Bluesky seems to have developed, over the last month or so, the scale to have a fully fledged Reply Guy culture. My thought process when I encounter it basically always goes: - Jesus, can these guys not see themselves? Followed by: - Oh god, when was the last time I did this? 😑

I'm kind of guilty of doing it but I try to just sprinkle love around, rather than my opinions...

We need a blocklist for these people 🥲

As a woman who doesn’t post much but is on social media a lot, I don’t really have anything to say about the subject except that I’ve really enjoyed reading all the replies here.

Having encountered the very same people in pubs - no, they are completely lacking in any self-awareness

I accidentally did a reply guy a couple of weeks ago and gave myself an anxiety attack. Felt awful about it.

Is it only reply guy if it’s a DM? I’d never heard of it?

There has been a shift over here in that period. New follows from guys who instantly slide into my DMs (and I'm someone who doensn't usually get those at all), I've had the "your energies are blocked and there's something really important I need to tell you" psychic DMs. Guess this was always coming

When you feel lonely? I may be overgeneralizing my own introspection here, but at least feel sliding towards the reply-guy behavior when I'm actually lonely, in a particular way, and try to get a hold of a conversation, but am also too tired to do it well...

Really though, it’s never a bad time to think, in your interactions, about how well you know a person, and how your reply might be received in that context. I think 80% of these replies - outright abuse aside - are well-meaning, unwitting overfamiliarity, which is a predominantly male trait, hence…