How To Ignore Threads and Forums

There may come a day when you you do not wish to view specific threads or even all threads from a particular forum on the 'View unread posts' list. Until now there was no way to accomplish a permanent "Ignore" of that thread or forum, but you can now easily do it. This how to will describe the process.

Please note that ignoring a thread [b]only means that it no longer displays on the View Unread Posts link[/b] - you will still see the thread/forum if you go into the particular forum where it is located.

1. Mark Forums Read

First, and this is important: You will need to start fresh by catching up on all your reading of current threads and then use the "Mark forums read" link at the top right under the red bar. Using that link resets all of the timestamps on all threads currently on the board which will give you more consistent results going forward. If you are ignoring threads or forums and getting inconsistent results, most likely not marking forums read will be the culprit.

Be aware, of course, that using that link will empty out your current 'View Unread' list from across all forums and threads until new posts come in. Oh, and you only have to do this once when you start using the Ignore feature for the first time. After that, simply follow the directions below.

2. Ignoring a Forum

From there, ignoring forums is easy. From inside a forum view like this one, look just below the New Topic button and you will see the "Ignore Forum" link. Clicking that link will ignore all future threads, posts, and replies in that forum. Armed with that information, I see no reason for future twin vs single debates Alright, alright, wishful thinkin.

Here's a screenshot of the Ignore Forum link:



And once you click it, the system knows you are now ignoring that forum and gives you a link to Unignore Forum as below:



NOTE: I recommend ignoring forums sparingly. There may be threads that don't fit well anywhere else and yet do not 100% fit the forum description and you would miss those if ignoring the entire forum.

3. Ignoring a Thread

From either 'View Unread Posts' or from within a particular forum, you will see a gray X to the left of the thread list:

To ignore a thread most permanently and forever, simply click that X and it will turn red as it is added to your Ignored Threads list. Click 'View Unread again and note that it's gone from the 'View Unread' list! Again, note that it *will* still show up in the list of threads if you go directly to the forum itself. However, regardless of the time of the last post, it will never indicate the there have unread posts even in that view.



If you make a mistake and want to immediately unignore that thread, just click the red X again and it will turn white, signalling the thread is no longer ignored.




4. Managing Your Ignored Threads / Forums

Because you may later change your mind about which thread or forum to ignore, we also have a control panel where you can remove previously ignored threads and forums from your ignore lists.

Go to the Preferences link in the red bar then click the "Ignore Threads" link at the bottom of the left side bar (or click here) and you will see a list of forums and threads you are currently ignoring. Simply click the 'Remove' link next to whichever thread or forum you no longer wish to ignore and you will begin seeing new posts to those in your 'View Unread' list as they come in.

Hope this helps, and by all means give us feedback on the feature in Back Talk. Thanks!

Jeff