Please update the "CW" label to use "SUBJECT" or "SUBJ"

[BanjoFox]

Pitch

Brief

In order to adapt to the most popular utilization of "CW" or "Content Warning" button I would propose that it should be changed to "SUBJ" or "Subject".

Going through the GlitchSoc codebase there are only three places where I see "CW" as a visual label being used. A majority of all other instances of "CW" are in the Locales/translations files or as variable names that only developers will see.

File paths, and contextual code-snippets are included below.

Code Blocks

app/javascript/flavours/glitch/features/compose/components/options.jsx

          <TextIconButton
            active={spoiler}
            ariaControls='glitch.composer.spoiler.input'
            label='CW'
            onClick={onToggleSpoiler}
            title={formatMessage(messages.spoiler)}
          />

app/javascript/flavours/glitch/features/local_settings/navigation/index.jsx

          active={index === 2}
          index={2}
          onNavigate={onNavigate}
          textIcon='CW'
          title={intl.formatMessage(messages.content_warnings)}
        />
        <LocalSettingsNavigationItem          

‎app/javascript/mastodon/features/compose/containers/spoiler_button_container.js

    const mapStateToProps = (state, { intl }) => ({
      label: 'CW',
      title: intl.formatMessage(state.getIn(['compose', 'spoiler']) ? messages.marked : messages.unmarked),
      active: state.getIn(['compose', 'spoiler']),
      ariaControls: 'cw-spoiler-input',
    });

Motivation

There have been many instances of users actively fighting over the use of "Content Warnings" to be restricted to "only content which may be offensive to others". However, any user which has spent more than a few days on the Mastodon/Fediverse will likely encounter "Content Warnings" being used as a more general "Subject Line".

The "CW" feature itself has been helpful in allowing users to know whether or not they want to read the hidden content. As stated previously, there have been huge discussions about what the "CW" feature should or should not be used for. This honestly feels like such a trivial hill to die on, that can be easily remedied by changing it to SUBJ.

[RobTFirefly]

Strong support for this. A significant amount of potential new users trying things out have been intimidated or put off by the "Content Warning" name of the function to the point where they left Mastodon altogether. The concept of a subject line, on the other hand, is something with which virtually everyone online is already familiar and comfortable, yet it amounts to the same thing for content-warning purposes. For examples of this one might check out this writeup of some informal research on the subject.

Calling the function "subject" will not interfere at all with the intended content-warning functionality, as that usage is still covered by the concept of a subject line, and the change would also expand the comfortable use of Mastodon and lessen a significant barrier to entry into the Mastodon community.

[BanjoFox]

Quick Aside: I would also like to add that I did try to build a local-development environment for testing and creating a proper PR. However, the current instructions on joinmastodon.org are out-of-date and did not provide enough guidance for me to build my own instance.

[benbrown]

+1 Concur with above comments. CW is an unfamiliar concept and hard to get right. Subject is more useful too - personally I like to title things.

[Plastikmensch]

I'm not against deprecating "CW" and replacing it with "CN" (ContentNote) or "SL" (SubjectLine) This has also been brought up upstream, but the problem is there is no consensus on what it should be changed to. (See https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/20117)

The other problem, specifically regarding glitch-soc is that it reuses locales from upstream, so all locales would still refer to content warnings. These could be replaced with glitch-soc specific ones, but I'm not sure that's a good idea.

[BanjoFox]

SubjectLine (SL) would be a much more universally understood concept.

The reality of the situation is that the upstream repository is likely to remain unchanged in this regard. By changing it here it would set the example that could be leveraged to push a more global change.

Yes having to maintain locales to match would be a lot more work, but there are already so many other things that GlitchSoc does which need to be modified from upstream anyways.

Updating locales is something that can be easily taught to non-developers and I would encourage users to do so. I am in no way trying to trivialize the work, but this seriously feels like the cost of change is hugely outweighed by the quality of life improvements for users.

On Sat, Jul 29, 2023, 18:23 Plastikmensch @.***> wrote:

I'm not against deprecating "CW" and replacing it with "CN" (ContentNote) or "SL" (SubjectLine) This has also been brought up upstream, but the problem is there is no consensus on what it should be changed to. (See mastodon#20117 https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/20117)

The other problem, specifically regarding glitch-soc is that it reuses locales from upstream, so all locales would still refer to content warnings. These could be replaced with glitch-soc specific ones, but I'm not sure that's a good idea.

— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/glitch-soc/mastodon/issues/2337#issuecomment-1656933729, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABCA2JC34JD55GEBP4BGPMTXSWENJANCNFSM6AAAAAA24XZNNY . You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: @.***>

[Plastikmensch]

SubjectLine (SL) would be a much more universally understood concept.

I'm actually not that sure about that.

The reality of the situation is that the upstream repository is likely to remain unchanged in this regard. By changing it here it would set the example that could be leveraged to push a more global change.

I agree. Upstream has a reputation for that, but again there has been no consensus.

Yes having to maintain locales to match would be a lot more work, but there are already so many other things that GlitchSoc does which need to be modified from upstream anyways.

The point of view I have is that I know the amount of work Claire does and I'm very disinclined to adding more on top of it. The change itself isn't that big, but it has to be maintained. Especially the locales have to be updated manually when upstream makes changes. But also potential merge conflicts.

To be clear, I personally don't mind either way, I'm just trying to provide some context.

[dalereardon]

As a newcomer to the Fediverse I would really like to endorse this change. It would make the whole system better to use - having to label something with a CW seems strange and makes me think that I am writing something offensive even if just politely talking about politics. Subject is far more generic and inclusive.

[BanjoFox]

SubjectLine (SL) would be a much more universally understood concept.

I'm actually not that sure about that

To help reinforce "SubjectLine" as universal choice; I could ask any non-technical individual, that knows how to operate email if they could tell me what a "Subject line" was and they would be able to explain it to me.

@dalereardon To @Plastikmensch 's point... this change is better implemented from the top. However, the lack of consensus at the O.G Mastodon level means that we are not likely to see this implemented.

So unless someone puts their foot down and forces a decision we may be spinning oir wheels here.