@Mastodon

I like this part too 😂

"We also believe that by showing a bit of information about the person you’re about to talk to, we can prevent some awkward situations, such as explaining something to an expert in a given field."

@Mastodon the reminder that a "conversation is old" is ingenious 👌🏼🎊

@Mastodon Well, actually...

@Mastodon for every 1 "derailed conversation" I see 10 people who are offended that anybody defaces their masterpiece by replying to it.

People replying to themselves is what what I think started X's descent into hell (the endpoint of that is that you don't need to have a blog, link to the rest of the net, ...) and I think would be must better to "just say no" to that behavior by prohibiting it.

If you wanted to make things better, how about a reply browsing UI that works?

@Mastodon @Gargron I can already tell you that this feature annoys me so much that I'll change the app.
"New connection" is nice, if you can disable it and when disabled, it makes no more sense.
"Age of post" is exactly the patronising style of Mastodon so many people don't like. Without algorithms, I can answer when I want to older posts. It's my decision and I'm an adult to do it alone. I appreciate that people comment on my older posts so much!
More clicks. It gets more complicated.👎

@Mastodon bad idea. People are capable enough themselves to manage this. Don't interfere my conversations please.

@Mastodon displaying information about the person being replied to and the old post warnings are really great ideas.

I'm not sure the reminders about post etiquette will do much more than take up screen space, though. Whenever Twitter added something like that, it always came across as performative, i.e. "Well, we've told people to play nice, so we are doing our part!"

@Mastodon I hope the "replying to a new person" feature comes to the web and to other clients, like Tusky. I did smile at "we can prevent some awkward situations, such as explaining something to an expert in a given field" - such a wonderfully polite and roundabout way of saying "prevent mansplaining" 😀

@Mastodon @Gargron thank you for your work! i have a question: did you consider to establish the option of not allowing replies? this would give the op more power over their post as opposed to nudging other people to reconsider replying.

@Mastodon

Whatever, just as as long as Mastondon maintains eternal vigilance against the users who explore profiles in the espionage-style.

@Mastodon This looks cool!!

@Mastodon oh look @Gargron is also using Duolingo

@Mastodon happy to derail here to maybe prioritize fixing bugs, instead of feature creeping.

https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon-ios/issues/396#issuecomment-1313949488

@Mastodon

"We also believe that by showing a bit of information about the person you’re about to talk to, we can prevent some awkward situations, such as explaining something to an expert in a given field."

I've seen this happen a few times, that could be really interesting.

@Mastodon Didn't people leave corporate social media so they had more control over their experience, instead of being told how to use the site "correctly"?

This just comes across as patronising, to me.

@Mastodon great idea and great implementation. Go team!

@Mastodon Hey, it's a bit of "Just In Time" UX. This is great. Will be interesting to see how it goes.

https://blog.codinghorror.com/the-just-in-time-theory/

cc @codinghorror

@Mastodon

Shouldn't it be done by each user (or maybe at instance level) ?
Like a warning designed by the user, displayed to would-be repliers according to parameters defined by the user (like "people I don't follow" or "people not on my instance" or "people not on the conversation")...

Why not simply give users an option to disable comments for a post - while posting and later (edit > disable comments). “Comments have been disabled for this post” is an option that FB has in groups. Also useful when a person doesn’t want to be inundated with comments for a simple FYI post like, ‘will be on a hiatus’ or ‘am unwell’ type of post.

@Mastodon Awesome!

@Mastodon
Need an Option of Black in Dark mode in Android app & Web.

@Mastodon Thank you! This looks really neat. Can’t wait to try it out 🙂

@Mastodon

@Mastodon maybe I should switch away from the web-app on mobile and try out the Android native app too 😅

@Mastodon This should be optional if not opt-in, IMHO, like the Demetricator was in #Soapbox.

@Mastodon I really kinda like this!

@Mastodon will the reminder be shown every time a user replies to the same stranger?

If so, I'm just wondering if 2 ignore options would be useful:

Don't remind me again
Don't remind me again for this user

Apologies if I'm misunderstanding the functionality.

@georgetakei They got you as an example.

@Mastodon

I'll add ( if it isn't already there )

Remember, if you had a quick and interesting (obvious) thought about a topic chances are very good other people in the conversation did too.

Don't assume others have not.

@Mastodon Honestly, I feel that if someone doesn't want unsolicited advice, they shouldn't be publishing their thoughts in a public forum. If they're just communicating with a small group of friends (which of course is perfectly reasonable) there are places to do that in a much better way. Here ain't there.

@Mastodon This was weird when I saw it pop up. At once I thought it was both an interesting idea to get people to stop and think for a moment and one that I could see getting old very fast.

The feature I really want is Mute Replies to Threads.

@Mastodon

I only like the reminder that the post is old. Asking people to be kind is cringey and a reflection of newer generations attitude. You already have a warning like that in your instance and the user posting can have another one in its bio space. Asking everyone all the time to be polite is like North Korea totalitarian behaviour, we humans are not made to be polite all the time. We are not robots and even robots get pissed off.

@Mastodon noice

@Mastodon this is awesome, have you thought of letting people customize the prompt for folks replying to them? I think different folks have very different issues they seem in their replies

@Mastodon Nice. Looking forward to seeing where all of this goes and then seeing if I could apply something similar to our #BeerAdvocate Community #forums. #zombiethread #beer

@Mastodon

@Mastodon @Gargron Disclaimer: I don't use the Mastodon mobile app but..
On the surface this looks like a terrible idea. It's like featurising the worst gate keeping tendencies of the community.
I also personally wish that development time was not spent on something like this. There are several other features languishing in the pipeline that people are anxious to see implemented.
I understand it's an effort to create a safer space but IMHO it's an over reach.

@Mastodon AKA the anti-reply guy feature.

@Mastodon This is disappointing at best, and anti-community at worst. Spontaneous conversations are what makes the social part of the Web (and other parts of the Internet) great, and why we're here today.

If someone thinks that a person unknown to them, who replies or comments on something they post, is "a stranger offering unsolicited advice" in a negative way, then something is drastically wrong somewhere.

@Mastodon I mean, ... I'm glad you're looking at this sort of thing but we really need something other than asking trolls if they want to be trolls. They're just going to answer yes.

@Mastodon I don't see many conversations. I see endless bumper stickers with no reply. (I hope I am not a stranger butting into a conversation).

@Mastodon Mastodon is already so much better about all this than most platforms, it will be nice to see it improved even more. 🥰👍#Mastodon #Twitter

@Mastodon : Thank you! 😃

@Mastodon ...some conversations that are 3 months old are what some of us refer to as 'receipts'...

@Mastodon 🤣how about a reminder when you post about the visibility of said post? Something along the lines of: "This post visibility is set to public, are you sure you want actual humans to reply to your post? If so, click post. If you'd rather have nobody talk to you, how about deleting the app"

@Mastodon As long as it isn't biased based on race or sex, I'm good. 🤔🤷👍😌

@Mastodon

FTR: I think conversation forking is useful. It's a form of filtering

The issue is attention span - and as a population we haven't much.

Also I like that some kind of personal qualifier is included. Helps to know who's response to study.

Anonymity is useful, and harmful.

@Mastodon

I'm not suggesting "Verification" (which is implemented already, sort of...)

But would badges help? For instance:

- Badge for people financially supporting their instance.
- Badge for people in elected office
- Badge for members of the 5th estate (with actual by lines.)
- Badge for ...?

@Mastodon Not sure whether I'm a fan of the pop-up style notice. Both features have an interesting use-case but I think I'd prefer to have them inline.

E.g. having a pop-up for each individual, reminding you of etiquette quickly starts to be 'just another annoying popup' and I guess people will quickly disable the reminder altogether.

While an inline profile summary of the person you're replying to for the first time would be less intrusive to your interaction and still provide helpful info.

@Mastodon What about improving your app in areas that count to usability and features? You won’t solve the “dickhead” problem. Like notifications. Ask the heavy users what you can improve.

@Mastodon So, there would be obstacles to having the kind of conversation we are having right here? 🤔

I do see some benefits to adding some friction to the process of replying to people not in our network, but that also creates/reinforces bubbles and echo chambers.

@Mastodon
Unnecessary. 👎

@Mastodon

I wonder what feature people have been asking for got back burnered or cut just to put this feature in there.

Also begging for money? You get money from military infosec people.

@Mastodon So fresh insights on intractable problems are to be censored. That seems appropriate. Our betters do have things right usually and to interrupt their hegemony would be counter productive.

@Mastodon Loving this and also loving how the reply-guys are telling on themselves.

@Mastodon Excellent step!

@Mastodon

I CANNOT emphasise enough how much I dislike this popup and will book anyone who uses it

#popup

@Mastodon

While soliciting feedback on this feature I would love to be able to add a note like on Fetlife such as "I blocked this person for using or supporting this feature"

@Mastodon I disagree that this is an issue.

@Mastodon

Popup of Rudeness I could tolerate.

This is just proof you need and do not have a Product Owner or are following Agile.

You might think you are but this feature is a lesson in Drvlelopers Doing UI

Ew.

Ew. Ew. Ew. EW!!!!!!!!

Time for a new Mastodon Client.

Do better.

With someone.else.

Also time to find a new instance with people who care about their users.

@Mastodon Viral toot!

@Mastodon tbh I though it's gonna be some awful moderation thing, amd now every controversial thing youbsay will be banned or smth.
But this is a great solution.

@Mastodon

I am finding some of the comments on this thread so hilariously on-the-nose that it really makes me wonder whether the people who might benefit from these features are the ones who would never use them.

@Mastodon Really happy you're working on this.

@Mastodon I think the most transformational change in making conversations more pleasant would be by making them less repetitive through improving the visibility of off-instance replies.

@Mastodon That sounds really great. Do we have an idea on how to measure if it’s effective?

@Mastodon Really excellent idea. When introducing two people, a good host will offer a bit of information about each to the other (profession, position, hobby, whatever). It's a step toward knowing the other as a person. This seems to be a similar idea.

@Mastodon how about making features with teeth instead, for example restricting or disallowing replies?

@Mastodon Ok, so already here I am agonising if I’m ok to reply here (even set to unlisted), despite you actively encouraging replies/thoughts. Overall, I’m tending to feel negative on the idea of behavioural nudges on my posts that are set by others. I mostly actively want people to feel free to chat with me; I’m mostly shouting into the void too much already. Putting people off from chatting or raising something just slightly peripheral is too much for me.

@Mastodon
hmmm. ought to be thought-provoking, alrighty. preliminary thumbs-up. #mastodon

@Mastodon this is antisocial

@Mastodon nope nope nope so much nope

@Mastodon I think this is an okay short-term solution for this problem. For the long-term, I would suggest giving users the ability to hide replies to their original posts as well as have an opt-in quality filter that hides low quality replies (I have a feeling this is far easier said then done).

I know the latter would be controversial due to Mastodon/Fediverse's general stance on algorithms.

It's interesting how some people become "free marketplace of ideas" Libertarians in reaction to this.

@Mastodon This seems like a controversial move. I like some of these ideas and they seem pretty benign and out-of-the-way, but I'd be remiss if I didn't say this:

You cannot prevent people from being assholes in anonymous online social environments. You cannot ensure that everyone will have a pleasant time when the point of your software is to facilitate communication and the coming together of people.

@Mastodon No one asked for thus, you'll only annoyed new people with dumb pop-ups. Make something useful like community's trusted vote, something Twitter has to stop crazy conspiracy theories.

@Mastodon This seems like a really, really, really bad idea.

@Mastodon how is this a good idea? If you don't want to interact with strangers, you probably should just log off social media.

@Mastodon Can you display a second warning if the reply begins with "well actually"?

@Mastodon Well, it's a nice idea. I don't think it will work, but I sure do think it's a good idea and harmless enough to try.

@Mastodon 'tone policing as a feature' would probably make me move off Mastodon.

@Mastodon I am not sure if trying to fix people online by fixing an app (in this way) would cause anything but frustration and less interaction overall, but I kind of do hope that this can work.

@Mastodon @bryanruby

That is the nicest definition of “troll” that I’ve ever read. 👍🏻

@Mastodon FRΞSH

@Mastodon

Is it relevant that you're talking to a stranger when replying to a post? This is social media and the whole point is to interact with strangers. As to bios, I pay very little attention to them. Far more telling is what people actually post. It's as if you were at a party and handed out a CV to every guest. That wouldn't be a very good basis for interesting conversations, and the other guests would probably think you were a little weird.

@Mastodon This seems unlikely to deter the truly obnoxious and patronizing for those who have genuine questions or a desire for dialogue. It would be better to concentrate efforts on implementing controls that allow users to post with limits on who can reply.

@Mastodon well reading all pro and cons. Make an on and off option then for the #mastoadmin

@Mastodon I fear this may reduce interactions further. I have already noticed a hesitancy to interact with others, and an additional step will only confirm and reinforce that hesitancy.

Also, and I'm not sure how to say this delicately, but if a person needs to be consistently reminded of appropriate behaviors, they may not follow that advice when it's offered.