recent days, and it's made me ponder my criteria for moving someone to this list.
For me, the Ignore List is like the squelch control on a 2-way radio. I want to be able to hear the clear signals while blocking the noisy ones. We each have a signal-to-noise ratio, a high ratio for those who tend to stay on topic and offer good, non-speculative feedback. The low ratio is those who tend to be off topic more than on, and those who are rude or antagonizing.
If you turn the squelch up too high, you risk missing some good communications. If it's too low, then the noise drowns out everything else. I've kept my "squelch" relatively low, because some of the off-topic banter makes me laugh, and because sometimes even the "noisy" people have gems of wisdom to share.
Recently it seems like the noise is increasing, especially the unacceptable noise - people being rude or purposefully goading others into conflict. There's a subjective line I have that once you cross it, that's it, you're on my Ignore List.
People who end up on my Ignore List usually don't stay there forever - perhaps a week or so. The squelch is something I fiddle with frequently, because I'd rather not block someone forever, unless you really are a full-blown bonafide jerk.
Anyway, I'm just thinking out loud. There seems to be more "conflict" in our forum lately, and if we were children fighting, the adults in the room would move us to separate corners so we don't tangle with each other. The Ignore List helpsme us with this, because the alternative is to "tangle" with others, and that wouldn't be pretty.
ps - when one person doesn't like what I say, I tell them to please add me to their ignore list. When a bunch of people tell me this, then I'll try to adjust my own signal-to-noise ratio to be a more pleasant sound on your radio
For me, the Ignore List is like the squelch control on a 2-way radio. I want to be able to hear the clear signals while blocking the noisy ones. We each have a signal-to-noise ratio, a high ratio for those who tend to stay on topic and offer good, non-speculative feedback. The low ratio is those who tend to be off topic more than on, and those who are rude or antagonizing.
If you turn the squelch up too high, you risk missing some good communications. If it's too low, then the noise drowns out everything else. I've kept my "squelch" relatively low, because some of the off-topic banter makes me laugh, and because sometimes even the "noisy" people have gems of wisdom to share.
Recently it seems like the noise is increasing, especially the unacceptable noise - people being rude or purposefully goading others into conflict. There's a subjective line I have that once you cross it, that's it, you're on my Ignore List.
People who end up on my Ignore List usually don't stay there forever - perhaps a week or so. The squelch is something I fiddle with frequently, because I'd rather not block someone forever, unless you really are a full-blown bonafide jerk.
Anyway, I'm just thinking out loud. There seems to be more "conflict" in our forum lately, and if we were children fighting, the adults in the room would move us to separate corners so we don't tangle with each other. The Ignore List helps
ps - when one person doesn't like what I say, I tell them to please add me to their ignore list. When a bunch of people tell me this, then I'll try to adjust my own signal-to-noise ratio to be a more pleasant sound on your radio
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