Last week, Twitter launched a new feature in the US and Japan that will now allow a number of users to hide replies on their tweet threads. This feature had previously been deployed in Canada and Twitter has mentioned the feedback they’ve received so far has been pretty positive—or so they say.
With the recent deployment in the US, I wanted to put this new feature to the test. I asked my dirty hipster friend @Hipster_Trader to help me out. On one of his tweet threads, I replied with “Test”. After he hid my reply, I went back to his thread and the following alert popped up.
After a user hides a reply (or replies) to a tweet, a separate page of outcasts is created. We are going to call this place: Hidden Island. You don’t want to be shunned to Hidden Island, believe me. See the image below of what it would look like. Now imagine being the only person on Hidden Island. Very lonely and sad. I have a feeling once someone experiences being sent to Hidden Island, they will at least second guess tweeting something stupid or malicious. But that’s where the controversy comes in—trying to determine what is worth hiding or what crosses the author’s boundaries.
To access Hidden Island, you have to go back to the original tweet and find the itty bitty document icon—I highlighted it below. It’s hard enough to get people to drill down an additional level on just about any website, so this new feature will probably work pretty well as the first gatekeeper.
After my initial tweet got sent to Hidden Island I wanted to see what would happen if I replied to a hidden tweet. I replied to “Test” with “Test 2”—genius, I know. Look what happened when I did this. In a way, it sort of moved my original hidden tweet back to the main thread. Obviously, it didn’t unhide it, but now there is additional awareness that the author has been hiding tweets. Especially if someone is scrolling through the thread and sees that I responded to a tweet that was hidden. This is important because I think there is a certain level of curiosity or urge in knowing what tweet was hidden—or maybe that’s just me.
I’m still not sure how I feel about this new feature. I can already envision how it will be used for good, how it will be used wrongly, and how it will be used to further someone’s agenda or opinions. On average, I receive around 1,000 comments per day—weird flex, but okay. A large amount of comments invites in haters and spammers so I feel that I have to use some of these features that Twitter offers. Don’t call me a snowflake.
I actively use the mute and block features. I use mute mostly on people who are trolling maliciously or spamming—I’m fine with good intention trolling though. I use the block feature when people are overtly hostile and are producing content that no one deserves to see. Remember, I’m trying to run a clean, family account here.
I think the hide reply feature sort of fits a gap that was previously lacking. If you mute someone, you will not see any more of their replies until you un-mute them. But, maybe you only want to mute them the one time they messed up and not all the time. The other problem with muting is that it still allows my followers to see their worthless tweet infecting my thread—that’s no good. Again, I think knowing that your tweet has been hidden will have an impact, but I guess we will just have to see. I look at it almost like a warning—a slap on the wrist if you will. Like putting your kid in timeout just to show them you mean business.
I put out a Twitter poll to see what people thought of the new feature. Here are their responses:
I also reached out to a few FinTwit friends to get their comments on the hide reply feature. Here’s what they had to say:
Matthew Kobach: As a marketer, I love it. We get trolls or spam, so it’s good to hide that nonsense.
Nick Maggiulli: My thoughts on hiding replies is simple: Don’t. I think most people are smart and will ignore the stupid or insulting replies. Don’t waste time sinking to that level. Your followers will notice if you do. As Kanye West once Tweeted (probably): If they hate let ‘em hate and watch the likes pile up.
Adam Singer: I think it’s good they’re letting anyone content moderate. When I had a blog I wouldn’t allow comments I didn’t want. They’re evolving Twitter to allow us to have full blog features. Everything old is new!
Hipster Trader: The year is 2021. Trump has been re-elected and Twitter’s hidden reply feature is believed to have been used by Russians to interfere in the Election.
It will be interesting to see how this feature evolves—that’s for sure. I for one am looking forward to trying it out and banishing some of you to hidden island. The tribe has spoken.
This is post #38. You can follow me on Twitter or Instagram or sign up for my free newsletter here. Also please check out my Amazon page for a full reading list.