Sheril KirshenbaumDec 24, 2022

I see some folks asking for a quote style button on #Mastodon. Let’s not do that.

Quote tweeting on #Twitter incentivized snark, promoted outrage & rewarded cruelty. It brought out our worst by further gamifying interactions in a kind of race for 🔁 & ❤️ - which are delightfully less obvious here.

I love that Mastodon has a community feel & hope it stays that way.

Show threadJeff

@Sheril I do think the way things work here, that gamification just won't be as effective. It is very difficult to go viral in the same way when there is no algorithm prioritizing high-engagement posts.

There are valid reasons to quote-boost and I often find myself limited by the lack of the option. I would love to be able to continue a conversation by referencing someone else's post. Currently the best I can do is cast it into the ether and I never hear anything back.

Dec 24, 2022 at 3:55amWeb
Show threadKelli Blue 📸Dec 24, 2022
@blueberrywerewolf @Sheril you could copy/paste a link to their toot into your reply 🤷🏼‍♀️
Show threadOutfrostDec 24, 2022
@kelliblue @blueberrywerewolf @Sheril That's just quote boosting but with extra steps, because now you have to copypaste the link into your instance and hope the search doesn't glitch, in order to follow that person for example
Show threadJeffDec 24, 2022

@kelliblue @Sheril You're not wrong but it's not quite the same thing. It's a passable workaround now but I think a quote-boost function would work better for this purpose.

I do fully understand the reluctance though. At the other place it is a large contributor to the trash fire. I just think the way things work here is fundamentally different enough to make it a useful tool.

Show threadMadhusudan Katti, he/himDec 25, 2022
@kelliblue @blueberrywerewolf @Sheril that’s how we did it for years on twitter too until they decided to make QT a built-in feature of the app.
Show threadBenj Soule🫂💙HumanityFirst🌅Dec 24, 2022
@blueberrywerewolf @Sheril I meant "Quote-Tooting" allows to form a more complete message. *Updated
Show threadAudrey AzuraDec 24, 2022

@blueberrywerewolf @Sheril I am not sure how it works on other instances, but here I have a lot more characters than on twitter (5000 instead of 280). So why not summarize the original, link to it so people can go there if they want more context, and then add your comment?

I think that is a good way to interact with the content, tbh, since it shows you have read and understood the original message and encourages people to go check the original content too. I think it promotes a way safer discourse.

The main problems are that the original may not receive a notification and/or the interested community may not see it.
For the first problem, it is still possible to mention the original author and I think that sends a notification? I'd need to check, but that solves the first problem.
I don't have a real solution for the second problem, but I am not sure it is one, tbh. As far as I understand, here, hashtags are more important than on Twitter. By using the correct hashtags in your message, then, you may not reach the community of the original in its entirety, but you will reach people that are interested in the subject. Which I think is a lot more important, in the end.