Darius Kazemi
@evan for me it depends on the conversation! Sometimes yes I'm replying 1:1 to a person but the conversation is, in addition to every other function it has, a performance for public consumption and the public record
Other times it's like yeah, get a room!
Andrew (bookseller era)
@darius @evan Maybe it's just me being non-NT, but if a conversation starts in public, I'm not going to take it private unless there's a very good reason to do otherwise.
Evan Prodromou
@ajroach42 @darius like, say, you're boring the hell out of everyone? Would that be a good reason?
Andrew (bookseller era)
@evan @darius I suppose it depends on the venue? Fediverse, basically never.
In a chat app, depending on the context, I might move to a smaller room or a DM if I thought the conversation was only relevant to a single party, and the room was pretty full. But modern chat apps have threading, and I'll use a thread before a private message.
Evan Prodromou
@darius so, wouldn't the fact that no one else has chimed in for 3 or 5 conversational volleys tell you that it is not, in fact, in the public interest, and does not, in fact, need to be in the public record?
This kind of thread, especially when in conflict, has such a sense of needing to set the record straight, without acknowledging that the audience has long ago checked out.
Darius Kazemi
@evan I think there can be signals like favorites from people reading along that need to be read, too, not just replies. But yes as a person doing this kind of thing you need to ask yourself if it's just an ego trip or it's actually a public service of some kind. (It usually is an ego trip)
esmevane, sorry
@evan @ajroach42 @darius I am with Andrew. “Taking a conversation private” isn’t even close to an organic idea for me. Adding to that, boring conversations are everywhere in public. What would make it extra bad just when I’m the boring one?
Plus boring is subjective, who decides what it is? Why would it ONLY be the people right there? Especially if it’s in a public forum. How many times has my skin been saved by a boring conversation on public record?
J Miller
I don’t think this is a reliable indicator. It might be true on Slack among people who share a workday, but these global online conversations among people with different priorities have an irregular pace.
With Mastodon, there is also the issue of gaps in timelines.
The audience for comments vs. original posts is also idiosyncratic.
Didn’t vote in the poll, because I think # of posts is wrong framing.
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