Asking for a bridge means picking someone the people in an argument would all consider, and asking them to write a reply that makes each of them think twice. It takes four taps, and you don't have to do the work yourself.
Where to find it: Open the ⋯ menu on a post or comment and pick Ask for a bridge…. On someone's profile, tap their Ask for a bridge button. You can also open the Bridges page and start from there.
Asking
- Open the ⋯ menu and tap Ask for a bridge…
- Under Who would they all consider?, tap the person you want.
- Tap the button in the corner, which now says their name, like Ask Ruth. The sheet closes, and a note under the comment says you're waiting to hear back.
The sheet fills in who's talking from the thread: the comment you tapped, the one it answers, and the one above that. Remove any you don't want, or tap Add a view to bring in a voice from somewhere else. The person you ask writes their answer as a reply in the same thread.
More options
Under More options you can put some of your trust behind the request, let anyone answer instead of one person (an open request is called a bounty and shows up in the marketplace), add a topic, or write the bridge yourself.
A request is an invitation, not a promise. Whether the reply ends up acting as a bridge for anyone depends on how people vote on it. The math decides, not the request. You can read more in What is a bridge?
The note under the comment follows your ask. It reads You asked Ruth · waiting to hear back, then links to her reply when she writes back. If she can't this time, it says so and offers Ask someone else. Under the reply, one line tells you how it landed from your own view, such as People you trust liked it. So did people you usually don't. It never shows counts, and the person who wrote it never sees it.
You'll get a heads up
Once a request is open, others can find it in the marketplace and help it along.