18sas

I would think this has been suggested before, but having a way for me to mark an entire thread as "Not Interested" would be a big help in separating the wheat from the chaff.

In the FT fora that I participate in regularly, like the Delta or Premium Deals sections, fully 2/3s of the topics are of no interest to me whatsoever. Some of these threads continually resurface to the top and become a nuisance, causing me to have to mentally exclude the thread each and every time I scan the forum, since I can't visually exclude them.

Now I know that the devil is in the details, and since this functionality would necessitate changes to how threads are presented in a forum, a lot of thought will have to be put into this.

But there are a couple of ways that this could work:

1. Keep the forum pagination the same, but have my Not Interested threads immediately sort to the bottom. They would also be placed beneath a marker that would read "Threads you aren't interested in:"
   
   
2. Keep most everything the same, pagination included, but have my Not Interested threads appear in a different font-face or with a different background. For example, Not Interested threads could be in a light gray background with plain black or dark gray text. My eye would then be drawn to the normal threads and I could more easily ignore the Not Interested threads with this obvious visual cue. But...the Not Interested threads would still be there if I so choose to take a peek at them anyway
   
   
3. Have a toggle button to show or hide Not Interested threads. This would change the pagination so I'm not sure that this is the best approach, though would be the most efficient at keeping Not Interested thread out of sight - and also out of mind.
   

I would lean towards options 1 or 2 because I don't think that threads should ever by hidden entirely. There is always the chance that I will want to read a Not Interested thread in a fit of boredom. Plus there always needs to be a way to toggle a thread back to Interested status and I can't do that if I can't find them easily.

The good thing about any of these options would be that if someone doesn't use the Not Interested features, then everything would be exactly as it is today.

Interested in hearing others' opinions...

Canarsie

Have you tried the MyFlyerTalk option?

You can subscribe to whatever discussions you like and largely avoid the ones in which you are not interested...

OverThereTooMuch

I completely agree with you. It would be a very valuable tool. Many other forums have it.

Earlier discussions:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/techn...ad-ignore.html
which links to http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/sugge...re-thread.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/techn...re-thread.html

Of the 3 options you propose, I believe #3 is actually the most common implementation. Typically there's an entirely separate page where the ignored threads can be seen. I don't think #1 would be helpful, if there's no indication that the threads are being ignored. #2 also sounds interesting, but seems like it adds complexity to the implementation.

I don't think this solves the problem. If there were only a few threads someone ever wanted to look at, this would work. But if they want to see new threads, then they'll have to go to the forum and look for them, and that's when they'll see the threads that they aren't interested in, mixed in with all of the new content.

18sas

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.

18sas

I figured this had to have come up at some point.

For my Option #1, there would be a separator between the wanted and unwanted threads. The unwanted ones could even be collapsed. To me this seems like it would be the easiest to implement because the same list of threads would be returned on a page, regardless of which threads you are ignoring, only the sorting of those threads would change. This would alleviate some of the perceived performance issues that IB-Dick mentions in one of the threads that you posted. Also, you wouldn't need a special interface or special page to see those ignored threads if you changed your mind. They would be right there on the same page, just in a special collapsed section.

bowdenj

Would like this option so much - my method is login and click New Posts and scan through 20 pages of threads. If I could forget (?ignore?) threads that would be so useful to cutting down threads.

nsx

Interesting idea. Could someone please list a few forum sites which offer this capability, so we can see how it works?

CMK10

All due respect, but my first response to this is that it seems a little silly. Between Subscribing to threads and also knowing what to scroll past, it seems like a solution in search of a problem. I frequent the BA forum which is the most posted in forum on FT I believe and I can easily bypass all the "wheat" threads in seconds.

Canarsie

While I tend to agree with you based on my personal experience with FlyerTalk, I have also learned over the years that just because I do not believe that something is not a problem does not mean that it is not a problem.

The first thing which would need to be investigated is if the vBulletin bulletin board software which powers FlyerTalk is capable of having the requested feature implemented...

...and if not, then this discussion is moot, as vBulletin is owned by Internet Brands — which is the same company that owns FlyerTalk.

nsx

There are different implementations of the "Hide this" function across the web. Most use a small plus or minus sign to indicate whether the user can display additional content or hide the content currently being displayed.

Maluku_Flyer

You read the chaff threads instead?

CMK10

Ever been to the Delta forum?

OverThereTooMuch

Other sites that have ignore functionality:
Fatwallet
Slickdeals
(I'm sure others can add more)

Ignore Thread/Forum add-on (unofficial) for Vb:
http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showt...d+forum+ignore
(But it's apparently EXTREMELY limited, in that it only blocks them from the "New Posts" view)

Threads still show even if you've ignored the user: Known bug in Vb.
http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showt...=ignore+thread

nsx

I've used those sites and never noticed the ability to ignore threads. I know they don't use vBulletin, and from your information this looks like it would have to be added to vBulletin.

In such a situation TalkBoard can consider whether it makes sense to develop a wish list proposal for implementation and whether or not that process should include an official vote. Frankly, I doubt that a vote of TalkBoard carries much weight with Internet Brands. They listen to ideas from whatever source and implement the ones they like.

The best place for discussion of whether in makes sense to add a feature and what that feature should look like is right here. Then, if we get consensus on something, our Community Director can take it to Internet Brands with or without a stamp of approval from TalkBoard.

Maluku_Flyer

Sounds like an option that almost nobody would use - even if they actually knew it existed.