One of the problems shared by many social media platforms, is the "pile on" effect. Someone says something dumb and the entire Internet shows up on their doorstep to mock them.
Twitter has this problem in spades, it's one of the reasons it has a bad reputation for harassment.
As far as I know, there is nothing technically preventing the same problem here in the #fediverse though.
If it became a social norm to just star people who have already responded instead of piling on, that would help.
@pettter I think the problem is that each individual may be responding reasonably. But sheer volume matters.
When is it a dogpile? After the third response? The tenth?
The basic attitude should, I think, be not to blow up someone's moment of being stupid on the internet. I.e. if you respond, don't dot-reply (or whatever the equivalent thing is). If you want to spread the thing on, do so with blacked-out-screenshots rather than a direct link to the post (unless you _want_ to start a dogpile - it's sometimes a valid tactic).
@HerraBRE Totally agree; I brought this up a few days ago. No silver bullets I can think of yet though: https://toot.cafe/@nolan/108676
@HerraBRE i mean that's already happened several times here
Just without the @mentions, so it isn't quite as annoying for the subject
@HerraBRE Although I'd say its status as a problem is relative to who's being piled on. Less worried about fairness with someone powerful v. someone less-powerful; less worried if they are a bigot than if it's over their identity.
@paulsheprow My post was mostly intended to encourage people to be mindful of this issue.
The debate over who "deserves" or "can take" what is basically online bullying is not one I want to get into. Everyone will have their own personal shitlist of people who "need punishing." 😞
@HerraBRE Totally, personally I worry more about what doing it does/would do to myself. I appreciate your attention to nuance w/ this stuff.
"If it became a social norm to just star people who have already responded instead of piling on, that would help." --@HerraBRE https://mastodon.xyz/users/HerraBRE/updates/97718
When folks advocate for the star to be something *other* than a save button, it means the save function is serving a social purpose, and my saved post list becomes cluttered.
See also: https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/issues/1178 My request to separate the "like" and "save" functions into two buttons!
@cassolotl Talk about missing the forest for your favourite tree... 😄
Anyway, the star is obviously serving a social purpose already, that is clearly its intent. Otherwise it wouldn't be advertising that you've clicked it.
My advocated use case is perfectly in-line with what the button currently does.
A private save button would behave very differently. That's a totally legit thing to want, but don't complain about people using the existing features for what they are.
@HerraBRE I'm not complaining! The way you're proposing we use it is the best we've got with what we have. And you proposing a private save button alongside what we currently have is pretty much what my feature request suggests. :) I hadn't thought about it being private but now that you mention it, it makes complete sense.
But yeah. Public like/support/heart, private save. Separate functions, one social, one practical.
And that instances where dogpile-helping behaviour is rewarded/not checked might be identified fairly easy.