Post
I don't generally CW my posts about law and politics, because these are subjects that come up naturally for me, a central part of my day job. I put CWs on the rare posts I make that I anticipate might reasonably cause harm or distress.
But I'm happy to help the people who insist that I post in a different way avoid seeing them.
Blockety block block block.
@mattblaze mastodon and the fediverse has always been this way. Nothing gives people the authority to act like bigots and overzealous cops, which I hate. When I don't want to see political stuff when the world is being political. I just don't open social media, which I thankfully have none of other than this crappy fediverse crap that isn't entirely shit, yet.
@mattblaze it has once again been zero days since I pre-emptively blocked someone in your mentions for demonstrating they’re here to pick fights and make extreme accusations over Nothing. Access to Odin photos is a privilege contingent on not being the reason I’m regretting the internet today
@mattblaze Everything we see here is controlled by us. If we don't like what we see, we filter it or unfollow it.
I agree with you on the decision to CW a post. If I didn't agree, I wouldn't be following or would filter, or must or whatever.
@mattblaze I find it hard to believe that people who find it so upsetting to see a non-inflammatory mention of a news topic are not at all upset by starting a vicious and lurid thousand-word fight with a stranger about it. Blocking is free and fast!
@mattblaze People have so many tools at their disposal to manage what they see in their feeds, including mute and filters for keywords and hashtags. I’ve filtered out almost everything about US politics and that is fine with me. Keep up the good work!
Seriously, the tools for controlling what you see in your timeline (and from whom) are truly rich here. Telling other people how to post about what topics is one of the least effective.
@mattblaze I want to see your posts. I certainly don't agree with the people piling on, and cw seems like overkill when you are discussing all the same topics that appear in mainstream news. It would make filtering easier if you were able to add a hashtag like uspol.
@CaraBruar Look, I get that some people want me to add CWs or tags to some of my posts. But it's simply impossible for me to anticipate or accommodate everyone's wishes without putting a warning on *everything*, rendering it a meaningless, cumbersome, performative gesture.
If that doesn't work for you, I understand. I ask that you simply don't follow me, or block me, or mute me, or whatever. I think I've found a reasonable balance, and I'm sticking with it.
In fairness the pattern of #[2 letter country code]pol is fairly well established, and mutually beneficial to those interested and those who wish to skip it. It's good for reach and anyone filtering it out wasn't the audience anyway.
It's generally less about trauma and more and more about letting people have the chance to take a day off. eg: I live in Northern Ireland and party politics are a dismal merry go round so if I use #\nipol people can soft or hard hide it.
@davey_cakes @CaraBruar Well,I guess I'm just not in compliance with this "established" standard.
@davey_cakes @CaraBruar I notice you don't actually follow me. Why do you care about the format of my posts? Have they harmed you in some way?
@davey_cakes @CaraBruar I notice you don't actually follow me. Why do you care about the format of my posts? Have they harmed you in some way?
@mattblaze no no, not content warnings. I agree with you. Hashtags would be useful though. That way people can eg block anything with a hashtag they don't like while other people can find those posts more easily. I follow #auspol for example.
@CaraBruar I think my posts are pretty objectively tame. I don't post obscenity or graphic descriptions of violence or whatever. I post about law and politics and technology and art. You can read what I write or not. Your choice. But if you do, you're taking a risk that it might fall outside your interests.
That's part of what makes life interesting, I think.
@CaraBruar Anyway, I'm not sure what you're asking me to do. I could include more hashtags that describe my words, I suppose. Or people could just read my actual words without knowing in advance what they're about. I generally trust people's resilience enough that I use the latter approach.
@CaraBruar I think when you read what someone writes, you're taking a risk that you won't like it.
"So you think you're some kind of big shot expert huh?"
On a very few of the topics I post about, yes. I'm an actual expert. My opinions are sought out and have value. I make no apologies for this or pretend any false modesty here.
But on most subjects, I just share my opinions and perspectives. Like everyone does. I make no apology for this, either. Nor should anyone.
"I'm only making a simple and reasonable request. Just CW all your posts about <topic>. It's not hard".
It's not that it's *hard*. I could do it.
But this request simply isn't reasonable. You're asking me to marginalize a broad class of my posts to accommodate your personal preferences. If I did that for everyone, 100% of my posts would be behind a CW, and it would become a meaningless clickthrough.
Instead, I use my judgement, which may not match yours. Life goes on.
"You're being a fascist by posting about these topics that I personally don't wish to hear about".
I don't think that word means what you think it means.
@mattblaze
These fuckin' people.
Literally everything I post is SFW. My W.
If it is not SFYW that is a Y problem not an M problem. Why are you trying to hide your labor costs by NAGGING me do your work for you?
The block button, it is right there. We can solve both of our problems simultaneously.
@mattblaze I like that the feature exists, I like even more that I can opt to ignore all CW. Personally I will never use them, once I feel it needs a CW then it's probably just not suited for socials anyway.
@mattblaze It really depends on the server rules for the server you're on, but it did used to be the expected behavior on Fedi in general a few years back. If your server has no rules regarding this, then you just have to deal with how people respond to it. If your server admin sets rules around the server they are paying for people to use, and people don't follow those rules, they'd be within their rights to a)ask you to follow the rules and/or b) ask you to find another server.
It doesn't appear as though your particular server has any rules about it, but some do, and that's often the context behind it. And again, it used to just be part of the culture, so people who have been on Fedi for a while still have that expectation and you're probably going to continue to hear about it from them.
@mattblaze In a world without Clipper and Skipjack, I thank you. 
@mattblaze
This may be one of those topics where engagement is just not worth it, and you just block aggressive responders.
No amount of informing on the alternative will change the opinion of hard-line CW folks because to them they're doing social justice.
@mattblaze
This may be one of those topics where engagement is just not worth it, and you just block aggressive responders.
No amount of informing on the alternative will change the opinion of hard-line CW folks because to them they're doing social justice.
@mattblaze takes a lot of arrogance for other people to tell you you're supposed to censor yourself to save their feelings
A space for Bonfire maintainers and contributors to communicate
