Mastodawn

There is a TON of improvements we could make to Private Mentions (often called DMs on other platforms) e.g.
* getting them out of the public timeline
* Having a stronger notification tied to the Private Mention tab
* (amount other things)

But here is my MAIN question: How critical is it that these message are encrypted? I'm not against encryption! It's just complex and will take time. If we were to make some UX changes as a first pass WITHOUT encryption would you be OK with that (at least for now?)

If you MUST have encryption, that's fine, please do me the favor of replying explaining why you need it.

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Evan Prodromou Feb 20

@scottjenson I think making UX improvements to DMs is a great idea.

One of the biggest privacy problems with Mastodon DMs now is that people accidentally make them public.

Separating the private mention UI from the public posting UI will probably avoid a huge percentage of those user errors.

It'd be a big win for privacy.

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Graham Perrin

@evan the already improved UX looks good, to me.

When drafting a reply to a public toot, the word 'Public' is prominent (first screenshot).

When drafting a mention, the separation is clear (second shot).

Without being blasé about privacy: if a person accidentally publishes in either of those contexts, it's human error.

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Freezerburn Feb 20

@grahamperrin @evan Unfortunately, you are extremely optimistic about how often people actually read stuff like this. Or maybe see it but forget about it while working on the text. etc.

I sent a private mention a bit ago, and I remember spending a bunch of time being *100% absolutely sure* it was actually going to be a "DM". And I'm one of the rare people that actually reads instructions in general, or pays close attention to UI elements. Having public/private mentions be in the same UI element with a toggle is going to trip up the average person constantly.

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Graham Perrin Feb 20

@Freezerburn

Fortunately, I'm optimistic.

@evan