There was a discussion about this article 2 years ago here and here, but I thought it’s such an interesting a novel concept full of potential that it’s worth a repost.
It seems like it should be unnecessary, like we already have ways of conveying this sentiment, so why have a button with such a narrow function?
But on the other hand, making it normal for people to admit their mistakes online? That would be a huge step forward. And if there’s a button there for it, it would get used.
It could be a hint to the algorithm to stop pushing the content because you wouldn’t want something incorrect circulating. But then people may not want to use it but also those people would be the same ones who are happy to lie in a viral tweet.
It does very much annoy me that, yeah, its always been possible to do this.
I believe Claim A! Claim A deniers are bad, smell bad, and are probably also demons!
EDIT:
Welp, looks like Claim A is dubious, thanks to user so and so for setting me straight, see their explanation below.
Yeah you have always been able to do that or something very close to it on basically every forum or social media type thing ever.
But… you are probably right that if you give people a mea culpa flag as a built in part of the UI/UX, that would almost certainly spur more people to do it.
… Its still terrifying to me that a large segment of people would need such a button to exist before they would be ok doing it.
I guess this isn’t a case where the sort of ‘desire path’ solution manifests and is then maybe formally adopted, seems like you’d have to basically social engineer humility into people.
I hate that this would probably work, in the sense that it isn’t just DUH obvious to everyone already that they don’t need a button specifically for this, but I also love that this would probably work.
I can imagine a ‘year end wrap up’ where you get to see all the stuff you said that you decided was stupid.
Then I guess just pair it with some kind of affirmative message of ‘hey, you’re trying to admit your mistakes, and that’s probably good’.
Its less deceptive than trying to delete shit dumb stuff, as… everyone can still see you did say it, but realized it was bad.
It seems like it should be unnecessary, like we already have ways of conveying this sentiment, so why have a button with such a narrow function?
But on the other hand, making it normal for people to admit their mistakes online? That would be a huge step forward. And if there’s a button there for it, it would get used.
It could be a hint to the algorithm to stop pushing the content because you wouldn’t want something incorrect circulating. But then people may not want to use it but also those people would be the same ones who are happy to lie in a viral tweet.
It does very much annoy me that, yeah, its always been possible to do this.
Yeah you have always been able to do that or something very close to it on basically every forum or social media type thing ever.
But… you are probably right that if you give people a mea culpa flag as a built in part of the UI/UX, that would almost certainly spur more people to do it.
… Its still terrifying to me that a large segment of people would need such a button to exist before they would be ok doing it.
I guess this isn’t a case where the sort of ‘desire path’ solution manifests and is then maybe formally adopted, seems like you’d have to basically social engineer humility into people.
I hate that this would probably work, in the sense that it isn’t just DUH obvious to everyone already that they don’t need a button specifically for this, but I also love that this would probably work.
I can imagine a ‘year end wrap up’ where you get to see all the stuff you said that you decided was stupid.
Then I guess just pair it with some kind of affirmative message of ‘hey, you’re trying to admit your mistakes, and that’s probably good’.
Its less deceptive than trying to delete shit dumb stuff, as… everyone can still see you did say it, but realized it was bad.