Maintaining said list would be a database nightmare as far as amount of information required.

I kind of like your idea. At the end of a run (I don't know what happens if the run doesn't get to the end), everyone is presented with a little UI widget with each player's name/role, and a checkbox. Did the person do alright? and it could even default to yes. An unchecked box would stop you from ever being randomed with that person. I guess you could even display the results to each person, like 4/4 of your groupmates said you did alright! or 0/4. Try harder!

I doubt, though, that even the most dedicated Pugger would ever pug with a large enough chunk of the population to actually change the quality of life due to your blacklisting players you don't like.

@jtrack3d: that list could be maintained player-side, as part of the player's preferences in the WTF folder. Part of the problem with using the regular Ignore list is that it's too limited; given folks that get blocked because of idiocies in Trade & General, adding the LFD to it quickly overloads it.

@BenVis: No, no ratings at all. Let's say you're a new tank or new heals, and you end up running with a group of l33tists or just plain jerks. Seeing those "ratings" would only serve to drive you away from tank & heal specs. Keeping it to a personal LFD Friend/Ignore list keeps such things where they belong: your personal preference.

Yeah, just having the ignore side of things hasn't done much to reduce the jerks, BUT adding in an LFD friends feature combined with it would. You behave nice, more people add you to their LFD FL, which increases your likelihood of running with them again or them getting you again (unless you add them to Ignore). Positive feedback loop, there, playing in with Allison's point on reputation.

@jtrack3d

The database could also be store fairly easily server side by having a couple nested tables for friend and ignore respectively, which would simply contain foreign keys to the offending (or awesome) players involved, thus not actually replicating any information, and keeping the additional overhead low.

I'd like to see a built-in reputation for not being an asshat be implemented -- karma, if you will. The Mana Obscura blogger had a well thought-out recommendation that seems like it would do the trick, taking a page from NetFlix and Amazon that "if you liked this, then you might like that" http://www.manaobscura.com/2011/04/bribes-karma-and-recommendations/

Rather than try to link every player with every potential cross-server friend, simply ask "Would you play with this person, in this role, again?" at the end of every run. That soon builds a network of recommendations, and block voting wouldn't be able to game the system.