@kitlith No, CW shouldn't be abused for topic segregation. Use it for things that could get you in trouble (NSFW, politics, profanity, this sort of thing).

You COULD use it for things that are WAY off topic for this instance but don't overthink it. We are humans and we have interests beyond technology.

@kitlith Generally you would us a CW to hide something that might offend, trigger, whatever. So, if you wanted to toot something about US politics... you would put "US politics" in the CW (which everyone sees) and the bulk of the toot in the masked area. This gives people the opportunity to choose to read it, instead of just seeing it. It is also good for hiding the punchline of jokes. Does that help?

@fuzzface (and @ambv )
Yeah, that makes sense. Mainly ask because one of the people I follow seems to be using CW a lot -- their guideline seems to be "if I started only tooting this content, would people not like it..." applied to stuff like server performance graphs, whatever they've been working on a lot recently that isn't their normal content, etc.

@fuzzface @ambv
They *are* on another (more general?) instance, so that might have something to do with it.

@kitlith @fuzzface Maybe. Clicking through content warnings for things that aren't sensitive is a UX hurdle and if you abuse this feature, that in itself will be frustrating for your followers.

@kitlith @ambv I tend to agree. Hopefully the usage will settle down, and/or the warnings improve the decision making process. Frankly, it is impossible to come up with a good guideline for this, all you can do is trust your gut. And I suppose have a thick skin for folks jumping on you occasionally. I think this is why I'm a geek, and not a psychiatrist.

@ambv @kitlith I'm thinking of blogging tips on Mastodon, not quite up to it yet. Perhaps one entry could be "The Federated Timeline, the firehose where your mileage will always vary..."

@fuzzface @kitlith Yeah, the federated timeline firehose really *is* something else, isn't it?