What I'm saying is that I "ignore" posts based on their actual content, not based on who says it. It's easy. Just roll the scroll-wheel. By using the Ignore List, you are characterizing/muting someone for eternity (or until you Un-Ignore them) and will likely miss something interesting they may say.
If someone is spending a lot of time outside of WO and/or there are too many spam posts that they can't handle on-the-fly, then the Ignore List can be of help. From my experience, WO is very easy to browse with an empty Ignore List.
Untrue, you always have the option to hit the show/hide which I do often.
How do you know when to hit it?
If I have time then I'll check them out and sometimes remove them from the list if they grew up some.
Usually decent posts get quoted anyway so your really not missing much except the super trolls crap and yes they eventually dry up and blow away.
That makes sense. I did the same as you describe for a short while, but ended up having to do more work with the Show/Hide than simply
roll the wheel.
Whatever works for you.
The problem is that if my fingers start to hurt scrolling down the lenghty posts of one particular person, you know who

His posts are like philosophical essays of a math student "inventing" new math to mask his lack of knowledge and understadning of a simple formula. And I think this is the main reason for this button to exist. Similarly, gamers often use mouse macros to avoid the repetitive clicks, which can be painful for the hand.