So, I want to be able to ignore messages from moderators. Regular users should be able to ignore moderators. Please adeed it.
AI-generated summary
The discussion revolves around adding āmoderatorā to the ignore list feature in Discourse. Marcus_Cheng requests the ability to ignore moderator messages, arguing regular users should have this option. JammyDodger questions the practicality and potential issues this could cause in forum moderation. jericson acknowledges the complexity, noting moderators often act both as officials and community members, and suggests that while ignoring them during non-official interactions might be reasonable, it could undermine their authority and create confusion. schneeland agrees, proposing a more elegant solution where moderators can switch roles, but notes this would require significant system changes.
Hello and welcome @Marcus_Cheng 
I think this feature may be somewhat problematic for the smooth running of a forum. Could you outline a use case where this would be a benefit to a site?
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Moderators (and staff) have an odd position on a forum. On the one hand, they have official duties to perform:
- Handling flags
- Making decisions about suspending users
- Taking actions to reduce needless drama
They often are also members of the community who participate in discussions. Itās not at all a good idea to ignore moderators who are performing their official duties. (Thereās no upside.) But I can see an argument for ignoring moderators when they are acting a regular members within a discussion. Just because they are moderator doesnāt mean they canāt be annoying.
So I could see a scenario where it would make sense for a user to ignore moderator posts and messages, but not warnings or posts that have āStaff colorā turned on. The difficulty is that moderators donāt always think to use those options. Thereās also advantages to having moderators behave with moderation in public. Letting people ignore moderators via the system itself might communicate moderators are not held to a higher standard.
It wouldnāt be crazy to have this as a site setting (default: moderators and staff canāt be ignored) but I struggle to think of a scenario where Iād want to turn on the ability to ignore mods. It just adds too much friction for moderators and not much benefit for a community.
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Tend to agree with @jericson here: since moderators (and admins) of communities will often act as members, it would be fair to allow others to ignore them while they act as members. Ideally it would be possible to switch between different roles on a single accounts, so that a moderator or admin only needs to assume the respective role when needed for moderation activity.
Personally, I would find that quite useful since it also declutters the interface while acting as a member. But I assume this is not exactly in line with the way user management currently works in Discourse, so it would mean a larger refactoring.
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