Separate filters for who can view and who can comment
Title
Separate filters for who can view and who can comment
Short, concise description of the idea
For each post, there should be two filter settings: one is the group of people who can see the post, and the other is the group of people who can comment on the post.
Full description of the idea
There are many situations in which one might wish to use a single post to broadcast information to a large group while only wanting responses from a small group. For example, a woman might not care who sees photos of her in skimpy clothes but might wish to restrict commenting to people who have proven themselves non-creepy; a parent might want to complain at large about their child's behavior but only get advice from other parents; a roleplayer might want to make posts public for spectators or potential new gamers but only get in-character responses from other game participants.
If this suggestion were implemented, each post would have a list of filters added to the "Comments" and "Comment screening" drop-downs. Just as multiple posting filters can be selected, multiple commenting filters could also be selected. This way, the bikini model could make her photos visible to her "hot pics" filter but restrict commenting to her "close friends" filter; the parent could complain in a friends-locked post but restrict commenting to their "smart about kids" filter; the roleplayer could make public game posts but restrict commenting to their "RPG" filter.
This could be easily done by adding "Custom" settings to the "Comments" and "Comment screening" drop-downs, as is currently done with the "Show this entry to" drop-down.
An ordered list of benefits
- Gives the poster more nuanced control.
- Makes it easier to avoid unwanted comments.
- Differentiates between spectators and participants, or lurkers and contributors.
- Potential for DRAMA, as always with anything filter-related.
- Need to decide the extent to which this is transparent to the reader/commenter.