It would be great to have the ability for channel recipients to add reactions to messages.
Another useful improvement would be for the “Reply Privately” option: when replying to a message from a channel, the reply should be sent as a regular private message, keeping the link back to the original channel post.
FYI there has been some discussion here
I think the Telegram-style of “companion group chats”, where commenting on a post means leaving a message in the companion group in reply to the original post, would be a good approach. Maybe the same can be done with reactions, but then anyone can see who left what reaction.
So e-mail threads where the default is not “reply all”, but a subthread?
the problem is that reactions can be any string, and as it is well known even from telegram were reactions can’t be arbitrary words, trolls will abuse reactions, that is why channel owners would limit and offer a set of reactions available in their channel,
maybe it is good enough to don’t care about it initially tho, but it can be depressing for the admin if suddenly several people are using “funny” offensive reactions
However, we should not forget that in Delta Chat, subscribers are not added by themselves, but by the owner himself, therefore there is no place for trolls. Channels in DC are more like Telegram stories.
this is because they are a prototype at the moment and not fully implemented, they will soon have invite links like groups and then anyone can join, anyways even if admin can remove subscribers, they don’t necessarily want, it is not really trolls but “funny people” making “funny jokes” and channel owner just want to limit the awkward moments and bad vibes without going to the extreme of kicking people out of the channel
anyways the main blocker here is that reactions are not visible by other subscribers so it is unexpected for you to see only your reaction, same for comments
Delta Chat assumes high-trust groups. So wouldn’t Delta Chat also assume high-trust channels?
Anyway, if permissions are added where users can add reactions but not add top-level messages, then we would have already implemented Super Groups or Private Managed Groups as well. It’s all just more granular permissions based on keys.
Permissions for:
- who can add messages
- who can react to messages
- who can add someone
- who can kick someone
- who can delete messages
As of now, in channels one person has all permissions and in groups everyone has all permissions.
My use case for reactions in channels though is actually “high trust channels”. Literally just want to send baby photos to all family. But without their reactions, the channel feels empty / not personal.
groups are private, channels’s main use is more public, for a small bunch of super trusted people you don’t even need a channel, a group would do in that case
if it is “high trust” you literally could use a group for that, then you have reactions etc. sending baby photos to all family sounds that what you want is a family group
The only issue then is that everyone is sending their baby photos. So the group is just a mix of a bunch of stuff and the inevitable random convos.
A channel is an easy way to see updates on just one thing. Not a mix of chit chat from all.