This is a common support question that we get. It’s great that our platforms let users customize their feed to the extent that they can, but all this customizability can lead to confusion. Content can be hidden based on
- domain blocks
- instance, community, or user blocks
- language settings
- “seen” post settings
- bot post settings
- hidden post settings
Instead of reducing the customizability, I think we can fix this by fixing visibility. A little optional UI counter, enabled by default, could let users see if some content is being filtered out and narrow down which filter is causing it.
What are the technical challenges to something like this? I imagine it would need updates to the APIs to expose that information
Would a non-counting/identifying version be simpler? Like a “some comments have been hidden by your blocks or filters” label?
For comments (not posts), the parent post has a count of the replies saved on it so it would be simple to compare that with the current number of comments the viewer is getting.
But without knowing which filter was causing it, that message would just be annoying.
Removed by mod