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Actual working tag exclusion

A topic by Trevormark created Feb 28, 2021 Views: 7,690 Replies: 10
Viewing posts 1 to 10
(+55)

This has been suggested multiple times by multiple users already, but nothing has been done, so I'm just going to bring this up again in the hopes that someone actually listens and does something this time. Why is there no built in ability to filter out tags? Oftentimes, the top rated/most popular game lists for any particular set of search terms are clogged up by visual novels, or horror games, or gay furry games (no offense to LGBTQA people or to furries, but I am not one and thus have no interest in that stuff, and I know I'm not alone in that), or some other tag that dominates the top of the list. I know, these games are all highly rated for a good reason, I've enjoyed several horror games and visual novels myself... but rarely; oftentimes I'm just not in the mood. I am not going to check out these games regardless, so having those on the list for me benefits no one. And searching exclusively for some specific other tag (such as platformers, rpgs, etc) would filter out too many other things that I would be interested in playing.

And before anyone else points it out: Yes, I am already aware of adding in things like ?exclude=tg.visual-novel to the end of the URL. There are three problems with this. 1: It doesn't even work consistently; depending on the rest of the URL, more often than not, adding that has no effect. There are still just as many visual novels (or whatever other tag) as before, in all the same places. 2: Since the system is not built to accomodate the presence of this extra text, refining your search with anything else causes that part to disappear, so you would have to add it in again (not that it would even matter, since it works so inconsistently anyway). 3: We shouldn't have to use this weird obscure workaround in the first place. This should be just, an actual built in part of the site, that is easy to use and actually works correctly.

(+56)

Oh, and to show that I'm not just some isolated crazy person, here's a list of other instances I've found of this being brought up, sorted by date:
Jan 05, 2016: https://itch.io/t/13163/suggestion-tag-exclusion
Nov 06, 2017: https://itch.io/t/160014/can-i-use-exclusion-filters
Mar 26, 2019: https://itch.io/t/427018/front-page-search-please-allow-multiple-options

Oct 12, 2019: https://itch.io/t/579083/how-is-the-tag-system-here-handled
Jan 14, 2020: https://itch.io/t/653769/can-i-exclude-horror-games-tag
Jan 27, 2020: https://itch.io/t/664720/a-few-suggestions (not the focus, but one of several suggestions)
Jan 29, 2020: https://itch.io/t/666471/filter-by-exclusion
Feb 25, 2020: https://itch.io/t/692147/is-there-a-way-to-exclude-or-ban-some-tags-when-i-brows...
Apr 26, 2020: https://itch.io/t/766168/filter-out-horror-games
Jun 29, 2020: https://itch.io/t/853768/blacklisting-tags-from-search
Jul 11, 2020: https://itch.io/t/867998/excluding-tags-in-searches
Sep 30, 2020: https://itch.io/t/994040/use-exclusion-filters

Jan 03, 2021: https://itch.io/t/1138299/exclusion-tags-feature
...as you can see, people have been consistently asking for this very basic and obvious feature for OVER FIVE YEARS now. I don't want a link to the same four year old broken workaround, I want this problem to be solved. Not just for me, but for everyone. Or if you aren't going to implement this, can you at least tell us WHY.

(+32)

Yes! We need this feature! I myself don't have much of an interest in horror and I feel like some games that are not horror may not be showing up in my search results

(+28)

I think proper exclusion filters would be a great addition to Itch, and I'd go as far as suggesting a "Don't show me this again" button, as proposed in this thread. Youtube, for example, already has this kind of feature — you can block channels from being pushed to you by the algorithm, and you can indicate that you aren't interested in the kind of content a video provides. (FYI I wouldn't say Youtube is a shining example of how a platform should be managed, but that's one good feature.) This kind of feature just makes it easier to find whatever it is that you want and, well, Itch is a marketplace, delivering what you want is always in the interest of a marketplace!

Also, if it means anything, I'm one of the people working on the gay furry visual novels you mentioned. Now speaking as a developer and user, I'd be happy if this feature got implemented because I want to use it myself (I don't like horror games!) but mainly because we don't want our games to get thrown at people's faces either. We don't want to be a nuisance! I can't speak for everyone making LGBT/furry games but my team and I are fully aware that what we are developing isn't most people's thing, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with not wanting to see it recommended to you! So if this feature got implemented I could rest assured that we aren't getting on people's way. I think it'd make Itch an objectively better platform for everyone.

(+32)

is the itch.io team even adding features anymore? Just wondering.

why isn't this a feature already?

(+10)

Still waiting for this. What a load of garbage

(+6)

We all desperately need this feature, tag exclusion would be really helpful 

(+7)

I cant stand scrolling for ages trying to find a good fantasy game that isn't some furry visual novel, this is something we really need

(+1)

something I just found about a solution for this in the meantime

https://itch.io/t/160014/can-i-use-exclusion-filters

(+1)

I agree that any easy method to exclude any single tag would be very appreciated. Multiple exclusions would be even better, but just having the ability to remove one or not show things again would be a great thing to have.

While this will not help on mobile, the itch app, or if you can't use browser extensions, I did make some tools for that.

A box to enter and apply persistently the known exclude query string. (unpacked Chrome extension)

Buttons for the genres to exclude any of them. (tampermonkey script)

Ignore/Highlight function for games/developers on the press of a button (tampermoney script)

Oh, and this exlucde query string method only works, if you are logged in.