Mastodon: automatically prepend "re: " to replies to content warnings

[Moth-Tolias]

a fair amount of the time, users neglect to update the content warnings when replying.

having "re: " automatically prepended to replies to content warnings would help alert readers that the toot that has just entered their feed is a reply, and might not be properly tagged.

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• [x] I have searched the repo’s other issues to ensure this is not a duplicate.

[nightpool]

this is my new favorite GitHub issue.

On Mon, Sep 10, 2018, 2:27 AM Su [e-mail] wrote:

a fair amount of the time, users neglect to update the content warnings
when replying.

having "re: " automatically prepended to replies to content warnings would
help alert readers that the toot that has just entered their feed is a

reply, and might not be properly tagged.

• I have searched the repo’s other issues to ensure this is not a
  duplicate.

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[trwnh]

We might as well embrace the email analogy with CWs as subject lines. Appending "re:" does have a purpose there, as long as it doesn't devolve into "re: re: re: re: RE: Re:" or "re(6)".

For that matter, we could call the CW a "content summary" or "subject" as well.

[StarryAster]

I think the re: thing is useful to let people know it may be a reply that doesn't necessarily needs the same content warnings, and I also think there should be something in place so re: is only used once.

I disagree with calling CWs subjects, however. Sometimes, the content warning is the same as a subject (eg. a toot about how discrimination works with a CW for discrimination), but sometimes, the warning is just a warning and not the main subject (eg. a toot about a cartoon that also mentions a situation in which discrimination happens in an episode, where this isn't the main subject, can have discrimination as part of its CW).

I think content warning is a good label, because it may be used for the subject of a toot, but it may also be used to warn people that a certain content is there even if it's not that relevant for the toot itself.

[niacat]

@trwnh Currently pleroma's implementation does a case insensitive check for "re[: ]" at the beginning of the post so it should detect duplicates, including most that are added by hand.

Also, my instance labels the box "Subject/CW"

[rugk]

This could also be helpful for https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/issues/7255 (or, at least, has to be considered for it.)

[nightpool]

for the record i think we shouldn't implement this, i just find it funny.

On Wed, Sep 12, 2018 at 8:37 PM trwnh [e-mail] wrote:

We might as well embrace the email analogy with CWs as subject lines.
Appending "re:" does have a purpose there, as long as it doesn't devolve
into "re: re: re: re: RE: Re:" or "re(6)".

For that matter, we could call the CW a "content summary" or "subject" as
well.

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[rugk]

Why not?😂

[rixx]

for the record i think we shouldn't implement this, i just find it funny.

I've seen it work very welll on other instances (glitch-soc does it, for example). Could you specify what you dislike about this?

[nightpool]

because it completely discards the idea of CWs being content warnings, and instead reifies a watered-down concept of a "post subject".

the reason I find it funny is because everyone apparently just wants to implement email

[rixx]

Thank you for the confirmation that this won't land in Mastodon, not even as a config option, as it makes the decision between Mastodon and glitch-soc much easier. In that case, it might be better to tag the issue as wontfix and close it, though.

FWIW in my social group they are still used as Content Warnings, but it's nice to see if it's the original status, or a response (where people often forget to adjust CWs, and having an indicator for that is useful).

[nightpool]

hmm? I'm not some sort of final arbiter on issues and I never said it wouldn't ever land. I'm not making any sort of Official Pronouncement. All I said was that I, personally, disagreed with it. if other people disagree with me, why wouldn't we implement it?

[rugk]

BTW re-reading this issue, I've changed my opinion and agree with @nightpool: It should really be content warnings, not toot subjects. But well… it's a small "feature", so it's not that the world ends if this gets implemented anyway. :laughing: