You only have to read the contribution to this thread to realise reason is not a part of the equation here.
The argument being used by some of the ability to ignore the general forum is in my way of thinking flawed.
I say this as the forum's basic format is the most important marketing tool to entice new poster's, and it's content the reason to foster brand loyalty.
(and in the long run advertising dollar's, do not fool yourself that the number of hits is nothing other than a passing trend in the method of measuring a site's attractiveness to sponsers)
ATM the general forum being a part of the forum's basic format is at odds with both of these aims.
New users (and a lot of less frequent current users) are not aware of the filter capacity and you know what they say about 1st impressions.
It is quite obvious that even though the ignore filter exists not a lot of people are using it, not quite sure why not but this is reality.(I'm guilty of this)
The unrelenting 'repetition and noise' emitting from the general forum is having a detrimental effect on the volume of quality posts as people are logging on seeing all the cr#p and any motivation to write a quality post is instantly deflated.
This is a double edged sword as it also encourages participation by credible posters for the very fact that it is there in such volume.
All gets back to site format.
So the answer is to remove the general forum from the basic format of the site, by this I mean the 'latest posts' listing. I don't think you can remove the general forum entirely but you should think about isolating it.
Anyway have posted a few whingeing posts about the quality of the general forum and have no intention of doing so again it's your call.
