Mastodon leaves open massive holes that function as harassment opportunities.

[hopeless@mas.to]

@inquiline Spam replies isn't much use. But do you really see that here? Maybe I just live a sheltered life.

A year or two ago the batch of refugees from twitter would reply to any reply not gripping their arm and shaking their hand with "reply guy". That's a great way to completely kill discourse too.

It's those guys I think about with "challenged". They do not want a better understanding. They just want their write-only opinion feted. Abuse tools shouldn't enable that by the back door.

[inquiline@assemblag.es]

@hopeless

your replies here are conflating multiple issues that are mainly off topic, not what OP or i are trying to draw attention to...

i utterly disagree that post settings for, e.g. write-only or follower-only-reply or posters-can-hide-off-topic-replies are anathema to "social" media

(but by your logic, users can also choose to mute or hide posters who post but disallow replies, if they think folks employing those settings are ruining their vibe or on a too-different wavelength?) +

[inquiline@assemblag.es]

@hopeless

and yes i do see replies in both "spam" and targeted-bullying registers, plenty often

you might "challenge" yourself to not just extrapolate from your own experience and conclude that others don't need features that you yourself consider more extraneous?

(there's a linked writeup in my top post!)

[thesquirrelfish@sfba.social]

@hopeless
Yes, the sheltered life part is exactly what I hear is true on this issue. The circumstances around us can leave us extremely unaware of the way someone else experiences the same thing. Some people might get occasionally rough reply interactions while some people get them everyday.
I'm anti-speeding so I hate when they repave the streets near me - all the cars drive faster and people are more likely to get injured and die. However someone else has a bad back (from a previous car crash) so a bump can cause them immense pain. They will change their route to stay on nicely paved streets. We experience the same streets differently.
This is also true on social media.
Are you a speeding driver? Or someone who has been sensitized by being hit in the past?

[hopeless@mas.to]

@inquiline Yes I did take a look at your link initially. It's to put the counter-point to the assumptions in that I replied.

I'm aware this is not entirely welcome discussion and after this I'll leave the last word to you.

IMHO posters should not generally have control over the speech of others. That there's a reply box is part of the rules of engagement here when deciding to post or not.

Silencing others (with hostility...) can be another type of abuse.

Anyway, have a nice evening.

[inquiline@assemblag.es]

@hopeless

>> That there's a reply box is part of the rules of engagement here when deciding to post or not.

Interesting how you frame this technical choice, made by people, in an environment that was built to be very, very customizable according to user preference and need, as an inherent property of this network.

Also interesting that you frame not wanting to hear from others as hostile and abusive.

I think my analysis holds up fine.

[inquiline@assemblag.es]

Good ol' Mastodon, where it's "abuse" to not let anyone who wants to reply to you...

Don't ever change, FLOSS!!

*edit, to be clear, I'm expressing enthusiasm for a conversation about reply controls, as is OP, in my reading. Nuclear block is an example but not the only possibility

[mivox@mivox.net]

@inquiline HOW VERY DARE, MADAM???

[inquiline@assemblag.es]

@mivox

"it's not fair for you to say something i disagree with on *my* network"

- half the guys here

[samanthajanesmith@lgbtqia.space]

@inquiline I find myself very much in the middle on these things. As a member of a very much harassed community I have never had any issues on Mastodon and I feel that this is down to the instance I use. Now perhaps there is a lot of harassment but it would be constructive to know more.

As for the "nuclear block" option. There are times I wish I could, mostly just to get rid of the annoying mansplainers and techbros, but as I have never felt the same level of anger as I did on twitter it really hasn't bothered me.

So personally if I were involved in making these decisions I would want more information and the implications of such a change. This information may exist of course and I am just ignorant of it.

What I would always caution against is the attempts to turn this platform into something it is not.

[allende1973@todon.nl]

@nebulae @inquiline

if it isn't zionism, do tell us what ideology has given us

* genocide
* shooting children in the gonads for fun
* starvation as a weapon
* bombing hospitals, churches
* killing journalists and lying about it
* double tap strikes on medical responders
* use of banned chemical weapon white phosphorus
* bombing 7 countries in 12 months
* stealing land from all your neighbours
* torture as a policy, including to death
* public demanding the right to rape to death
* 80% of the public backing ethnic cleansing, 50% backing extermination
* Epstein as a morally acceptable weapon
* corrupting our democracies via AIPAC and UK Lawyers for Israel
* Apartheid for non-Jewish citizens
* forced sterilisation of Black Jews
* false flags bombing Jews in arab countries
* putting drugs in food aid
* intentionally pulling the plug on babies in incubators
* making up lies about "babies in ovens"
* eradication of palestine from the map over 80 years
* over 300 bullets shot at Hind Rajab
* ....

ALL the points above have evidence behind them - ALL of them.

#zionism

[inquiline@assemblag.es]

Updating this today as I've had the ban-evading sock puppet troll go after me half a dozen times in the past week. He mass signs up on different instances, then burns through account after account targeting people, and does it again when mods take him down

Anyone who thinks that this place would not be improved by *some form of reply control* is not serious about preventing abuse

Having none makes users' experiences worse AND moderators' jobs harder. /fin

#Mastodon #FediMeta #JerksofMastodon

[kfitz@hcommons.social]

@inquiline Yeah, I just got @-ed by your troll from a new account on a new server. I reported (to myself and to the remote server admin).

[inquiline@assemblag.es]

@kfitz

sorry about that. he has different tactics including replying to me so anyone reading my replies see his (they're still there even after i block), or as in today, bothering people with whom i interact

he does it to a few other people too but i'm apparently at the top of his list right now

thanks for reporting... sigh

[alter_kaker@hachyderm.io]

@inquiline I saw his replies. Exceptionally boring. What a nightmare to have to deal with.
@kfitz