I can hardly believe I'm making this request. In over 30 years on the Internet, I believe I've only blocked messages from 2 or 3 people in any venue (mailing list, forum, etc), except for spammers.
There's one person here who posts prolifically, and contributes some accurate information, but seems to blatantly violate the guidelines in the community FAQ many times more than they are helpful. I'd like to avoid their succession of negative posts (bordering on hostile).
You can't fully block, but a recent update allows you to "Ignore." What this will do is hide the post but provide a very tempting link you can use to display his the post.
It's under Preferences > Notifications > Users on your user page. You probably want "Ignored," as "Muted" will just suppress notifications.
Thanks. I had looked under the list of Users, thinking that the setting (if enabled) might be there.
I like that the 'Ignore' option expires automatically -- a good way to create a cooling off time, rather than a permanent filter.
I agree this is sad...but I've lost track of the number of time I began to respond 'in kind' to posts that seem hostile (and canceled my reply)...and I realize that the way I'm reacting to this person's posts could influence how I see this community as a whole. Much better to have the forum software help reduce my irritation rather than responding, or leaving.
I don't know the specifics of your situation but in general I find ignorant posters thrive on attention. I just ignore them and hope they will get tired and go someplace else.
I have experience with building & admin'g tech forums. User filters really don't work.
IMO, the HE forum reached critical mass about 30 days ago (Wink?). It's gone from warm to hot and trending toward white-hot. Some pain will accompany that growth, and it's going to take a zero-tolerance TOS and hardline moderators to enforce it.
An alternative might be to reach out to Hubitat/Moderators and let them have a private word with the "offender" to tone down. While the identity of that person is not known in this thread, I personally have done a lot of reading on the community since I migrated from Wink, and I can see where you are coming from. There are definitely some questionable practices happening from time to time . . . .
Not sure zero-tolerance is necessary... I think we are all grown adults here.. If something gets out of hand there is a flag feature that will alert the moderators..
I can think of one or two myself. If it hasn't been mentioned, you should report them to admin. If you're not ok with flagging the post, as they can see that, just shoot an admin a pm and they'll check it out. I've done it in the past as well. They'll quietly take care of it for you.
Flagging mods works OK when you're in the 'developing community' stage. Once you get a number of active users then the mods are overburdened 'negotiating.'
