I had an interesting conversation on here recently that made me realize that maybe not everyone who uses Mastodon knows that you can use filters as a way to add content warning to other people's posts?
https://stefanbohacek.com/blog/on-fediverse-content-warnings-and-filters/
@stefan filters are great except for some reason they don't work on the explore/trending feed. Which is where I spend at least half of my time
@stefan unless I'm missing something! Please let me know
@cubeofcheese I think that's what the "Public timelines" option under "Filter contexts" should do? Have you tried that?
@stefan trying it now thank you. I didn't realize those more detailed controls were there
@cubeofcheese You're welcome, hope this works for you!
@stefan I’m probably being incredibly thick but I just can’t work out how this works in practice? For information I have many, many filters setup. How do I apply these to another persons post that I’m boosting?
@DavidTanner Ah, sorry, maybe I need to clarify this in the article, this would only affect you.
So, you can set up filters that don't fully remove the offending posts, just hide them with a little note, as if the person posting applied a CW, according to your own preferences.
Sorry for any confusion!
@stefan Aah, which is exactly how I have my filters set up. I thought you were talking about a way to boost posts and ADD a filter when you boost.
@DavidTanner Ah, yes, that makes sense. Sorry!
I added a note to make this more clear, appreciate you asking!
@stefan HUGE fan and user of filters to mute & drop certain things here.
I've at times seen people talk about just discovering filters but can't recall anyone pointing this out re: CW's. I think it's very helpful and maybe this will help people here who wish to have CW's instead of entirely dropping something with filters.
I personally have my account set to expand anything with a CW and just mute/drop anything i'd rather not have in my feed.
@transicorn Yep, this is pretty much my setup as well. Expand all CWs, then use filters with a note to (re-)apply CWs based on my own preferences.
It's been working really well for me.
@stefan That’s handy. I didn’t know that I could use filters to make my own content warnings on Mastodon. Thanks.
@joncounts You're very welcome!
Using filters as content warnings is actually a great idea. This will be helpful for many people
@zotheca Thank you!
I didn't really realize that this feature may not be visible enough, and would love to know how many people are not even aware of it.
Looking forward to getting more feedback on this!
Speaking for myself: For me, filters have always been filters, and they served to hide posts.
I never associated them with content warnings.
At this point, I have some further ideas: I am thinking of the discussion that Mastodon "misuses" the title field for content warnings (according to the accusation). If you move the content warnings to the filters (for this, you could define a few standard terms to write in the text, e.g., "/rude, nsfw"), the title field could be used again as it is in other projects. This could perhaps be implemented across projects.
I know content warnings are a pretty divisive topic, and there are all these unwritten rules and expectations around them. They have been a source of many fights and targeted harassment.
I'm sure people will have opinions on this article, and beyond, and I very much welcome constructive feedback, just make sure to please read the actual article first, as I will be blocking and removing posts deliberately.
Thank you!
@stefan Good arricle! I am very pro CWs where you yourself deem it necessary. But I’m EXTREMELY anti-CW-policing. Which is why I like your post of CWing things you don’t wanna see yourself, using filters.
(This isn’t aimed at you in any way - I just absolutely loathe CW demands by some here. And I’m not talking about myself, I’ve never had such a demand made to me. But I’ve seen them made of others, and they leave a vile taste in my mouth!)
@leoncowle Thank you!
And I agree, of course. I think policing overall should be left to moderators. Especially enforcing unwritten rules and expectations across different communities. This has created a very toxic and gatekeepy atmosphere that's causing a lack of diversity on here.
And I know that's exactly what some people want. Pretty sad.
While not an actual solution, we need reply controls so bad.
