Matt BlazeMay 4, 2023

Spam (like the torrent of cryptoscamspam lots of people got this morning) has been very rare for me here (and dealt with quickly), but I've noticed that almost all of the spam I've gotten has been via Mastodon's DM feature.

I really wish there was a way to turn DMs off or at least restrict them to people I follow. Control over incoming DMs was a thing Twitter did better than here.

Show threadnuztalgia  May 4, 2023
@mattblaze Preferences > Notifications > Block direct messages from people you don't follow.
Show threadMatt BlazeMay 4, 2023
@nuz Nope. Doesn't work.
Show threadnuztalgia  May 4, 2023
@mattblaze seems to work perfectly for me! you might want to open a bug report on the official mastodon github repo and include the steps you took (so they can reproduce your problem), the behavior you observed, and your expected/desired behavior. ​
Show threadMatt BlazeMay 4, 2023

@nuz No it doesn't. People aren't prevented from sending you DMs if you don't follow them.

What the setting does is prevent you from seeing it. But it allows people to labor under the false impression that they've sent you a message.

Show threadsnarkyMay 5, 2023
@mattblaze @nuz Who cares if the sender *thinks* they sent the message. If you don't see it, it may as well not exist. Shadow-bans are a useful tool for bad faith actors.
Show threadMatt BlazeMay 5, 2023
@snarky @nuz In general, I don’t want people to send me messages that they think I’ll see that I won’t actually see. Most people who send me DMs aren’t bad faith actors. They’re random individuals trying to reach me via a mechanism that I don’t want to use. I want to alert people who mistakenly use it that I won’t see their messages so they can use something else. But Mastodon doesn’t let me.
Show threadsnarkyMay 5, 2023
@mattblaze @nuz Then petition the folks who maintain the system to add that capability, don't complain that what's there (and has been there for YEARS) doesn't work for you. It's frustrating to see people pop in here, dismiss the history of why things are the way they are, and insist that things bet the way THEY want them.
Show threadPJ "Vote Green" CoffeyMay 5, 2023

@snarky

The history? You're saying this is a design choice? What design process occurred where mentioning someone's @ actually brings that person to the conversation?

You know how a lot of problems could be solved? A pop up that says "Warning: you appear to be using direct Mentions. Anyone who you mention will be notified. Tick to remove this box." That's not a guard rail but it's better than the current "system".

@mattblaze @nuz

Show threadsnarkyMay 5, 2023
@Homebrewandhacking @mattblaze @nuz Yes, it is a design choice. As mentioned by others in this thread, the decision was made to not tell people their DMs were blocked as a type of shadow-ban. This increases the friction of those who use DMs to harass and threaten, as they don't know for sure that their bad faith attempts actually failed. Note that I'm *not* saying that Matt's use case is invalid. I'm saying that the current functionality was built as it was for a reason.
Show threadPJ "Vote Green" Coffey

@snarky

Certainly after 12 hours have passed the thread does get more detailed. Thanks for your help.

@mattblaze @nuz

May 6, 2023 at 7:31amWeb