If Alice makes a followers-only post, and Bob replies to it, to whom should Bob's reply be visible?
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if Bob replies to a post by Alice, they are implictily relinquishing their communication style to the style of Alice, because it is Alice's top level post. Alice "owns" the conversation as top level poster
Bob must consider the implications of that before replying
that solves the problem
the structure of a conversation is beholden to the imperatives of the starter of that conversation. it should not be hijacked
your other concerns are valid
but are overruled in this context
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@evan I think so. The wishes of any of the participants to keep the message to followers only is not respected if both presence of the conversation and parts of it are visible to followers' followers.
Alice started the thread, so in this context, we respect her communication style choices for that post and everything that follows underneath it
if Bob can come in and hijack the conversation with their communication style, this is disrespectful to Alice
in the context of a thread Alice started, we respect Alice's communication style, and no one else's
this is the most responsible approach
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@evan To Alice's followers by default. But possible to restrict to the intersection with Bob's followers if Bob wishes.
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@evan The answer is go back to LiveJournal and Alice gets to decide. If her post is fully public, anyone can comment on it. If it's private and Bob is in a group of people she shared it with, only Bob and the people in that group can see the post and comment. Now if Bob wants to make a copy of her post and share it privately this his group of friends, that's his business but then he's probably not a very good friend.
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if i go into your house, i respect the pile of shoes at the front door, and take off my own
the idea there is someone who doesn't understand this obvious thing: i am a guest in *your* thread, is not anyone else's problem
so, yes: some things are obvious
i won't trudge into your house with my dirty shoes. if someone else does, that's something obvious they don't understand they should understand
they can be delicately reprimanded. and they learn. end of problem
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@ZenHeathen @evan
Yes it should. It's Alice's conversation. Only Alice's followers if she marked it thusExcept Mastodon will show it to anyone mentioned by bob. Which is broken. Even if it was private to Alice and Bob.
@raymaccarthy Alice shouldn't get to choose the privacy of Bob's words. As I said, Bob's followers shouldn't be able to scroll up to see Alice's words, but there's no reason that Alice should be able to ensure that Bob's followers can't see Bob's words. They're not her words, it's not her choice, just as Bob shouldn't get to choose who gets to see Alice's words. @evan
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@evan EXACTLY what I imagined.
So, the answer would be visible to the intersect between them.
Of course, how that scales as *those* people reply... there lies the rub. -
@evan I think there should be 2 settings: "followers only" and "followers cascade" (or something).
The first restricts it to Alice's followers only. So Bob's reply is not visible to any of his followers that are not also Alice's followers.
The second is visible only to Alice's followers when posted but becomes visible to all Bob's followers once he replies.This second setting would probably more safe than a general public post, based on the birds of a feather hypothesis, but less safe than the first.
I an ideal world, where everyone behaves themselves, all posts should be public for all. I'm going to take a nap now until that happens. Wake me up when it comes.
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My vote was based on current implementation and explanation of same to users.
However, if we ask "ought" rather than "should" (principle rather than expectation), then reply visibility would be contingent on the propinquity of followers to both Alice and Bob, which is to say, not all of either interlocutor's followers would see the post, but rather visibility would be a function of relationship weights with each follower across both participants in the exchange.
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@evan It should obviously be visible to Eve.
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@evan It is Alice's post and conversation. If Bob wants other people to know what was said, he's able to do his own post to his followers.
I don't even like the idea of 'followers only' posts. Use email or direct messages if it's that 'special'. -
@mhoye so, as the conversation goes on, the audience gets smaller and smaller?
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I selected other. I feel that Bob's post's visibility should be defined by Bob's settings for that post.
Followers of Bob that don't also follow Alice could see his reply and know that it was a reply to something else, but they'd not see what it was in reply to.
Conceptual parallel: one can comment publicly on copyright protected material that others may not be able to see. one can also comment publicly on classified info (there may be penalties for doing so, but it can be done).
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@raymaccarthy Alice shouldn't get to choose the privacy of Bob's words. As I said, Bob's followers shouldn't be able to scroll up to see Alice's words, but there's no reason that Alice should be able to ensure that Bob's followers can't see Bob's words. They're not her words, it's not her choice, just as Bob shouldn't get to choose who gets to see Alice's words. @evan
@ZenHeathen @evan
She should if she started a non-universal conversation.Bob can post his replay also to his followers, but that is certainly not cricket.
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I selected other. I feel that Bob's post's visibility should be defined by Bob's settings for that post.
Followers of Bob that don't also follow Alice could see his reply and know that it was a reply to something else, but they'd not see what it was in reply to.
Conceptual parallel: one can comment publicly on copyright protected material that others may not be able to see. one can also comment publicly on classified info (there may be penalties for doing so, but it can be done).
@jmcclure yes, of course it should be defined by Bob's settings.
But what settings should be available to him? And what should be the default?
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@maj Dawn's and my answer would be all of Alice's followers. I don't like the intersection answer, because it gets smaller and smaller over time. I think Alice's intent is to have her friends and family have a conversation, like it works on Instagram and Facebook.
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@ZenHeathen @evan
She should if she started a non-universal conversation.Bob can post his replay also to his followers, but that is certainly not cricket.
@raymaccarthy It's a microblogging platform, not a blog, and not a forum where one can make a post and control who can post under it. Alice can control her post and who sees it, and can control for herself who's posts she sees, but she should not have any control over what anyone else's posts. You cannot convince me on this point. Alice controls Alice's posts, Bob controls Bob's posts, Alice must not be allowed to control Bob's posts and Bob must not be allowed to control Alice's posts. Period. @evan
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@benroyce@mastodon.social @evan@cosocial.ca this idea occurred to me, but in general I think this hardly ever actually matters in practice.
If Bob is the kind of person to fake screenshots, then everyone, especially Alice, will presumably block him.
I could be wrong on this, but it seems to me like a trick you can only pull once, and not that impressive of one.
And if I’m right that fake screenshots isn’t an important attack vector, then there isn’t much difference between sharing the post and sharing the screenshot of it.
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@jmcclure yes, of course it should be defined by Bob's settings.
But what settings should be available to him? And what should be the default?
Forgive me if I'm missing something here, but I can't quite square the original poll options with "of course it should be defined by Bob's settings".
My thought was that and / all settings that Bob would ever have for his own posts should be available to him, and the default should be whatever his default normally is.
Essentially, (my view is) the fact that Bob's post is in reply to something else is beside the point: Bob's post is Bob's post, just like any other he'd make.
