The intersection of Alice and Bob's followers.

@ori so as the conversation continues, fewer and fewer people can see what's being said?

@ori *or* you give Bob an option to reply to Alice's followers.

Yes. That's equivalent to Alice setting their post followers only, and Bob setting their post public, but less confusing to the user.

(Edit: realized you hadn't said what Bob's visibility was set to. Anyway: UI quibbles aside, the answer is that you intersect the people who are able to view)

@ori

I don't think it breaks expectations.

It's also the way most social networks work. If the OP posts privately, all the comments and replies to comments are visible to *all* the OP's followers.

This is how Facebook, Instagram, and X all work.

They let you have private conversations with people that matter to you. It's one of the best parts of those platforms.

Well, you asked what expectations were, and I told you. They're not what you seem to be proposing. Not sure what else to say.

@ori cool, thanks for your input. I'm not proposing anything, I just think your expectations are really bad for conversations.

I would be very surprised if I posted a followers -only note that a non-follower could see.

If I posted a globally visible note in response to a followers-only note, and only the people who could see the original note could see my response, it would make sense to me.

@ori I think this is where I got on the merry-go-round.