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   Kris Nóva (nova@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 18-Nov-2022 00:47:42 JST Kris Nóva

   Protip that will sound unusual if you don’t understand the nuance:

   ✨ Don’t put pronouns in your posts/replies ✨

   (Keep reading: Not about gender or someone’s pronouns.)

   This tip matters even more on Mastodon/Fediverse because of the lack of QT. Think of pronouns as “pointers” or “references” to topics.

   While talking about topics, try not to use “implicit references” but rather mention the topic directly. Especially in replies, so they can be boosted and have full context.

   (More below)

   • まりぞう ☑ repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Kris Nóva (nova@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 18-Nov-2022 00:47:45 JST Kris Nóva

     in reply to

     For example if someone sent the message

     “I fucking love XML”

     and you replied

     “It is horrible”

     Your reply is only valuable so long that it can easily look up the original message for context. Which means it’s not likely to be shared or boosted because your reply is an incomplete message.

     If you changed your reply

     “XML is horrible”

     You are no longer using a pronoun to reference the concept of XML and anyone who knows the rust borrow checker can appreciate why this is good practice.

     まりぞう ☑ repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Kris Nóva (nova@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 18-Nov-2022 00:47:48 JST Kris Nóva

     in reply to

     If you share “discreet” or “complete” languages in your reply instead of using pronouns as pointers, your message is shareable within its own boundaries of a message.

     The same goes for people.

     “I fucking love @nova”

     and

     “I agree she is great”

     means that only the first message has the context for sharing.

     This is very important while mastodon is young and our accessibility game is unknown. Sometimes a person might not have easy access to the original context.

     まりぞう ☑ repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Kris Nóva (nova@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 18-Nov-2022 00:47:54 JST Kris Nóva

     in reply to

     I put the lesson of not using language pronoun pointers and references on par with looking for motorcycles while driving.

     Small changes in your habits today, can have a big impact on those consuming your messages and those trying to make sense of your points.

     Disclaimer: you should always respect gender pronouns of people and if a person requests for you to use pronouns over their name you should do your best to oblige.