I for one would be horrified if it changed visually in any major way. (...)
I lean in that direction, too (a conservator/preservation mindset), but I also think it's important to attract (or, at least not alienate) new users. That's a very difficult balancing act, but once in a while I see it done successfully. I don't know if you're a gamer, but one recent example that comes to mind (of something that was cherished in its original form, but also deeply appreciated in its modern form) is the work that Bluepoint did on Demon's Souls. That might seem like a strange analogy, but I think that's
exactly the kind of treatment that Bitcointalk needs (i.e. modern touches where it makes sense, but without changing anything fundamental).
But maybe it is possible somehow to implement a patch in SMF that places a button next to each topic on the far right that you can click on to toggle ignore/unignore status (@PowerGlove?) and combine that with the list of ignored users to get the final set.
Yup, it's on my backlog (I agreed to look into it
here), and my current thinking is to put the button inside the topic, like this:
I'd also like to get around to paginating the user ignore list at some point. When I find the time to do that, I'm thinking of experimenting with the idea of making one "unified" ignore list that can handle multiple things (i.e. users, boards, topics, etc.) though I haven't put much thought into that approach, so it may not pan out.
