Drew_Warwick suggests that topics started by muted users should not appear in the “Latest” section. This request stems from a situation where a user is posting uninteresting content in a specific category, but not breaking any rules. Since muting the entire category is not desirable, Drew_Warwick proposes that muting a user should also exclude their topics from the “Latest” section.
However, codinghorror notes that implementing this feature would be a significant scope increase, requiring all topics started by muted users to be muted immediately after creation.
Drew_Warwick responds by suggesting a simpler approach: adding a remove_muted_users filter to topic_query.rb to exclude topics by muted users directly. This proposal is supported by iTuune, who finds the idea helpful for removing unwanted or annoying content.
Muted topics and categories will not appear in Latest, but topics started by muted users still show up in Latest. In the Discourse forum I’m using, we have a “Lounge” category where off-topic stuff can be posted. The community is mature enough to make that category an enjoyable experience, but there’s this one users who repeatedly posts about random news articles nobody finds interesting and treats it like his personal Twitter “Oh hey guys I had eggs for breakfast today”. He only posts in the lounge which allows off-topic discussion, so he’s technically not breaking any rules. A lot of us in the community have tried flagging his posts as “Something Else” explaining how even though the Lounge allows off-topic discussion, there needs to be a line that can’t be crossed, but the site moderators turn a deaf ear to our pleas since he’s technically not breaking any rules.
I don’t want to have to mute an entire category I typically enjoy just so I don’t have to see this guy’s posts – it would be very nice if muted users’ topics did not appear in Latest.
That would be a big scope increase in how muting a user works, though. Basically all topics started by that user would need to be muted immediately after creation for the users who have that user muted.