Just an occasional reminder that disabling replies is the #1 requested feature from Mastodon.

@stefan

wrong comparison, I guess...

I'd consider a blog being similar to a newspaper and comments being like readers letters... unsuitable for discussion between blogger and different readers to each other...

bloggers writing crap are simply ignored, tooters writing crap are spread through federal and local timelines to hundreds of thousands like on Twitter.

Such crappy tooters will block replies requiring hundreds of thousand to take action by blocking/reporting... happy times for mods

@nini Yes, this is a common argument against reply controls, but I honestly don't get the issue. If this is how some people want to use social media, so be it. I don't feel the need to reply to everything I read online. If I see something that bothers me, I can always report it.

Plus, maybe some people don't want replies, but will allow quote-boosting? Maybe that works better for some, this is really more about giving people the freedom to decide.

@stefan Choice is not bad, just seems a very blunt instrument.

@nini I hear you, but I have seen far too many people leave because of issues that would've been solved if they had more control over their replies.

And then they tell their friends and those will never give the fediverse a fair chance.

I think people are willing to put up with a lot. Bluesky doesn't let you edit your messages. There is a higher character limit. Translation features are just a link to Google Translate.

But people feel safe there.

I don't even care about the fediverse "growing". I just want people who are already here to feel safe and welcome.

Just an occasional reminder that disabling replies is the #1 requested feature from Mastodon.

https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues?q=is%3Aissue%20state%3Aopen%20sort%3Areactions-%2B1-desc

(EDIT: Direct link, in case the above doesn't work for you: https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/8565)

Limiting who can reply is also worth giving a thumbs-up to, currently at #10.

https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/14762

#mastodon #fediverse #ReplyControls #SocialMedia #TrustAndSafety

@stefan My objection isn't towards implementing it's a big issue for those who want it and people have their reasons for having the option to control who can interact with their toots besides harassment like just not wanting a reply to a recent toot they made or limiting it to their mutuals. I just feel like it could work in tandem with stronger moderation as read-only toots make me feel despondent, like people don't feel safe but it is just one tool after all.

@mina Yes, exactly.

But even with the best moderation in the world, having to wait for someone to come to your rescue while the abuse piles on, I can imagine that being off-putting enough.

Have you come across this explanation of the "Sucker-punch Problem"? It's illustrating a bit different point, but I think also explains really well why people having tools to defend themselves is important.

https://lgbtqia.space/@alice/115499829288185416

@amberage @Edent @julian

@stefan

I would love that.

Also, Mastodon is (somewhat) behind the times on this one. GoToSocial already has similar settings, and one might even argue that they're more powerful than simply turning replies on or off from the compose box, depending on what "powerful" is supposed to mean. I actually don't really care, though; there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to have this, and the "toggle switch" at the same time; it's not like they're mutually exclusive (or should be).

I'd rather have both.

@stefan

This is an excellent text.

As I understand it, it emphasizes the current problem we're facing in the Fediverse.

@amberage @Edent @julian

@shironeko Ignoring them still keeps them visible to others though.

I mean look, not much more here to add, we're discussing the top most upvoted feature request. I think we can trust that people need this.

@shironeko I see what you mean. I guess you can put it that way. So all the servers that respect reply controls will "ignore" the reply and not display it, making it basically invisible to the original poster and pretty much all their followers.

Outdated servers and servers set up to purposefully ignore reply controls can be blocked.

Seems like a pretty good solution.

@renwillis Well, if you think of Mastodon as a "micro blog", and blogs can have their comments disabled, or approved individually, or only allowed for people with privileges, it does kind of make sense?

@stefan I can see that, but I think it's not ideal to just yell out into the void with no feedback. At the very least, people who mutually follow each other - probably healthy to engage with each other.

@renwillis Absolutely! I think accounts that only broadcast without giving anyone a chance to engage would mostly just end up being ignored.

And I think most people would use this feature responsibly, only to protect themselves when a post escapes outside of the intended audience.

@the Yeah, it's been a bit frustrating seeing Mastodon, being the far more popular platform, lag behind GTS in this.

It's unfortunate GTS hasn't gained more traction, maybe we'd be in a different position and not have so many people flee to Bluesky, or even back to Twitter/X.

Hopefully not too late to get things right.

@stefan totes!! something I've been thinking about lately was, the one interesting thing Facebook did which I kind of like - they were one of the only social sites that had a forced mutual follow set up.

I wonder how different social would be if all follows had to be mutual?

@stefan

I love GTS. It's by far the easiest Fediverse software to self-host, at least on NixOS, at least out of all of them that I've actually tried self-hosting—which, tbf, is not all of them or even most of at this point, but still. I've never written anything in Go myself, or tried to, or learned much if anything about the language itself for that matter, and I'm already a fan just because of this. It can't possibly suck as a language when GTS is already as good as it is.

@renwillis Interesting idea!

Speaking of Big Tech social media, Google+'s Circles were also a pretty neat concept that I would love the fediverse to copy.

Being able to address smaller, specific portions of your audience would really help with context collapse.