From what I understand, there is a plug-in from WMTech that has the same functionality that we used to have. It's an extension to the deafult ignore feature and doesn't cause and additional system load issues.
I'm going back to mentioning this and bumping the thread because I am increasingly dissatisfied with the current implementation; either you end up reporting things to mods (who have better things to do with their time) which isn't very scalable, or you let it slide, and IME the "letting it slide" tends to, over time, gradually degrade the discourse on all sides.
If this is an option (WMTech User Blocking System) then I am willing to pay part or all of the license fee as my contribution.
