I made a tiny change to the user profile page today; I changed the order of the moderation settings from:

filter mute hush

to:

hush filter mute

Hush doesn't do much. It sorts a user to the bottom of comment threads when you view them, and the user is unaware of it. However, when you feel like muting a user, hush can be cathartic alternative. It makes you felt like you did something, but isn't as provocative as mute, and doesn't preclude future interactions or understanding.

According to the tmi page we each hush an average of 0.8 users, and mute 0.7. I'm glad to see that hush is preferred. It'd be nice if that ratio was even greater.

I've seen a few instances where muting results in missed opportunities for us all.

I'd encourage everyone to consider using hush before mute.