ignoring various types of stuff is a forum-side thing (the site uses xenforo forum engine, and various plugins for it). it does work when you're browsing the forum.
latest updates is a custom-coded page that takes some data from threads to display but otherwise isn't fully integrated into the forum. in its current iteration, it does check thread ignores for hiding individual titles, but for the rest you're supposed to use the filters side panel (saving filters as default isn't implemented yet; use provided workarounds instead).