Reading and Not


syrakusos

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At your name at the top, the little arrow indicates a drop down menu for your Profile. You can go to My Settings and on the left, find 'Ignore' Preferences. That lets you enter the usernames of people you do not want to read.

I knew about this generically from other boards, but never used the feature. What I read from others was "You are an idiot. I am ignoring you." Then, the next day, that person replies to a post from the one being 'ignored.' Usually, it was because the writer saw a quoted passage in a message. Realizing that the idiot was still an idiot, the writer could not help but tell him a thing or two. That, of course, always led to, "I thought that you were ignoring me." Having been outed as an obsessive-compulsive, the ignorer backpedals with furious hand-waving. So, it seemed unproductive and embarrassing. If you do not want to read someone, just do not read them. It is easy enough. And, yet, the miracle of automation delivers a wonderful world of comfort.

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I also don't understand it, I'm sure it is mostly flounce: I don't think of you - when clearly, I do. Personally there is nothing I can't ~learn~ from someone, whatever his position I want to understand better its premises. I'm not so sure about the "comfort" of automation, though. I'd rather take my chances with whatever randomly comes my way than be protected from it or be automatically 'guided' elsewhere..


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Coincidentally, MEM, I've just heard from Di who is a Facehooker that today's paper reports Facelook is bringing in a "dislike" button. One part of the article is relevant to my caution of "automation".

"Remember for a second, that liking a post doesn't just send a friendly message to the person who posted it. It also sends a signal to Facebook's News Feed algorithm that you appreciate this type of content and would like to see more of it". (Caitlin Dewey)

"See more" of certain content, and sure as eggs you will see its type more and more, and less of anything else. A drawback of automation is narrowing one's informed world view, giving you "what you want". Consider the scale this is happening on.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I find the ignore feature helpful, but incomplete. It does not prevent an ignored poster's original thread from showing up in the new content list, for instance.

Facehooker? I had not heard that term before. It was a true LOL moment.

In related news, Peeple, Yelp for Humans.

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