one of my internet etiquette opinions is that if you unfollow a mutual, it's only polite to soft-block them (remove them as a follower of you)
if they want to follow you regardless, they can fix that themselves later
@SuricrasiaOnline i feel like this sends a pretty "go away" message to some people rather than a "follow me again if you want" one
to me, soft blocks seem like asserting a boundary that you are trusting others to not cross again
@thingywott @SuricrasiaOnline my biggest issue that I might just not notice lol
@noiob @thingywott hmm these are good points. though I feel like a hard block is the proper way to communicate that boundary
@SuricrasiaOnline @noiob that's true! though i guess what i mean is that if i was on the receiving end of a soft block, i would feel like i shouldn't follow the person who did it after that point out of respect of their wishes
@SuricrasiaOnline @thingywott hm, I get the "audience" thing. I guess it could be nice to have the option to run an account with a mutual consent "Friends" option
@thingywott @noiob I feel u. I mentioned in another offshoot of this thread that, to me, dropping a mutual feels like downgrading someone from potential friend to "audience member"
maybe the correct protocol is to just use muting, since I would imagine the problem is seeing someone's posts, not getting replies from them