"He who strikes the first match is responsible for the fire."
Ah - sorry for placing this in the wrong forum, and thanks for the move.
Most message boards I use have "Ignore" functions as a basic option, and I think it would *really* benefit the Bungie Community significantly to have one here, as well.
Look - I'm no angel, nor am I a hypocrite - so I have to fess up to falling for The Internet Argument on many occasions. Give me a boring day at work and someone on here annoying me and it's a potential recipe for disaster. I already had a 3-day warning ban for indulging my annoyance one day and I've sworn not to repeat the error - but having to sit there and take flak from argumentative, generally ill-tempered posters who habitually demonstrate this sort of behavior, but who don't outright break the rules such that they can be reported and thrown off the boards entirely, just makes me and I am sure others not want to come back here at all.
And I don't think that's the result you're looking for, Bungie.
Considering the competitive nature of Halo multiplayer, the virtual-testosterone tends to run high...and "avoiding" users isn't really an option, if by "avoid" you mean "don't be around them." If someone decides to start a flame war in a thread there's not much you can do about it besides just stay quiet and take it which, again, doesn't really engender one to further participation.
Like I said, an "Ignore" option is pretty standard functionality for a message board...I have to think that Bungie, of all people, could add one in pretty readily, and it would probably save the Forum Ninjas boatloads of work having to referee stupid fights on the boards.
Anyway, thanks again for moving this to the appropriate place.