cohost support

I originally thought about this as an alternative option for DMs but didn't want to derail the DM request!

For folks who haven't used Tumblr, an ask is a direct message that can be sent by another user to a blog's inbox. They can also be submitted anonymously, if the blog owner allows it. The recipient can then either send a private reply (if the sender is not anonymous) or publish the ask and their reply to their blog. 

This power has been used for both good and evil. They're a fantastic way to send creative prompts or take specific questions about something you're teaching, and they're also a great way to wake up to an inbox full of anonymous harassment that you can only address by posting the comments publicly. I do think they're valuable enough when used in good faith, as long as there's an option to turn them off. 

One of the biggest benefits to being able to answer asks either publicly or privately is that it's much more of a one-off thing than starting a private real-time conversation with someone. I don't have any strong feelings either way about DMs on Cohost, but it's very easy for folks with poor boundaries to interpret private chatting as a gesture of trust or intimacy. I tend to spontaneously become a best friend candidate to people with high expectations simply by agreeing to one-on-one conversations with total strangers, so I avoid doing that. You can go back and forth with asks if people keep sending them in response to your posts, but it's not an open channel. 

Some suggested features I'd like to see over Tumblr's system:

• An option to answer anonymous asks privately. I'm not sure why this was a thing, although it may have been technical (I think if you block the sender of an anonymous ask it blocks their main Tumblr account, so maybe they're closely connected enough that a direct reply would reveal the sender). I used to manage a game studio blog on Tumblr and people would often send in anonymous asks like, "here's a deeply personal anecdote about why these queer characters mean so much to me, can you please reassure me that they're not going to be killed off?" and I would have to decide whether to ignore it or broadcast it to the entire fandom in Official Staff Statement Voice.
• An option for the sender to disallow public replies. This is actually kind of a peace of mind thing for the recipient, too, since there's no ambiguity about how the person wants you to respond--or a risk that you'll accidentally post a public response if they asked you not to. 
• It's been a minute since I sent one but IIRC you couldn't format asks at all (no line breaks, etc.) and they couldn't be much longer than a tweet. Those limitations seemed pretty arbitrary and made straightforward communication harder, since if someone had to send multiple asks for length the recipient needed to wrangle them into a single post. 

If this is planned, may I contribute: if anonymous asks are implemented, please give us the same notification when one of our anon asks is answered as we would when a non-anon ask is answered. 

I agree with your suggestions for tumblr system. Allowing users to answer anonymous asks privately and giving the sender the ability to disallow public replies would provide more control and privacy for both parties involved in the conversation. It's important to have clear communication and boundaries in any type of online interaction, and these features could help facilitate that.

Thank you for providing some context and your thoughts on the use of "asks" on tumblr! It's important to consider both the positive and negative aspects of a feature like this, as it can be used for both productive and harmful purposes. It's good to hear that Tumblr has the option to turn off anonymous asks, as this can help prevent some of the negative experiences that can come from anonymous harassment.

I would adore a feature like this. The ask-blog format was such a unique format of performance art / audience participation that really hasn't been recreated anywhere but tumblr. Ideally, there'd also be an option for anonymous asks. I know I personally would get use out of hosting asks with anon enabled, but I wouldn't call that a dealbreaker

Update for people in this thread: asks are now being tested by staff! https://cohost.org/staff/post/1775732-our-1st-public-bir

I like how this feature is currently implemented, but i would like an option to be notified when a submitted ask is answered. perhaps a checkbox that must be checked for each ask you wish to be notified about when answered, and/or a setting that can be changed in profile or general settings. im super digging the new feature tho, it'll hopefully make interacting with ppl on the site feel a little more personal!

Really cool, now in progress!