I've been thinking about the Fediverse for a looooong time, since before it was called the Fediverse. I'll admit my thinking hasn't evolved much for much of that time. The basic structure of it has been clear for nearly 15 years.

But today (so far - it's only 8:30 AM here!) I've learned *three* new perspectives that have changed/improved the way I think about the Fediverse/Mastodon in subtle but important ways.

So. Much. Gratitude. 🙏❤️

Since a number of folks asked what I learned yesterday, I wanted to pick this back up and share with the community that's giving me so much right now. So, a few brief threads (apologies to folks who don't like threads) of things I learned on the Fediverse yesterday: 🧵🧵🧵🧶🐈

TIL🧵2/3: Many have said it, I'm going to say it, too: I miss Quote Tweets. I appreciate the thoughtful justification for not implementing them, but also disagree. My ideal would be

a quote tweet that points up 😍☝️
rather than Twitter's pointing down 🤬👇

because I think sometimes it's really important to contextualize or emphasize why you're boosting someone's post.

I think Quotations are coming, and I hope and believe that ultimately, the call isn't @Gargron's alone to make. @scottjenson has been advocating for designers & UX folk to take part, and I hope that structures emerge to make that not just possible, but pervasive.

In the meantime, @amirouche pointed me at this lovely pattern:
https://social.hyper.dev/@amirouche/109343002733668741

amirouche 🌱 (@[email protected])

@[email protected] @[email protected] Quoted toot fork the conversation, and promote individuals instead of... conversation. Boosting a reply does the same, and leads to the interesting context.

social.hyper.dev

Basically, instead of QTing something, on Mastodon it's possible to reply to a post and then boost your reply.

That way, the visibility is the same as a Quote would have been, but with the interesting property that the OP doesn't get silenced/steamrolled, but the original post is still easily visible. More conversational, less adversarial.

@blaine OK, I'm going to try this; thank you! Can you explain how I can see the original post that someone replies to, generally? Replies float mysteriously and I can't figure out what they are connected to.
@SylviaKMiller anyone who wants to see the original would need to click through and scroll up, but I think the way that changes the relationship from punching down to pointing up is good. Hopefully more affordances can follow!
@blaine I just figured out how to see the original post! Click the three dots and choose "Expand this post." Yes, I agree with your view of the pointing up. Much better than having the response take over.
@SylviaKMiller @blaine Hmm, perhaps you could include “(Please Expand Post)” in your post when you do this. Eventually this would become PEP…
@timbray @blaine That's a good idea. Like including a 🧵 in a thread.
@SylviaKMiller @blaine Yeah, I wonder if there's a good emoji to say “expand this”. There's 🥡 (takeout box)?
@timbray @SylviaKMiller @blaine seems like a solid use case for custom emojis
@timbray @blaine That's a good one! Not quite as obvious as the spool for "thread" but people could learn it.