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On this site, whenever a new prominent game comes out, the main page is spammed with questions tagged with that game. Occasionally new users complain about this, because they don't know how to hide those questions. They do find the "ignored tags" mechanism, which is immediately apparent on the main page, but they don't know how to actually hide the ignored tags. And can you blame them?

On the main page:

ignored tags on main page

On the (otherwise rarely-used) preference page:

ignored tags on the preference page

I propose moving that checkbox to the main page. It will be a very small UI addition, but will make life easier for those new users. It will also allow experienced users to quickly switch between shading and hiding, if they want to take a peek at questions with ignored tags.

For new users asking about it, see

And also they occasionally ask about it in chat. This has actually become significant enough that we were considering switching it to hide it by default: Should "hide ignored tags" be the default?

By the way, I do think this is something that should be applied network-wide, but Gaming in particular is very appropriate for this change.

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    Would be great also filling the question list with the next non-ignored results
    – I.G. Pascual
    Commented Mar 9, 2012 at 12:14
  • @Nacho I count 47 questions on the homepage without ignoring any tags, and 47 questions after ignoring mass-effect-3
    – Private Pansy
    Commented Mar 9, 2012 at 12:20
  • The hiding is done client-side, so it shouldn't fill up with new questions (unless they changed it recently)
    – juan Mod
    Commented Mar 9, 2012 at 12:55
  • I feel like I've seen this requested before, but yeah, this would be nice.
    – LessPop_MoreFizz
    Commented Mar 9, 2012 at 14:10
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    Seems like the checkbox should only appear after an ignored tag is added, to avoid clutter for the lots of us that dont' ignore tags. Otherwise I like this idea.
    – Zelda
    Commented Mar 9, 2012 at 14:40

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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This is definitely now a thing. Click on the Ignored Tags box:

Ignored Tag box

and you're presented with this:

Radio buttons for 'Hide' or 'Gray out' ignored questions

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After some thought, I'm going to take a wild guess here and say this might be

The current promo of the site is , no secret here. If you have to scroll through 20 questions about Mass Effect 3 (even greyed out, but not hidden), you might consciously or unconsciously pick up on a question that causes you to either:

  • Find the question so interesting that you investigate the question yourself, either through Google or other sources
  • Find the game mechanic or story element in the question so interesting that you want to go out and buy the game yourself, thus putting you in a position to ask your own questions and provide your own answers. This essentially is free subliminal advertising for the game.

Sure there is a way to hide them, but that may purposely be hidden deep in the interface.

or... maybe they just haven't gotten around to it yet, try here.

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  • Essentially, this as proposed in response to this question.
    – Grace Note StaffMod
    Commented Mar 9, 2012 at 16:26
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    The problem is, I know I'm going to get ME3, and I absolutely do not want any spoilers, so to 'consciously or unconsciously pick up on a question' is something I want to avoid at all costs.
    – SaintWacko
    Commented Mar 14, 2012 at 19:08

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