I keep seeing people complaining about “reply guys” and not doing anything to avoid them on their own. Unfortunately, the problem is inherent to social media platforms like Twitter and their imitators.
However, there are a few things you can do to mitigate the problem. It’s not that hard. It’s not like Twitter, where everything’s publicly visible but direct messages (DMs).
- Lock your account so that new followers must get your approval first.
- KonMari your existing followers and dump the ones who don’t spark joy.
- Set your default post visibility to followers-only.
- Only allow DMs from mutuals.
Anything you post on public is fair game.
Anything you post on unlisted is also fair game, but doesn’t show in public feeds.
Anything you post on public or unlisted can also be viewed on your profile without logging in, and is accessible via your profile’s RSS feed.
Anything you post on followers only is between you, your followers, and your instance admins.
Learn to use the damn privacy settings instead of complaining that you got a reply from somebody you don’t like.
If you aren’t willing to do that, keep a shotgun handy and be prepared to shoot sea lions in the face when they show up.
Better still, stop wasting time on social media. Get your own website and socialize over email or in private chats.