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After several days of having my default Stack Overflow page flash at me when it loads, I finally worked out what the problem is. The filtering of ignored tags is being performed in the JavaScript code.

Wouldn't it make much more sense to perform it in the SQL query (or otherwise server-side) that generates the data for the page?

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I think what you're truly after is server-side filtering, regardless of if it's done in SQL or in .NET after the database call (to support some caching). I agree that the filtering should be performed server side to provide a better experience. If that's not practical, at the very least the page should be sent down blank with data encoded and JS can fill in the questions instead of filtering them out. That way pages will appear to just load instead of load and flash. –  Sam Jan 12 '10 at 3:29
I like Sam's idea of hiding everything and then displaying it. Neat. –  TRiG is Timothy Richard Green Sep 8 '10 at 16:44
BUMP! Getting 10 questions show up on Questions > Recent, instead of 50 because of this. –  Danny Beckett Apr 8 '13 at 4:50
This has (at least in part) been resolved thanks to the new front page. –  NullUserException อ_อ Apr 8 '13 at 5:45
@NullUserExceptionอ_อ How is this status-completed? I'm literally seeing between 7-15 questions on the home page, when I have it set to display 50... Because of this exact problem! –  Danny Beckett Apr 8 '13 at 5:54
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1 Answer

It would make caching almost impossible, I suppose : the SQL query would be different for each user, instead of being the same for everyone.

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But mustn't the javascript being generated be different too? –  nb69307 Dec 25 '09 at 21:43
Yes, probably ; but I suppose that the prefered tags for an user are in another cache (which means no additional query) -- so, basically, two caches : one for the user's prefered tags, and one for the questions list ;; and no query at all -- at least for that –  Pascal MARTIN Dec 25 '09 at 23:55
You can use the same sql for all and do filtering on the server before sending to the client. So true filtering in SQL would make caching impossible but the true intent of the OP, filtering on the server, would be workable. Server-side filtering would make a for a much better experience. –  Sam Jan 12 '10 at 3:27
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