Mastodon’s latest update addresses a problem Twitter users know all too well: the scourge of “reply kids.” ONE colloquial term For men who regularly reply to women’s posts in an overly intimate way, often to “get busy”, stimulate the police, offer unsolicited advice or light up the original poster, replies have long been a problem on social media. Now, starting with the Mastodon app for Android, the company is experimenting with a simple reminder that will pop up when someone is about to reply to a stranger. Reminders can also include a bit of context — like if the stranger is an expert in their field or if the post the user is replying to is old — to prevent unnecessary or unhelpful commenting.
“While we’re exploring many different ways to address this issue, the idea we’re experimenting with today is simply to remind people when they’re going to respond to a stranger.” explains Mastodon founder and CEO Eugen Rochko. “We also think that by showing some information about the person you’re going to talk to, we can prevent some awkward situations, like explaining something to an expert in a certain field.”
Image Credits: Mastodon
The feature will additionally remind users when they reply to a post that is more than three months old, as these are no longer considered part of an active discussion. Older user posts often appear accidentally, prompting responses, because someone had searched for a specific topic and found a post in the search results.
Users can dismiss the warnings by pressing the “Got it” button or a smaller, less annoying option, “Don’t remind me again.”
The new features are rolling out to the Mastodon app for Android first, but will make their way to the iOS app soon, the company says. If the experiment proves successful, Mastodon will bring them to the web interface as well.
Image Credits: Mastodon
The idea that small nudges can help change user behavior is something that Twitter, now called X, has already used to its advantage — at least in the pre-Elon Musk era.
For example, the company would show reminders asking users if they had actually read the article they were about to retweet, or asking them to share the tweet instead of taking a screenshot. Most notably, it also added a feature that would prompt users to review “harmful” responses — that is, language that was abusive, trollish, or otherwise offensive. Twitter’s internal data found that these little nudges could work, as 34% of people revised their initial response after seeing the prompt or chose not to send their response at all. The company also found that after being prompted once, users composed 11% fewer offensive responses in the future. This shows that the use of nudges could have a long-lasting impact.
But on the other hand, overuse of nudges could stifle discussion on the platform, which is supposed to be a place for sharing personal opinions and ideas. For this reason, there must be a balance between helpful impulses and freedom of expression.
In Mastodon’s case, framing the new feature as an “experiment” allows the company to tweak when or how often its nudges appear to users as it gathers more data about their usefulness. Alternatively, if he finds that the nudges are not helpful, he can end the experiment and try something new.
“Overall, we’re committed to making sure people at Mastodon have an enjoyable posting experience,” adds Rochko. “We hear time and time again how much people enjoy coming to Mastodon to have real conversations with real people. And we want to make sure it stays that way,” he says.
