So many wrong ideas about muting around here. Know who you should mute? The people that are going to drag you into pointless fights about nothing. Know who I have muted? The people who have demonstrated desire to drag me into pointless fights about nothing. Let's be clear: I have a 9th dan black belt in Internet Dickishness. I stopped counting the number of people I caused to straight-up delete their Reddit accounts. You can win fights so decisively that the other party QQs in shame. I even got good at the "thermonuclear downvote" - here's what a comment chain that delivers -400 Internet Points looks like. But let's be clear: these sorts of things are bad for the community. I'm a big fan of muting. The reason is simple. It keeps me from engaging in unrestricted warfare in a demilitarized zone. There are arguments worth winning and there are arguments worth ignoring and there are people who are primarily interested in talking to you so they can get a rise out of you. And while the zen monk approach is "wax on, wax off" I am not a zen monk. "Mute" allows me to leave the sword in the scabbard. And that is to everyone's advantage.