Twitter has begun testing new reply controls for better conversations on its platform. This feature has been received with mixed reactions – some saying it will be helpful in fighting trolls and reply guys and others criticising the feature.
Here are some thoughts shared on Twitter:
This could be one of the most effective ways to stop unwanted harassment & trolling on twitter ! #win https://t.co/iO0pvNK9I2
— Vijay Shekhar Sharma (@vijayshekhar) May 20, 2020
One of the best parts of twitter is the ability to reply & connect with people you’d never be able to IRL. This is an unfortunate solution to a different problem tho. If Twitter enforced its community standards, you wouldn’t have to limit core/unique interaction https://t.co/160qe165aj
— Matt Kiser (@Matt_Kiser) May 20, 2020
This feature will fundamentally change Twitter forever.
💆 For most, it’ll be the reprive they’ve long awaited.
🚫 For many, it will make it even harder to join the community and make Twitter an isolating place.
📣 For some, it will be a powerful tool to silence dissent. https://t.co/p1pr5a1RS6
— Will Strimling (@willium) May 20, 2020
Imagine the class war if “blue ticks only” was an option. https://t.co/uNLYFvmO78
— James O'Malley (@Psythor) May 20, 2020
in order to protect blue checks from getting ratioed, we will tighten the filter bubbles https://t.co/tnNWrx1buN
— skooks (@skooks) May 20, 2020
feel free to show them why this well-intentioned implementation is broken by replying to my quote tweet of this supposedly unreplyable tweet https://t.co/i0Onx1imiU
— X Æ A-12 Mims (@mims) May 20, 2020
I've seen this being used already, and it's pretty frustrating, and will do more to provoke angry sentiment around here https://t.co/XMfXl3jN15
— Dave Lee (@DaveLeeFT) May 20, 2020
the thing I don't get is why anyone thinks it's well-intentioned when quote tweets are still allowed. It's fairly simple, Twitter has a version of interaction that it prefers you would use. and it's the *worst one they've ever invented*
— Richard Lawler (@rjcc) May 20, 2020
soooo close to getting my dream twitter feature pic.twitter.com/hA1PxNIJoh
— Elaine Filadelfo (@ElaineF) May 20, 2020
Just give us an edit button, if only to fix obvious tpyos. https://t.co/2zPKPT7FTT
— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) May 20, 2020
This is bad. One of the great democratising positives of twitter is the ability of people across all levels of influence to interact. https://t.co/PfM0ogFmt6
— Marcus Walker (@WalkerMarcus) May 20, 2020
This sounds like a game changer https://t.co/bUWJkBcan2
— Stefano Zanero (@raistolo) May 20, 2020
Twitter is now allowing users to choose who can reply to their tweets by selecting one of three options: everyone, only people you follow, or only people you mention.
This seems like it’s mostly a bandaid to avoid dealing with the underlying problems.https://t.co/X0Oobu5QTn
— Caroline Orr (@RVAwonk) May 20, 2020
Twitter: we have a fake news problem
Twitter: let’s solve this by letting accounts prevent people from fact checking them in the replies! https://t.co/ljg4OOLZ0u
— Maya⁷ 🌤 (@ivorybIossoms) May 20, 2020
now im wondering how people will react once Trump starts blocking replies to his tweets
— Genoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition (@GenePark) May 20, 2020
Twitter is getting the word out about its new feature by trolling its entire user base. Fitting! pic.twitter.com/v36QtUj0QE
— Alex Kantrowitz (@Kantrowitz) May 20, 2020
The problem with this particular use case (no-reply tweets) is my mentions are now full of people using quote tweets to reply to it. cc @kayvz @jack https://t.co/MrF8tuJdgH
— Martin SFP Bryant (@MartinSFP) May 20, 2020
Tweets one can't reply to? How about tweets that cannot be quoted?!?! Quote-tweets are occasionally okay but they are generally the worst aspect of this site and why I sometimes delete tweets (out-of-context quotes leading to stupidity and waste of time).
— zeynep tufekci (@zeynep) May 20, 2020
huh. kind of love these new settings on twitter
still doesn't solve the problem of context collapse when someone quote-dunks in bad faith tho (unless I'm misreading this)https://t.co/A3OIR61y1K
— X Æ A-12 Mims (@mims) May 20, 2020
Do you think people will try to growth hack this reply restrction thing by tweeting a question you feel compelled to answer but then disallowing replies thereby causing more quote tweets thereby getting their account in more people’s feeds?
Because that would be awful!
— Dieter Bohn (@backlon) May 20, 2020
Unemployment claims are gonna spike this week now that reply guys are unemployed.
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) May 20, 2020
a LOT of accounts are going to go completely no-reply. this is a much bigger change than it seems imo https://t.co/nFyg9mpJXK
— Stephen Hall (@hallstephenj) May 20, 2020
So this will just encourage more quote tweeting aka the thing that causes the worst brigading and abuse on this site? Great idea https://t.co/bdoFNuZCOB
— Waffle Shop Resistance Fighter (@mrsmcglover) May 20, 2020
Dunno why they can’t have a feature that deletes all the shit replies to my tweets but keeps all my good replies to other people’s tweets. https://t.co/uIafZ54mlz
— Tom Hamilton (@thhamilton) May 20, 2020
Are reply guys just gonna become quote tweet guys now? https://t.co/KAAqnKO6RD
— Taylor Lorenz (@TaylorLorenz) May 20, 2020
This is
– good, and
– will accelerate the phenomenon of people taking screenshots and commenting on those, leading to
– ML tools that let you track your mentions in screenshots https://t.co/3Xjad9KyHE— Casey Newton (@CaseyNewton) May 20, 2020
Alright a serious question for @jack: what happens when POTUS and other politicians + public figures turn off replies or limit replies to people they follow?
Gone would be harassers and trolls, but at the potential cost of curtailing free speech/public discourse. https://t.co/VtWy9CbpKH
— Alex Konrad (@alexrkonrad) May 20, 2020
Twitter getting lots of hate for this new feature, because everyone likes to hate on Twitter every time it launches new features, but seems like a cool experiment. Will be curious to see how people use it (and am trying to think of use cases for myself). https://t.co/QCTv3rDrK3
— Mike Masnick (@mmasnick) May 20, 2020
So cool that you can’t reply to his tweet BUT you can 100% quote tweet and say any wild shit you like. https://t.co/CzVeXXgsLL
— dan le sac (@danlesac) May 20, 2020
Twitter excels at creating echo chambers. In this case, literally! It continues to see itself as a broadcast platform for celebrities. And creating product features such as quote tweets that let people gang-up on others.
(nothing on Hunter – he's a good follow!) https://t.co/9vvpZFS9dw— Subrahmanyam KVJ (@SuB8u) May 20, 2020
The ACLU's comment on Twitter's new conversation features warns politicians not to use it to exclude people… pic.twitter.com/rXCxQ6cgGP
— Mike Masnick (@mmasnick) May 20, 2020
it’s disappointing and concerning to me how each new twitter feature seems to be specifically aimed at allowing the dangerous groups known to be on this platform to continue to survive and spread abuse and misinformation uninterrupted. https://t.co/c2re8ZpgyG
— ri (@soulsgloss) May 20, 2020
This is bad. One of the great democratising positives of twitter is the ability of people across all levels of influence to interact. https://t.co/PfM0ogFmt6
— Marcus Walker (@WalkerMarcus) May 20, 2020
The remarkable thing about Twitter is that the more features it removes, the better it would be. The ultimate version would be one in which you cannot post or read tweets at all. https://t.co/Yx1yjIXQUg
— Ian Bogost (@ibogost) May 20, 2020
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