The ignore poster feature is one that is often touted as the answer to many things. I have tried it, and for my purposes it didn't really work. The first problem is that if the poster you ignore posts, you don't see the post, but the next poster quotes that post, so you see it there, negating the ignore feature. The other problem is that even if the next poster responds to the ignored post without quoting it, not seeing it can make the thread seem impossibly jumbled - it becomes nonsense.

Ignoring a thread works better, but you have to know to ignore it. Some are obvious from the title, and you don't really need an ignore feature, common sense tells you to ignore it. Others, you have to open and expose yourself to the thread to know that you shouldn't - sort of like that burning paper bag on your doorstep.

Basically, we're having a debate about nothing here. Some folks lament the movement of the AA forum in the direction of less content, more friendliness. Some applaud that movement. Friends, that decision has already been made, and it will not be unmade. I repeat, the AA forum is what it is, and it is likely to become moreso, but certainly not less. We have absolutely zero ability to change that. Predictions made at the time by the "more friendly" advocates that super-knowledgable experts would flock here to fill the void if our expert members left and went elsewhere have been proven to be unfounded. Most of the correct answers here are still supplied by the tiny band of members like BRP who go elsewhere to maintain their knowledge, but still participate here off and on in a somewhat lackluster fashion. Most very basic questions here are still answered both correctly and incorrectly, and it is up to the reader to decide who really knows what they are talking about and who is amused by posting wrong answers to mislead others.

Mid-level to advanced questions are rarely answered correctly - personally, I feel moved to correct about 10% of the wrong answers to such questions. For the rest, I am following the advice given in this thread and ignoring. I suspect that is true of the others who may actually know the answers, as corrections rarely happen. It is really difficult for us to make such corrections, because while we are pretty sure the posted info is wrong, to be absolutely sure of what we are saying, we have to do the research that the member asking it is unwilling to do. If I really want to know the answer for myself, I will research it, and once I have done the work, I will post the answer, but the rest I pass over (hence my signature). Like BRP, I do not regard myself as an expert, but in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. The real experts on AA that I know generally regard the FT AA forum as a sewer in which they do not wish to dangle their feet.

Oh, and "AA metal"? Do a search, durn it!