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Something that could make Mastodon safer and more pleasant to use would be reply controls.
This would optionally allow users to specify who can reply to their posts, so that people who experience abusive replies from bigots, trolls etc can pre-emptively prevent that happening.
It would also give people a middle option between follower-only posts and public posts.
If you're comfortable using Github, you can vote for this by giving a thumbs up at https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/14762
It鈥檚 exhausting seeing the default stance of 鈥淚 individual, don鈥檛 believe this is a collective social issue, as I insist on being convinced by demanding evidence & impact of this abuse vector from the sub-set of people affected. That is what 2dry research is for.
Thanks, that's really useful! 馃檹
And yeah, definitely not asking victims to do all the work!
Believe it or not, an Iranian social media platform I am a user of (virasty.com) , has this feature.
The proposal is that it would have options for:
-No replies
-Replies by mentioned accounts
-Replies by followers
-Replies by everyone
People would be able to choose for each post who can reply.
But is there an option for followed too?
It is a weak connection I know, but can be used as a way to include the people that the poster accepts as good people because he follows them.
Though I am not sure if it is a great addition or even useful.
Sorry, I must have missed this! There's no option for it in current proposal but it's an interesting suggestion 馃憤
Some comments really indicate a struggle to engage with the concept that in creating an online post, said poster has some social obligation to entertain replies using the same channel.
That specific obligation doesn't exist.
Even in matters of mods wanting to contact another instance's mods to raise an issue, defederation exists as a (heavy handed) solution.
Other people's attention has always been a privilege that can be meaningfully withdrawn to deter nuisances.
Is it about preventing *other* people from seeing replies to your post by someone to whom you object?
Partly about stopping abuse being attached to threads, but also preventing having to see the abuse in the first place.
This has been one of the most requested features from black and other non-white members of the Fedi, and they are getting the kind of abuse that white members don't. I saw some of these posts after they were reported and they were sickening.
The abusers also sometimes exploit the followers-only post visibility so others don't see the abuse but the victim does.
Yeah, it's a risk but (IMHO) abuse currently experienced by non-white Fedi members is more serious problem.
If the reply control information gets attached to a message, every software would have to be able to understand this information and act accordingly. Every client, every server implementation.
It would be a big task and this is discussed in detail by one of the main developers (ClearlyClaire) in several parts of the linked issue, but they also seem to think it is important and doable.
Switching off replies on a social media post is not the same thing at all as silencing critics.
Silencing critics would be interfering in what people post about the government, silencing accounts critical about the government etc and that is nothing to do with whether people can switch off replies.
Governments can already do the equivalent of no replies by just publishing info on a website, which is where most people see government info anyway.
From talking with people who experience e.g. racist replies, I think it could really help Mastodon grow if there was at least this option?
No one would have to use it, it would just be there as an option for people who do use it.
But why not report and block?
Not objecting, asking.
First report, have removed, or if necessary block their "moderated by bigots" instance.
I鈥檓 also tired so may have misread.
That's something slightly different, those are post visibility options. They let you choose who can see the post.
The reply controls would just be about who can reply to the post.
Some people want to be able to post in public without replies from abusers etc, and the reply controls combined with visibility controls would allow this.
This is a bonfire demo instance for testing purposes. This is not a production site. There are no backups for now. Data, including profiles may be wiped without notice. No service or other guarantees expressed or implied.
