[JohnFen]

> by turning them off, you are therefore forcing people who want to communicate with you to adapt to your communication preferences because you have

I don't see how. All it means is that I won't see the reactions. That's my loss. I'm not forcing anyone else to do anything differently.

If it actually begins to interfere with communications too much, I can turn them back on.

> it's somehow unethical or abusive of the user or something

For me, that's not the thing at all. It's more that configuration options often make the difference between software being useful to me and not being useful to me. That's all.

[viraptor]

> All it means is that I won't see the reactions. That's my loss. I'm not forcing anyone else to do anything differently.

"Are we ok doing ...?"

(People reacting with :+1:)

Now you have to figure out if you're being ignored or people don't have an answer. You ask them again directly, which they may also simply react to.

By bothering them again, you are asking them to do things differently for you.

[JohnFen]

Well, nobody I know would respond to such a question with a reaction (an emoji, yes, a reaction, no), so this is not an issue in my crowd. I suppose (and it's obvious now that I think about it) this depends on what the social norms are in your group.

> By bothering them again, you are asking them to do things differently for you.

To a trivial degree, sure. Why is it OK for others to ask me to do things differently in this regard and not for me to ask them to do things differently anyway?

Social interaction always involves compromise and reasonable accommodations for others. In this sense, I ask people to do things differently for me every day, and they usually do. And others ask me to do things differently every day, and I usually do. It's part of the social negotiations that make societies work.

I do feel the need to reiterate that I am not opposed to reactions generally. Only in email.

[viraptor]

> Why is it OK for others to ask me to do things differently in this regard and not for me to ask them to do things differently anyway?

It's ok either way. But it was you who claimed you don't request changes. We live in a society and all that. We can collaborate and agree on the way we communicate in groups.

[watwut]

For christ sake, if there is explicit question do not react with reaction only, but use words.

Because, recipient does not know whether you are acknowledging that you read that question or answering it or what. Emoji reactions are ambiguous majority of the time. Which is fine when they are used to add emotions to the discussion, but not fine when you are actually communicating with it.