Twit filters.  They annoy me.  Why do people use them?  If this is a
free-speech system and you choose to post something that someone disagrees
with, why do you block what they say?  It seems pointless and in many ways,
pretty limiting.  Is it that you can't have what you say called into question?
Does vulgarity annoy you?  How do you justify filtering people out?

84 responses total.

I don't use twit filters, but if I did, I'd probably respond
that I have the right to choose what I read, based on any
criteria I care to set.

I guess in theory it's for when you've learned you can't expect a 
particular user to enter anthing interesting or amusing so you just 
eliminate them from your screen, or maybe you know someone is entering 
stuff only to annoy people, so you avoid the annoyance and deprive them 
of the satisfaction.  

In theory not a bad idea, but I personally don't know any users like 
that.  Someone like Rane, for example, has interesting stuff to say 
once in a while, even when he gets on my nerves.  The genuine assholes 
that come through periodically and enter "Fuck you" responses in every 
single item always disappear in a day or two.  The ones that stick 
around, like your friend Jamie (sorry, Brooke) are so much fun to make 
fun of that I can't imagine ever filtering them out.  

This does not mean that I won't forget an entire item I know I won't be 
interested in, like the "I'm bummed because" items.  I'd rather read 
slynne's parodies of them.  ;-)

There are some people here that I seldom take the time to read their
responses.  Not to say their comments aren't welcome here and enjoyed by
others.  I don't read every billboard or every article in the newspaper
either.  I expect in return that some don't find my comments worth
their time and likewise let them roll up their screen unread.  I'm fine
with that.

Someone who sets their goal at being universally liked is either 
going to be very disappointed or very boring. ;-)

Mr. Delizia slipped in.

"Someone who sets their goal at being universally liked is either going 
to be very disappointed or very boring."  

I agree, absolutely.  In fact, that's how I justify being so obnoxious. 

And I never miss a singe letter of your obnoxious remarks.

I don't care about being universally liked.  I just don't understand why you
would filter someone.  half of what rane says go right over my ahead - I just
hit my space bar and move along - I think I have a mental filter.

Although I did miss an "L" in mine.

The only times I've used a twit filter, it was because of my own weakness,
not the other poster. I assume this comes up in part because of Russ'
suggestion that I acquire a twit filter, and I think he made it fairly clear
he was making the suggestion because I had poor self-filtration skills by
letting myself get annoyed by certain users. If an alcoholic refuses to look
at the wine list in their favorite restaurant, but still goes to the
restaurant, they're admitting something about themselves, not about the wine
list.
 
I should say, that's the only reason I've had for using a twit filter on the
boards. I use it regularly in party because of spammers and wabbits.

I use a twit filter because I find that certain people rarely say anything
I am interested in reading.  It's highly probable that reading what they say
will be a waste of my time.  And life is too short.

re9:  what is a "wabbit"?

I dont use a twit filter but I dont necessarily read everyone's 
responses. I often space bar my way past certain people's comments. I 
dont want to use a filter because sometimes it turns out that they 
*did* say something interesting and someone responds to what they said 
and it is useful to go back. Mostly, if I dont read someone's response 
it is just to save time and not because I dislike what they have to say 
necessarily. On the rare occasion that someone online actually pisses 
me off to the point where it is affecting my life, I just temporarily 
forget the item or I stop logging on for a few days which isnt hard to 
do. 

This response has been erased.

Really? I think if that were possible, you would log on line here and 
the only posts you would be able to read would be edina's. 

This response has been erased.

I don't use a twit filter.  OTOH, I don't read anywhere near all of the
responses here.  
  There is so much interesting stuff on the internet these days, buried in
such a huge pile of stupid, time-wasting drivel that anyone who intends to
"step inside", as it were, needs to develop a rather sophisticated ability
to skim past drivel and find the interesting stuff.  Compared to a lot of the
web pages I'm interested in, doing so on Grex is almost trivially easy.  

#11> A user, esp one with poor grammar, frequently from India, whose
sole reason for being in Party is to have cybersex. Their frequency seems to
have gone down considerably. (This is not to disparage our Indian users, most
of whom are fine, productive members of the Grex community.)
 
Wabbits frequently start out on Party with something like:
jirnardu: Hey!!! any girls here? r u horny???

        I dont use a filter for BBS, but I often do for party.  It has to do
with the different crowds that frequent the two media.  There are many party
users who absolutely necessitate the use of a filter, if you're attempting
to have a coherent conversation with someone else in a public place.

I don't use a filter, because I can find useful stuff in most of what most
people say.  If I can't, well, I should work at it, because there's something
to learn from anybody.  Naturally, such vacuous rhetoric is not why I don't
use a filter, but it's a nice intellectual justification. :)  There's a lot
to read and a lot to learn, though, if people are willing to do it.  Just
because I'm not interested in everything that the mathematicians, for example,
have to say, doesn't mean I'm not going to read their stuff to see what I can
gain from it.  

There are other modes of censorship.  I can't actually speak for anybody
(obviously), but I suspect that most people don't filter me, even though there
will be times when I spend a great deal of time posting about sports in
certain items.  Relevant to them?  No.  Filterable?  Probably not.  If I'm
filtered, it's not because I post about sports, but because I'm an
insufferable dip. 

Re #0:  If they annoy you, don't use them.

I find twit filters are, like spam filters, a useful way to get rid
of people trying to command my attention for purposes I consider
unwarranted.  My time is my own, and I'll spend it how I please.
A twit filter or :ignore list is a time-tested way of getting rid
of people who are nothing but a waste of time, screen and bandwidth.

Another use of twit filters is for behavior modification.  If a person
becomes aware that certain behaviors will only result in being denied
the attention they want, they'll have to find another way to achieve
their ends.  On the other hand, if they're stuck in some state of
arrested development the twit filter lets them rant and rave in the
false belief that they are an actual participant in the world while
the world goes along blissfully unaware.  Either way, it's a win.

Re #5:  That's one reason I take extreme positions on things.  That,
and I like to see challenges to those positions.  I've seen responses
which require re-thinking, and the result is always worthwhile.

Also, you can't ban twit filters unless you completely overhaul the principles
of the system, because a number of them are third-party adaptations.  

I 'ignore' one twit for the reasons stated in 2 and 10, and skip over postingss
about sports and tautology by grexers who are not trying to be annoying.
I generally ignore postings by a few other users but don't filter them as
sometimes they say things I find interesting.  The twit does not, and when
I find missing numbers (filtered postings) I skip down a few responses until
the twit has gone away.

This response has been erased.

Dammit, Jamie, it's me-v-Grex, not you-v-Grex. Quit painting yourslef the
victim, I want that cross.

Ok - *that's* funny!

This response has been erased.

You and me against the world?

23: Surely you don't mean that the person in question is even stupider 
and worse-educated than *you*?  ;-)

This response has been erased.

iwbg iwbg

i don't use a twit filter. i'm not surprised that the few people who do use
it, are also the least tolerant people. i wonder if leeron uses one?

it doesn't upset me when jamie insults me or tells me how much he hates me.
i know he does it just cuz he really LUVS me. <blows a kiss to jamie>

I don't use a twit filter.  I've seen so many twits become interesting 
people, I'd be afraid to.

        Again, filtering depends on context.  If agora became flooded with
people posting garbage, even if there was the potential that eventually they
would say something worth reading, I might filter it.  Of course, it getting
flooded in the first place tends to kill off any real conversation anyway.

I'm too paranoid to filter.  I'm afraid the people I filtered would
figure out I was filtering them, then make comments about me behind my
back. ;)

Oh yeah, because that never happens.

This response has been erased.

jamie - it's not nice to make me just bust out laughing like that.

This response has been erased.

This response has been erased.

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss