It always makes me sad when another fedi user - and, in my experience, it is always a woman - says that they feel unsafe posting here, because of replies they get.

Control over who can reply to a toot would be amazing, as a way to improve this without them needing to mute or block post-harm.

@neil I don't really understand why the 'quotes' feature in Mastodon already has something like this, but basic replies don't. Seems like a missed opportunity.

@neil
I believe there is a plan to add something like followers only, but one problem is that servers that are not upgraded to a version that supports that flag wouldn't honour it.

Not that it's a reason not to do it, but it'll take a while before it's effective.

@neil
https://socialhub.activitypub.rocks/t/fep-5624-per-object-reply-control-policies/2723

Bit technical, but it seems good people are on it.

@neil

a problem that solves itself LOL

@neil

possibly your client is suboptimal

here's the mobile web interface on android with the followers only option

@neil

I just wanted to draw your attention to some some ways to manage the visibility of a post. Could your outline additional controls which could be established?

@neil that would be perfect. An “only allow replies from people you follow” option would help so much.

@alex @neil Yes and no. If someone has fears, then yes. But the way I find new people to follow is when they interact with my posts. Having an option like that turned on would prevent me from doing that.

So I guess my answer really is YES, as long as it's an OPTION.

I have no qualms about blocking assholes, and I really don't care what they say behind my back. Unlike them, I have a life and it isn't centered on social media.🤷🏼‍♀️

@neil remember when Mastodon asked for changes to be made to the interaction policies FEP specifically so they can opt out of implementing reply and boost control?
i remember.

@neil

You can set it so only followers or people mentioned in a post can see it. Would that not achieve the same result as you cannot reply to what you cannot see.

@the5thColumnist @neil no – it limits the audience, not what the audience can do. (additionally, the followers-only visibility doesn't do what you think you do.)

@mawhrin @neil

I see your point. You want people to be able to see the post but not comment on it. There does not appear to be a way to do that, at least not on the web interface.

@seabass @neil Reply controls would require changing how replies work to make them all go via the original poster's server. Currently they go directly to mentioned users (and the replier's followers), and the original poster's server can't do anything about that except reject them locally. This would also allow for fixing follower-only replies (so they go to the original poster's followers rather than to the replier's followers, which results in people seeing random fragments of conversations if they follow only some parties) and making replies federate to all users who see the original post without the need to backfill via non-standard c2s protocols (like fedifetcher does), but good luck getting everyone to implement that.

As for how Mastodon's quote controls work: they kind-of don't. I'm on Akkoma, which has had quote posts long before Mastodon and does not implement Mastodon's quote controls. Nothing prevents me (and nothing can prevent me) from quoting a quote-restricted Mastodon post, although it will (probably, I haven't tested) only appear as an ordinary post with a link to the quoted post on Mastodon, and I think also won't show up under the original post on Mastodon servers (but will on other Akkoma servers and every implementation that doesn't implement Mastodon's quote controls).

@seabass @neil I think reply controls of the kind that’s actually implementable without changing how every implementation does replies (that is, just reject them locally) are already partially possible on Pleroma/Akkoma using MRF (the Message Rewrite Facility). Rejecting replies to a certain user is certainly possible with an MRF filter, the only thing missing is a way for the user to specify this per-post.

@neil ultimately, fedi's culture of men constantly centering themselves, reply-guying, being weird and condescending and creepy to women and fems, and so forth, is a social-cultural problem. and while better tools can help to shield us from the worst of it, you can't solve a social problem with technical solutions. in other words, it's the culture of misogyny that needs to change, or nothing will fundamentally change.

@neil FYI, there is a lot of discussion about what a “no replies” or limited replies feature could look like here:

https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/8565

@noisytoot @neil Thanks for explaining! I'll take a look at MRF; it looks interesting.

@neil @u_urban I speak both languages - you understood the online translation correctly.

@neil

Wo ist das Problem, dann muss man halt seinen Beitrag mit der Einstellung "Only Follower" veröffentlichen!
Ist halt schade um die Möglichkeit seine Gedanken in größerer Runde auszutauschen und auf neue interessante Menschen zu treffen!
Vielleicht hilft dann auch der Umzug auf eine andere, kleinere (?) Instanz.
Oft lohnt sich auch die Kommunikation auf die Metaebene zu heben, konnte so schon manches Missverständnis klären!

@neil I would like it as well, not so much for restricting replies to my toots but being able to see 'ah this person only wants replies from mutuals' and therefore not sending a reply which at best won't be read and at worst will annoy.

(I have come across accounts who want to restrict replies and there is no way to advertise this)