Caller ID is convient for avoiding people for whatever reasons. However, that person still has access to your voicemail, and the phone still rings when they call.
If you want to *politely* totally ignore someone's attempts to contact you via your cell, it would be cool if cell phones had an ignore feature which seemed to work for the caller -- they would get the appropriate number of rings, and then the voice mail. However, when they do call, the phone would never actually ring, and any voicemail message they leave would never wind up in your voice mail box. That way you are never actually bothered by the person. They should get the message after a while.-- lawpoop, Oct 09 2004 A 'pretend they don't exist' setting. Antisocial but I like it.-- wagster, Oct 09 2004 My phone has this feature. It's called "off".-- Pericles, Oct 11 2004 I think it be better to put the voicemail, in you "spam" folder, just like in email. (+)-- romanmar, Oct 12 2004 This is too good an idea to be considered "half baked" in my opinion.-- Komowkwa, Aug 16 2007 I want this for landline too.
Have a bun. [+]-- wolstech, Aug 16 2007 I already (half) have this: my phone doesn't let me access my voicemails.-- Seoman, Aug 16 2007 I thought all mobiles did this - just switch it to "silent". In this mode it logs the call, but won't ring. You also have multiple options for what your phone does with missed calls. Bone for not reading your manual.-- xenzag, Aug 16 2007 [xenzag], [Pericles] I don't agree. Maybe you've not read [lawpoop]'s proposal properly? This proposal is silent/off only for calls from selected CallerIDs, not for all calls.
I think it's a truly excellent suggestion. I don't have a mobile, but I think I might go into a few mobile shops and ask for one with this feature, and then say, "Oh, I'll try somewhere else then" when they say they can't help me.
I can probably implement it myself on my landline, but it would mean having a computer switched on all the time, which would cost too much.-- Cosh i Pi, Aug 16 2007 It's a simple matter to block any call from any number you want.-- xenzag, Aug 16 2007 For sure - but he doesn't want to block them. He wants to let them leave a message that he never has to listen to or delete or think about at all.
I want that too, and it's not currently available.-- Cosh i Pi, Aug 16 2007 ... then just have their calls diverted to another number with a mail box.... bone recinded, as [lawpoo's] mobile may be that of 'puny feature' variety.-- xenzag, Aug 16 2007 Ah, now. Maybe I've not read the manual for the phone I haven't got properly, then. You can divert calls selectively according to the CallerID? I love it!
Divert calls from X (whose calls you don't want to receive) to Y (whose mail box you want to spam).
A pity that X and Y can work out that it was you...-- Cosh i Pi, Aug 16 2007 There was a great suggestion in "Bureaucrats and how to annoy them": leave a message on two peoples' office voicemails over the weekend, each purporting to be from the other person and each message asking the other person to get in touch asap.-- wagster, Aug 16 2007 The trouble with all these schemes is that they cost you (unless you're using an internal phone) - and I suppose there's a risk of being traced, too.-- Cosh i Pi, Aug 16 2007 I have my own way of achieving this, at no cost to myself. My method also avoids being disturbed by calls or texts at any time. How? you may ask... SImple - I have resisted the pressure to inflict a mobile phone upon my life. No phone, no worry.-- Twizz, Aug 16 2007 If you have a phone where you can put contacts into groups, you can assign a ringtone to that group (and to individuals on some phones), so you just set that group to silent.
I've often thought it would be nice to have a feature that let you answer a phone but put it on mute and continued to give the ringing tone to the person at the other end. This would allow you to hear things such as "yeah, I'm just calling Marklar to see if he can finish off that job over the weekend". When you answer the phone you can then use an appropriate lie such as "Ah Keith, can't talk now, I'm just boarding a plane to the Bahamas for the entire weekend where I will have no internet access".-- marklar, Aug 16 2007 [marklar] That's the sort of thing that would be quite easy to implement on your home phone if hooked up via a permanently on computer - not so easy on your mobile unless you're a mobile hacker and know how to write and load firmware for your mobile.-- Cosh i Pi, Aug 17 2007 [+] Caller ID information is sent between the 1st and the 2nd ring, why not just have it ring and ring indefinitely?-- devnull, Jul 20 2008 //but put it on mute and continued to give the ringing tone to the person at the other end.//
Seen a TV show where a quality control officers hears a conversation of a group of murderers waiting on an airport phone line to buy tickets, and near the end (of course) the quality control officer helped solve the murder...
Hey... can we hire a quality control officer/cute receptionist and avoid the cold mechanical embrace of a filtering system?-- xxobot, Jul 24 2008 [Cosh i Pi], I love it. But better yet, can I divert calls from X back to X's own mailbox?
I have semi-baked the main idea on my phone for one particularly annoying individual. His personalised ringtone is 30 seconds of silence. Can't yet escape the voicemails though.-- reap, Jul 25 2008 random, halfbakery