Poll: Enhancing the "Mute" Feature
Hello Steemians, we want to hear your thoughts on whether we should expand the “Mute” feature on steemit.com (specifically “Condenser” the open source software that powers steemit.com and a number of other sites) to include hiding comments on a blog from visitors to that blog if the author has Muted the commenter.
TL;DR
Leave a comment starting with “YES” if you believe that when you Mute another user that their comments should be hidden from your blog for other Steem users.
Leave a comment starting with “NO” if you believe that when you Mute another user that their comments should remain visible to the visitors of your blog even if you have Muted them.
After "YES" or "NO" you should feel free to share any additional thoughts you might have on the topic.
Ownership
At Steemit, we take very seriously the concept of “ownership.” Steem enables users to retain ownership of their social information and we believe that great Steem applications should play to this strength. But this question isn’t always straightforward, especially at the user interface level. It can also conflict with some people’s views on censorship.
Non-Consensus
One thing that will never change is that any information posted to the Steem blockchain will be open and accessible to anyone. This feature change we are suggesting would have no impact on that whatsoever. All comments will always remain on-chain, and any developer is always free to provide an interface that displays that information. We call these types of changes “non-consensus.”
Free Speech
We believe that you should always have the right to make your views public, but you do not have the right to harass, spam, or otherwise pollute someone else’s space. A user’s blog (and in the future their Community) should be a place where they feel safe to speak their mind. What good is censorship-resistance if people are censoring themselves out of fear?
Giving users the ability to hide any toxic elements from their space, while still leaving every other user free to make that determination for themselves, will enable everyone to express themselves more freely. What good is freedom if people don’t feel safe enough to use it?
Improving UX
We think that expanding the “Mute” feature walks the right line between preserving a person’s right to speak while also preserving a user’s right to protect their property and even enhance its value. We believe that this could dramatically improve the user experience on steemit.com by enabling users to ensure that the visitors to their blog see only high quality comments.
Open Source
As always, the fact that both steemit.com and Steem are open source ensures that if anyone does not like how the information stored on the blockchain is displayed, they can easily launch their own version of the site, or use one of the many alternative user interfaces that already exist.
But what do you think? This is a feature that is intended to improve the user experience on steemit.com, so if you don’t think it will do that, be sure to vote “NO” in the comment section below.
When SMT Tho?!
Since we know people will say it, implementing this feature is trivial and will not delay any ongoing development efforts. That ease of implementation is a consequence of our Hivemind software which was developed by @roadscape (a/k/a “Hive”) and makes it extremely easy to alter how user interfaces interpret data stored on the blockchain.
If you'd like to learn more about the progress we've been making on SMTs, be sure to check out the recent post by Steemit Blockchain Engineer @gerbino.
The Poll!
But we digress! This post is about whether or not we should expand the “Mute” function on steemit.com.
Leave a comment starting with “YES” if you believe that when you Mute another user that their comments should be hidden from your blog for other Steem users.
Leave a comment stating only “NO” if you believe that when you Mute another user that their comments should remain visible to the visitors of your blog even if you have Muted them.
Don't hesitate to leave any additional feedback, including suggestions for other features you'd like to see added to steemit.com.
The Steemit Team
NO
Users should be able to decide who they want to see, not what other users ought to see.
Silencing critics isn’t something that should be entertained on a “censorship-resistant” and “decentralized” platform. It’s only one of two selling points you actually have for social media users in the first place.
👍 Exactly!! 👍
I also agree :)
A big YES.
Muting comments gives the creator power. It adds choice. This change would allow creators more ownership over their content and more power over their content.
This is a complete must that elliminates stupidity ww have been seeing with comment spam these last months.
This is a huge improvement and has nothing to do with censorship. It has to do with content ownership and creator empowerment.
Their content is not affected by comments. Their ownership of their content is not changed by commentary.
There's always a noble reason for introducing these features. But that's not how they're typically applied. There's no reason why one user ought to render another user invisible to me if I have not muted them. You talk about choice, but you're denying me my choice to see that user's comments.
Any creator can mute someone they don't want to see. You're OK with extending that into a classic example of silencing critics...shutting down debate...by making critical commentary invisible to other users with the click of a button. At the very least, I should have the option to view what the blog "owner" doesn't want me to see. I can make my own choices about whether or not that commentary is valuable or if the user is a problem.
These are public forums. You don't "own" public discourse. If you want private conversations and a safe space to communicate, there are plenty of options for that. When you start shutting down critical voices - or merely creating the ability to do so - you start venturing into censorship territory, which is the antithesis of what Steem claims to be. Don't blame "spamming" for the desire to control what others are able to view. Mute them, but give other users of the platform the option to see what they want to see on that platform.
No!
NO... Kinda
The end user / the consumer should be in charge of their decision.
Happy if you want to copy this system from https://steempeak.com
... I'm sure @asgarth can help you out.
It seems to have solved most issues people were having and users seem to be completely positive about it to date.
As you can see you could set your condensor to default use the mute settings of the author.
BUT, there's an important of this solution... when you're on a post there's always the ability for the user to make a spot decision to see those "muted" / hidden comments if you really want to.
You confuse me, I thought that is exactly what this post says. If you the user/consumer/blogowner mute someone then their comments won't show! Flag for being confusing. Why would it be up to the offender that leaves the bad comments/spam?
It's about giving the user the option... the issue is forcing a feature onto people with no way around it.
Thanks, I actually agree and will unflag u now! I don't like censorship. I have already been censored, does not feel good!
NO.
Posted using Partiko Android
I've seen that @jarvie already answered this poll, but I'm going to write my 2 cents too. From my point of view the post author should have more control over his blog, but the reader must be able to choose if he wants to follow the author preferences or not. Also it should be always possible to view all the comments easily, without leaving the post itself.
This is how it works on https://steempeak.com. Not going to share a screenshot because I've seen that it's already in a comment :)
NO.
In general I don't agree with censoring comments on your own Blog, because the authors content is now open in the public for discussion and controversial opinions should be always visible.
But I would like to see a feature where you can mute somebody else comments, but not for free!
This service should cost you some Steem, if you really consider to mute somebody else on your Blog Post. To be specific I would like to see that Steem gets "burned" for the ability to mute, and the more users you "mute" on your Blog the more you have to pay!
This would prevent that somebody "mutes" everyone that disagree on his posts, because it costs him Steem. And by doing so he would burn Steem and the whole community profits.
I really would like to see some "sinks" as @aggroed always says to be implemented in your frontend Steemit.com. And this Service "to mute comments" could be your first of many "sinks" for Steem :-)
Nah. The content creator should have power over their own content.
Muting comments is a statement made by the creator and it should be their right. Its up tonyou to take it as you wish.
Posted using Partiko Android
Would you consider to pay for this service - burn Steem for muting comments?
I think if this feature is for free than censoring comments is going to be a problem in the long run.
Posted using Partiko Android
No. Thats ridiculous.
This is a great idea, why? Well what they want to accomplish is to give "people" (persons) like Nike, Coke and such more incentive to come on here, as well for many professionals, incentives that are very lackluster as it is, and this would accommodate them as no way in hell will Nike deal with someone like me challenging them over their Vietnam slave plantations under any posts (or comments), same with Coke and their "product", but if they could effectively censor me, it will be fine methinks, they might even be glad to pay for the returns that the exposure will give them. Think about it, why aren't almost ANY professionals coming here, other than their shit stinking 8 ways from Sunday and plenty of degenerates who derive joy from pointing it out..
Their own content, which doesn't mean anyone else's content, like comments. If I go to a website and use their comment section, irrelevant of what their "tosc are, that is my content, not theirs, ever. The content belongs to the author, to you, that doesn't extend to comments. By your own logic, if I mute the author of the post I comment under I too should have the option to hide their responses to my comments.
Content creator mah balls. Over their own content, lmao. Logic, reasoning, evades you, that's what I take your nonsense as.
😂
Posted using Partiko Android
The irony is that you currently have me muted but you clearly don't care for that option, but if this was implemented, my comment would be completely invisible regardless that you don't even use steemit yet here you are offering your suggestions for them, but the most important thing though is your "response", which beautifully illustrates exactly the concern that so many people in this post warned against: silencing disagreement. You think you can fake laugh as if there is anything to ridicule about what I said, but there isn't, and it reinforces how elusive simple logic/reasoning is with you, when you could have been a decent fellow and responded in kind, afforded me the same courtesy I did you, but then that would mean actually considering what I said and the validity of my conclusion and i don't expect that an obvious idiot, someone clearly so stupid that they said "Nah(yeah, so cool and nonchalant). The content creator should have power over their own content." when they weren't talking at all about the said creator's content, but other people's content to act other than an idiot who "laughs" at reason and critical thinking, O sweet beautiful irony, forever an inch out of the hypocrite's mental capacity.
You really need to get some help man. The excessive aggression coming off of you signals a mental instability.
I do use Steemit except when on my phone and youre not muted though i should mute you.
See the majority of people dont mute opinions or dissagrements in arguments.
They mute people like you that are hostile, that throw around insults and ad hominems.
You are the exact reason why this SHOULD be implemented because you not only defile the comment section of the authors post with your conflict seeking attitude and shameless behavior but you act as a detterant to civil discussion hijacking the comment section and allienating civil individuals that want no part of it.
Mutinf comments on someones post gives the content creator the power to stop this kind of behavior and facilitate the kind of discussion they want on their content.
Their choice to do so is their statement of what they want to see disscused on their post.
If you can create a front end that does that, and steemit.inc is obviously considering this option, if you accept that a front end can control what is seen on their site, then why is it so hard to understand that extending that power beyond Steemit.inc to the community is a good thing?
Im for more power to the people and less to organizations.
Its a shame you want to restrict that and not see it happen.
@steemitblog.
Anyways. Get yourself checked out. This aggresion youre showing is not normal.
Posted using Partiko Android
Sorry, clearly you're very confused and a certifiable mental midget. What the fuck were you laughing at again? That's what I thought you whack ass idiot. Lol
Preaching about aggression lmao. That is rich you idiot.
And now you get muted. 😂
Haha. Insults...
The last resort of insecure people with a crumbling position trying to appear confident.
Have a great day. 😘
Posted using Partiko Android
The other really hilarious thing, you think that my comments defile the content, but as the overwhelmingly vast majority disagree with this idiot suggestion, they will surely agree that what someone says about something doesn't mean that it's true, correct or what everyone else thinks, unless they do, and then it's not "defilement" to anyone but the idiots who begged to be "defiled" by opening their idiot holes.
😂😂😂
Just had to read this. Now youre on mute.
Posted using Partiko Android
Tell me something, is it an ad hominem simply because I made remarks about your capacities? Lol.
"he's a retard, he threw gasoline on a camp fire"
That's an ad hominem correct?
What about this
"the content creator should have control over other people's content posted under their content" which is the clearly communicated idea that you undoubtedly tried to articulate but failed miserably, and is remarking on the irony/hypocrisy of that foolish idea, and how stupid it is, an ad hominem, or a valid case and point? Lmao.
You have
DRAMA!To view or trade
DRAMAgo to steem-engine.com.This is a cool idea
YES
YES PLEASE! I & Many Other have raised this concern, mostly a Block Feature is What we had in Mind, but if I get to not see people who harass me on my blog with this feature, it's equally good. I believe as content creators we should have the right to exclude some people from our space if they bring about negative energy all the time!
Thanks for the thoughtful response! We hear you loud and clear!
@steemitblog,
Yes, this is better. If we mute it's mute for everyone who is dealing with our blog posts. Yeah that's better!
Cheers~
No, each user should decide only for what they see.
And one feature would be to give the USER the ability to say they want to trust the mutes of the author. SteemPeak has done that.
And I'm assuming that it defaults to trusting the mutes of the author (especially for users who are not logged in) @jarvie?
Posted a picture and more info below in a post. But yeah default is on and everyone seems to be A OK with it because everyone gets to decide for themselves.
I actually love having it turned on. But i'm totally willing to click to see if the author muted someone... it's not like it's forever forgotten and gone. For the most part I consume content of the people I follow and I follow people for a reason and I trust them to clean their place up. But if i'm snooping around in new places i may click to see the hidden comments.
Anyway yeah it's been a really widely accepted feature with no issues because of the balance and the final decision is always on the end user.
Actually you start to realize just how rarely the mute function is presently being used (at least where I usually lurk)