"Just make locked posts" is the worst response to this because that so-called "solution" basically tells people to reduce their visibility.

Many people don't want their visibility to be reduced.

However, they want a reduction in harassment.

In fact, much of the "I don't want search to exist" crowd exists due to lack of comment control.

People don't want to be found on search because they can't control the potential replies that might occur through a search vector.

I know this because plenty of the anti-search crowd wants public visibility -- but they don't want harassment.

No, a public post doesn't mean "talk to me".

Public means "publicly visible".

It's about being *read*.

Reading is different from writing.

Just as there's different settings for visibility, there should be different settings for replying.

On Mastodon, there's different visibility settings. They are:

* Public
* Unlisted
* Follower-only
* Mentioned people only

I think you could largely apply this to reply settings as well.

Except, reply settings could be:

* Public
* Local-only
* Follower-only
* Mentioned people only

If there were a way to prevent comments through search results, that would be good too.

It's funny. Regarding potential comment control on the Fediverse, people who are "pro" and "con" tend to be divided along gender lines.

Dudes tend to not want comment control 🤔

But there's a lot of women who very much want this feature. Many of them are DMing me privately to express support -- and that should tell you everything.

But seriously, the reply guy problem on Mastodon is embarrassing.

And it really puts a dent in the whole argument that Mastodon has got rid of social media toxicity.

Of course, that's not true. People have been complaining about reply guys for years.

It's becoming so bad that "Well, akshually..." has become a Mastodon stereotype.

This is why it's better to have more moderation tools, not less.