Mastodawn

Evan Prodromou Aug 6, 2023

Hi, fediverse Web and mobile client developer.

What if you added a speed bump in the reply flow to slow down users for just a moment?

"Do you really want to reply to X? Will they appreciate your reply?"

Maybe just the first time they reply to someone; maybe easily turned off in settings.

If it makes people think for just a moment, it might help with making the fediverse a more welcoming place for women.

UPDATE: deleted and redrafted per multiple requests.

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thepixelfox Aug 6, 2023

@evan Honestly, the whole thing about making it more welcoming for women, I get it. People online can suck. But As a woman, when reading that it feels like we're still viewed as some fragile, breakable objects who can't think for ourselves so we need others to implement was for us to be safe. There's block and report buttons, and we have the ability to stand up for ourselves.

And trying to, politely, dissuade someone from replying to another person feels like a very mild form of control, trying to change their thought pattern so they won't do something. It's a mind game and I'm not sure how to feel about that.

Yes, there's some assholes who go around being jerks to people, you'll get that everywhere. But you can just block them. Rather than having a programme that tries to alter a thought pattern of someone.

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Evan Prodromou

@thepixelfox that's a big part of what social network software does; encouraging or discouraging various social interactions.

Every affordance we have in our apps encourages using that feature; every constraint discourages it.

If we'd like people to slow down on their replies, a constraint may be helpful.

I don't think the needs of the individual are paramount in a social network. We're all here, and we all have to deal with the behaviour. Nudges in the right direction help everyone.