juanctorres
Heidi Li FeldmanA word about my decision not to use content warnings when I post about Kamala Harris and U.S. politics and law more generally: It is something I have given thought to, not a cavalier lapse. It seems to me the norms about CWs are in flux. I appreciate that not everybody is interested in these topics and that.... 1/
....not using CWs for U.S. politics and law related posts can seem, may even be, rather provincial of me. But, I believe democracy and rule of law in the U.S. are facing an existential crisis. Many of my posts are part of an effort to protect what democracy and rule of law we have and to rebuild and build to new heights. .... 2/
... Especially when fundraising for Kamala Harris, I feel we can't afford any friction in getting the word out, not even the small rub of having to go through a CW.
I hope things in the U.S. won't always be so dire. If and when we ever return to reasonable political, legal, and policy disagreements in a secular, pluralist, constitutional democracy, I may well add CWs to posts. ... 3/
I'm not prepared to debate the decision I have made. I am being careful not to use tags that put all my politics and law posts into the "explore stream". If you are specifically uninterested in the Mastodon community fundraising effort for Harris for President, I respectfully suggest you filter "Mastodon for Harris" and #MastodonForHarris." 4/4
Matt Blaze@heidilifeldman I find this idea, apparently common here, that a poster is required to anticipate and facilitate filtering for anything anyone anywhere might possibly find uninteresting, to be really weird.
Ande JacobsonNot only weird, it stifles communication.
@mattblaze That IS weird. But I understand that people on here not from or in the U.S. feel unduly inundated by U.S. users' posts during this election season. I just wanted to make it clear that I have thought about such matters, without casually disregarding others' experience of Mastodon.
@heidilifeldman Sure, but if I had zero interest in US politics, I very likely would not be following people like you (or me).
@heidilifeldman I think being made to feel you need to apologize for (or hesitate before) posting about things you're personally passionate about is really stifling.
@mattblaze It certainly can be!
Thomas Lee ✅ 
@mattblaze @heidilifeldman the very reason I follow you, Heidi, and others is BECAUSE of your passion.
@mattblaze I was more thinking of the boosts my posts get, especially when I''ve asked folks to boost the fundraising ones. Of course, the followers of people who boost are probably interested in U.S. politics.....
@heidilifeldman indeed, and I can see trying to be accommodating when it’s such a firehose. But I’m also often told that I use this thing wrong, so what do I know.
@mattblaze I think you use this thing wonderfully.
PappyI concur. I follow you here because you seem to be using this thing right, however that is.
Mayor of Nerdocrumbesia 🏡I treat this site (and all tools) like sidewalks - I use them as envisioned until it is no-longer convenient. Then I go the "desire path" route.
BenAveling@mattblaze This. If one normally posts kittens and sunshine, then a sudden pivot to politics might be unexpected and unwelcome to your followers. Or vice versa! But otherwise, go for it.
@mattblaze @heidilifeldman that is what makes their complaints so sad.
Alexander KarnPerhaps I’m not the target audience for this post, but I’m glad you post what you do, the way you do. It’s commendable that you take time here to explain your reasoning.
Appreciate all your insights and efforts.
Charles Herold@heidilifeldman @mattblaze I don't see the need for CWs, because Mastodon has such powerful filtering. I got sick of people talking about Wordle so I filter out wordle and I never see anyone's wordle's posts. If I didn't want to see posts on US politics I could easily filter those out (I saw a post recently on what words should belong in such a filter).
To be fair, if you've only got a handful of followers like me you don't really have anyone who's going to complain if you don't put in CWs.
Mᴀʀᴋ VᴀɴᴅᴇWᴇᴛᴛᴇʀɪɴɢ@cherold @heidilifeldman @mattblaze Most of my posts are about cats, astronomy or computer graphics. If you don't like those things, then don't follow me. But if you don't like my political posts, then treat them exactly the same way. The idea that I have to self-censor to keep you from... just hitting the unsubscribe?
HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴I agree.
I have switched to tagging most posts. Having a diverse, polyglot followership requires tools to filter them unless you write only about one subject.
For instance, #USpol and #Elections2024 are quite useful #Hashtags.
Alaa, many people don't want to be bothered by #Politics.
Furthermore, it improves the search function when you look for a particular post of yours.
John “Mastodon“ O’Briant@mattblaze @heidilifeldman I always assumed that the norm was in place not because of disinterest but rather because so much of what has been going on in US politics over the last decade or so has been so traumatic. I could be wrong, though!
I agree. Very little is offensive to me. However, if I were to post sexual content (not artistic nudes) or graphic images of violence then I would put them under a CW.
Ultimately, I think it's on each individual to filter-out content that offends them. To that end we should endeavor to add hash tags.
Luna Lactea@mattblaze @heidilifeldman Just don't use euphemisms, it makes you difficult to understand & difficult to hide your posts about distressing topics. It's not about people finding something uninteresting, no one asks a gamer to put content warnings on Minecraft. Some people do not want to be constantly reminded of how their country is trying to kill them & they want a break. It is not an attack on anyone to ask "please put a content warning on your politics so that I am warned about it & can decide if I'm ready to engage with it or not".
@jackemled @heidilifeldman if you don’t understand my posts, how can you possibly find them distressing?
@mattblaze @heidilifeldman Distressing when intelligible & about a distressing topic. Sorry, I was not clear.
@jackemled @heidilifeldman I try not to post distressing or disturbing content (or if I reasonably anticipate that it would be, I warn about it). But no one can possibly anticipate what every individual might find disturbing, and there’s a point at which asking them to do so becomes effectively supressive of their ability to express themselves. I study elections for a living. It’s unreasonable to ask me to hide my comments on this subject simply because a few people would rather not see them.
@mattblaze @heidilifeldman You're not hiding anything, you're putting a warning at the top of it. No one is silencing you about whatever. My ability to express myself has been increased by using content warnings because now I don't need to worry about upsetting people with some things since I can warn them about it.
🇺🇦 haxadecimal 🚫👑@mattblaze @heidilifeldman I'm guessing that the majority of people here never used Usenet.
Farce Majeure@brouhaha @mattblaze @heidilifeldman ... and the majority of those that have, it wasn't to talk to people.
@brouhaha @mattblaze @heidilifeldman I remember talking to people on Usenet, but at this point I use it primarily because it's more reliable and a better UX than comcast's cable tv. I literally prefer Usenet over the tv feed I'm paying* for.
- there is a bizarre discount structure that makes this less insane.
EllenJS@heidilifeldman “explore stream”?
@EllenJS In the native Mastodon app there is a column called "Explore".
Miles Offit... 🇨🇦🇪🇺🇺🇦@heidilifeldman Almost too considerate of you IMO. There are plenty of very effective tools for users to filter content they aren't interested in, or find content that they are interested in. I hope that you and everyone else posts as they see fit, and include appropriate hash tags so others can filter or find it as they see fit. Personally, I would only use a CW if the content is likely to be jarring/offensive to some AND there was no way to predictably/effectively hash tag it.
Grandpa Don@heidilifeldman
I don't put CW on much of anything. I rarely post anything likely to trigger ptsd but would cw if i did. I get a lot of Canadian politics, British politics, French politics. I like getting a feel for what row is dealing with. I dont read it all, scroll past much. Posts in other languages i mostky skip, but sometimes translate. I certainly don't want cw on all that. I am capable of scrolling. Call me arrogant. I don't mind. I am also capable of blocking
I don't put CW on much of anything. I rarely post anything likely to trigger ptsd but would cw if i did. I get a lot of Canadian politics, British politics, French politics. I like getting a feel for what row is dealing with. I dont read it all, scroll past much. Posts in other languages i mostky skip, but sometimes translate. I certainly don't want cw on all that. I am capable of scrolling. Call me arrogant. I don't mind. I am also capable of blocking
CWs are not necessary. If somebody doesn't want to read something, they can just scroll by it.
Now we just need to be up front and support Harris for president. Our lives really do depend on it.
Mimirif i don't want to read your posts and you're not CWing them I'm blocking you, not ignoring them. More efficient.
Francisca Sinn
Samhain Night@heidilifeldman This election will make or break the entire world. Anyone who doesn't like what you post is free to block keywords or unfollow you.
TheJen will not comply@samhainnight @heidilifeldman That. The whining that goes on in this place is really something.
helplessduck@TheJen @samhainnight @heidilifeldman
You can almost set your watch by it.
*Major event*
15 minutes
Flood of posts about it.
12 hrs
Folks bitching about CW use.
12 hrs
Folks bitching about CW's being onerous.
12 hrs
Folks bitching about having their posting policed.
12 hrs
Hashtags and filters settle out, everything's fine.
12 hrs
Rinse and repeat.
🤷♂️
@TheJen @heidilifeldman And the entitlement
iwein@heidilifeldman I'm fine reading your posts, but I have a filter on #uspol for when I get depressed. If you have something depressing to discuss, it would help me if you snuck that tag in there 😅
Spooleyhi@heidilifeldman Who do they think they’re following? Seems like an odd complaint when the simple answer is Unsubscribe.
Cassandrich
Tim Richards@heidilifeldman If you could add #USpol to your posts, ppl could choose to mute it. That would be the courteous thing to do.
Steve Leach@heidilifeldman Honestly, seeing "CW Politics" makes me want to just mark *everything* "CW Post" or "CW Content" because it obviously isn't be used to mark disturbing content anymore, so we might as well just mock it and mark *EVERYTHING* with a content warning because it exists.
Josh Morgan@heidilifeldman definitely understand! I filtered it out a bit ago, but I love seeing the little warning all the time! Lets me know that its still going strong and I can check in when I want.