I've subscribed to a couple of threads in my years but not very many quite honestly. It's OK for those threads that you are really, really interested in and that have a high probability of being long-lasting.

But it's not a substitute for what I'm thinking. For starters, it's a lot of clicks to subscribe and I'm certainly not going to do that for more than a handful of threads. And I still have to check the forums for new threads that might be of interest, and when I do that I have to sift through the unwanted threads again.

What I'm thinking about is a simple button, like a "thumbs down" or "mute" or "zzzzz" or "swipe left," that I can check off for any thread in the forum that I simply don't care about. As new threads come in I can mute them or not, but at least the ones that I've already muted won't be getting in the way.

Users of messageboards constantly talk about clutter and keeping things tidy. It seems that this would be a way for each individual to tidy up their own message board view.