@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?

@flowerpot what would Bob's reply look like to his followers?

@twobiscuits no.

https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/posting/#privacy

@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.

@mhoye it's not about everyone having access to every conversation. When I make a friend's-only post on Instagram or Facebook, I expect my friends and family to be able to talk to each other. These conversations are really precious and intimate to me. I would hate to have them attenuate to nothing because no one could see each other's replies.

@mhoye that's a great way to shut down conversations.

@brooke I like how conversations happen when I make friends-only posts on Facebook.

@mhoye so, as the conversation goes on, the audience gets smaller and smaller?

@flippac it's not how most other social networks work. If Alice posted a private photo on Instagram, and Bob commented, Alice's other followers could see Bob's comment, but Bob's followers could not.

@maj does this help?

https://mastodon.social/@dahukanna/116030109485498081

@stephaniepixie @mayintoronto I think "followers only" only makes sense if you manually approve followers.

@flippac so, the conversation audience keeps getting smaller and smaller?

@vanderwal

Respecting blocks fixes this, obviously. But sometimes there are cases where B doesn't know C follows A, and hasn't blocked them.

I think giving B some options for replies -- reply privately to A, reply to same audience -- makes sense.

I don't think making replies visible to B's followers only is the answer, though.

@vanderwal I also agree that making B's responses visible to all of A's followers can be a problem.

Especially in families and friends groups, A might approve both B and C as followers, but B might not want anything to do with C. C might be an ex-lover or a racist uncle or whatever.

Unfortunately, when we sever connections, not all of our friends and family do, too.

@vanderwal so, I think I see where we went askew here.

You said, "Most services get this wrong and make the replies visible to B's followers only."

I disagreed, "Most services get this *right* and make the replies visible to A's followers only."

I don't think we disagree about the right way to do it -- we disagree if services actually do it that way.

I am not sure why you think they don't. As far as I can tell, X, Instagram and Facebook all make replies visible to A's followers.

@mdione yeah, keeping the audience pretty much the same as the conversation grows seems very natural to me, too.

@ZenHeathen so, for Bob's followers, "Yes" with no context is worthwhile and interesting? That's what they followed Bob for -- to hear his half of a private conversation?

@vanderwal

Your condescension is unearned.

@vanderwal show me the data.

@dahukanna omg!!