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Mastodon ’s latest update is tackle a problem Twitter users know all too well : the bane of the “ reply hombre . ” Acolloquial termfor the men who regularly respond to women ’s posts in an too familiar fashion , often to “ mansplain , ” timbre police force , offer unasked advice or gaslight the original notice , answer guys have been a longtime problem on social media . Now , start in the Mastodon app for Android , the company is experiment with a mere reminder that will pop up up when someone is about to react to a unknown . The reminders may also include a mo of context — like if the unknown is an expert in their field , or if the post the exploiter is replying to is older — to channelize off unneeded or unhelpful commentary .
“ While we ’re exploring multiple different avenue to harness this topic , the idea we ’re experimenting with today is simply reminding mass when they ’re about to respond to a stranger,”explainsMastodon father and CEO Eugen Rochko . “ We also conceive that by showing a snatch of information about the person you ’re about to talk to , we can keep some bunglesome office , such as explaining something to an expert in a open champaign . ”
The feature will to boot remind users when they ’re replying to a post that ’s over three calendar month old , as these are no longer considered part of an active discourse . exploiter ’ older posts are often surface by mistake , prompting replies , because someone had searched a peculiar topic and came across a position in the search result .
Users can send away the warnings by tapping on the “ Got it ” button or a smaller , less obtrusive choice , “ Do n’t remind me again . ”
The raw features are set in motion first on the Mastodon app for Android but will arrive on the iOS app soon , the party says . If the experimentation prove successful , Mastodon will then bring them to the web interface as well .
The idea that little jog can help change exploiter behavior is something that Twitter , now send for X , had already used to its advantage — at least in the pre - Elon Musk geological era .
For example , the company wouldpop up reminders that postulate user if they had actually read the article they were about to retweet , or would call for them toshare the tweet instead of taking a screenshot . Most notably , it also added a featurethat would propel drug user to revise “ harmful ” answer — meaning spoken communication that was abusive , trolling or otherwise offensive . Twitter ’s inner datum found that thesesmall jog could process , as 34 % of people revised their initial replyafter seeing the prompt or chose not to commit their response at all . After being motivate once , people then write 11 % few offensive replies in the future , the fellowship also found . That indicates that the consumption of nudges could have a longer - lasting encroachment .
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But on the impudent side , overutilization of nudge could squelch conversation on the platform , which is supposed to be a place for partake personal opinions and ideas . For that rationality , there needs to be a balance between helpful nudge and freedom of construction .
In Mastodon ’s case , frame in the new feature of speech as an “ experiment ” allows the company to tweak when or how often its nudges appear to users as it gathers more data point about the jog ’ utility . Or , if it finds the nudge are n’t helpful , it can terminate the experiment and try something newfangled .
“ Overall , we ’re committed to ensuring folk on Mastodon have a pleasant experience posting , ” adds Rochko . “ We hear sentence and time again how much people enjoy follow to Mastodon to have substantial conversations with real mass . And we want to insure it abide that way , ” he says .
