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. 🙏❤️
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
@[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.
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 @rjrjr Are you sure those are with Public visibility (indicated with a "globe" icon), and not Unlisted ("unlocked" icon)?
The latter is popular for replies. It means anyone can see it (so it's "public" in that sense), but it won't appear in feeds.
In my feed I see a lot of replies that aren't boosted. So I don't know what other variables may be affecting things, but plain replies *can* appear in feeds.
blaine
Ray Ryan (he/him)
Greg Price
Daniel Lowe