"Reminder: Stifle" Topic

At this time of pandemic and strife, many of us are stressed. Some of us find it difficult to tolerate differing opinions in the current climate.

Please remember that on TMP, you have the choice to Stifle members who routinely drive you up a wall.

On the forums, click on their membername to go to their Profile page. Look for the "Stifle" button and click it. Their posts will now be unreadable to you.

Dear editor, That sort of action is why the Blue Fez has devolved into . it's like Gresham's Law for diverse thought. If you stifle you leave the worst examples to continue offering up conspiratorial crap which is not answered by any rational thought. Over time the sane people leave and the forum is hollowed out.

Much easier to leave them, unstifled, on their own reservation where they only hear each other. This is what has happened. The main effort, as on the science forum, is to reply to in strong and sharp terms, pointing out their lack of rational thought. They invariably make the weakness of their arguments and thought obvious to all. It also allows the occasional reader on the forum to judge where the more informed members judge the merit of

The only exception to this would be in cases where your editorship might judge the postings to be directly harmful or damaging to your readers. This would be rare, though I can say that at least one poster has encouraged behavior that could lead to some reader's injury.

Repiqueone…I agree, but I never joined the BF and it's worked out quite nicely here when I can just stifle those I don't want to listen to.

Fortunately they are relatively few in number, but again, life is too short to put up with…I'll be polite here…others.

Again though, I understand your POV and agree with it in the main.

True conspiracy believers are (literally) immune to having their minds changed.

If no one else is joining and being influenced, don't let it worry you.

I find the stifle function very useful and thank Bill for providing it.

Better to use the stifle function. Then you don't see a blank post you don't see them at all. And it works right here in the normal forums. I don't do blue fez so I don't know if it works there

I don't do blue fez so I don't know if it works there

I don't remember

Well I never stifle anyone.

How ironic.

I've never left a stifle on longer then a few minutes. Just to curious to see what folks are saying.

I'm with VCarter when it comes to curiosity and while I understand Bill's intention, isn't stifling something much the same thing as turning a blind eye to wrongdoing?

Now, more than ever, surely people should call out inappropriate, inflammatory or plain wrong posts here?

I thought Repi's post here (suitably bleeped) was a pretty well reasoned and articulate response to the issue but I see he's been dawghoused for it, for some reason – it's getting rather crowded in there, so I'll say no more, as I think social distancing is important right now.

Now, more than ever, surely people should call out inappropriate, inflammatory or plain wrong posts here?

And who decides what is inappropriate, inflammatory, or 'wrong'? Seems like the forum rules we already have should do the job, and if someone hasn't broken the rules, then if they offend you there is Stifle.

I thought Repi's post here (suitably bleeped) was a pretty well reasoned and articulate response to the issue but I see he's been dawghoused for it, for some reason – it's getting rather crowded in there, so I'll say no more, as I think social distancing is important right now.

Except for the part where he called certain members 'idiot', which is against forum rules.

Fair call Bill, but one would have to agree it is rather a mild epithet to apply. I would be inclined to use far richer terminology myself, deeply rooted in Australiana.

Is it still legal to use "Snowflake" or "Useful Idiot", not that I ever would of course.

Wolfhag

It is against the rules to make personal attacks.

Discussion of feminine hygiene products is not outside the rules of the forum, thought it is likely off-topic for many of the boards. Regardless, calling someone a feminine hygiene product in the way that is commonly used to denote a person of less than stellar moral fibre and scrupulous behaivour, is outside the rules. Even directly calling someone a person of less than stellar moral fibre and scrupulous behaivour (without using the noun name of said appliance) is not allowed.

Clear?

True conspiracy believers are (literally) immune to having their minds changed.

That's what they want you to think!

Every time I hear or see the word 'stifle' I invariably think of the old "All in the Family" sitcom when Archie, feed up with Edith's inane ramblings, would tell her to "Just stifle it Edith!"

Now THATS entertainment!!!

Fair comment Bill, everyone will have a different opinion on what is ‘inflammatory' etc, that's what reasoned, reasonable exchange of views is all about.

Just for better understanding of Repi's transgression – looks to me that he was referring to ‘idiots' generically, without specifically targeting individual members of the forum, or did I miss a bit?

Similarly, while I understand writing "Xxxxxxx is an idiot" might earn you a couple of days in the cooler, is it OK to say "Xxxxxxx, what you're saying is idiotic…" if then backed up by a coherent counter-argument?

Must be OK to love/respect the person but hate/decry the message sometimes?

is it OK to say "Xxxxxxx, what you're saying is idiotic…" if then backed up by a coherent counter-argument?

Must be OK to love/respect the person but hate/decry the message sometimes?

What about neutral to the person … don't mention them as part of the argument.

Attribution of error to the individual instead of the statement makes your argument logically flawed. If you actually have a sound argument, the flawed bit is not necessary.

I thought the same thing von Schwartz !

Repique said: "They invariably make the weakness of their arguments and thought obvious to all. It also allows the occasional reader on the forum to judge where the more informed members judge the merit of *SNIP*"…

Meanwhile, over at the Blue Fez, which Bob criticized heavily in his post, we are still waiting on him to man up and come back to apologize for his words and actions for the days leading up to Tues Nov 8th 2016. We're also waiting for him to come back and explain to us how he, (after making his predictions and slamming other members of the site), he got it so horribly wrong.
Interesting that he decided to crawl under a rock the next day and has never come back out over there….

So Bob…we're still waiting…..

6th June … D-Day, when Allied Forces invaded mainland Europe to rid the World of Nazi Tyranny and allow freedom of expression. I hope it still remains and we are allowed to state our cases. Not all will agree with each other and where extremists, undesirables etc speak their diatribe we can all see it for what it is.

Every Life Matters.

Everyone has an equal right to make a fool of themselves.

Indeed !

Not a clue how it works of what it looks like if used.
Not really interested in finding out.

I know more or less what Stifle does, but what does the Ignore button do? Can't see it mentioned in the FAQ.