NOT limited to DU: On ANY message board, why would you put someone on ignore?

[Major Hogwash]

128. Well, for what it's worth . . .

Which was a great song.
I noticed quite a few people referring to it here at the DU lately.

To keep it short --
If those members who are being ignored on a forum really talked the way they do to people in the real world -- the same way that they post on a forum -- they wouldn't have a single friend.

There are 3 types of forum members who simply can't coexist on a forum with real people.

The 1st type is the troll, who breaks the rulez so often or is so obnoxious that they become pretty obvious to most of the other members of the forum rather quickly.

The 2nd type is the troll fan.
There is nothing worse than a member of a forum cheering on another member who is purposely lying on the forum.
The former is a troll fan, the latter is the troll.
By tag-teaming with each other they can disrupt any conversation on any topic.

At the same time, they both may be sock puppets, which is the 3rd type of forum member, one who is not being honest with the rest of the members of the forum, in that they don't even exist except in the mind of the creator.

So, in order to disengage, and totally ignore the game those 3 types of members are playing, using the ignore button to make them disappear is the only option one has at their disposal when the admins of the forum fail to act.

Honestly, at some point in time, everyone -- every single member of a forum -- is going to have to decide how much time and effort they will expend in to participating on a forum.
Some people have much more time to participate, while others don't have much time at all.
Since sock puppets are not real people, they come and go and reappear like magic after laying dormant for months, or even years.

Trying to hold discussions with those 3 types of members on a forum on the internet is fruitless.
Each member of a forum has to decide for themselves how to deal with those 3 types.

Some people take themselves too seriously on forums.
But, I don't want to waste a lot of my time talking to any of those 3 other types.
It became a fairly serious problem for me once I realized that I was spending 100s of hours each month discussing issues on the internet, yet I am not immortal.