Mastodawn

Mastodon Migration

Screenshot Quote Posting

By now you may have heard about the change eliminating the frustrating 16:9 cropping of posts in feeds (https://mastodon.social/@Gargron/110774797138668211).

One of the biggest implications of this change is that you can now quote post simply by attaching a screenshot of the original post. You can be confident that the quote post image will properly display everywhere and not cut off on the left, right, top or bottom.

Whatever you think about #QuotePosting, this is something we can now do.

David - Forking Mad Jul 25, 2023

@mastodonmigration Screenshoting for a Quote is a BAD idea on so many levels. Eugen just needs to get on with it and release proper quoting. He has been against it for some time, but did commit many months ago to introducing it.

Mastodon Migration Jul 25, 2023

@daj The point of this post is that it is something that now can be done without concern that it will be illegible. Not sure what is "BAD" about it. In some ways, it seems better. You are capturing the content at a point in time. If the content is subsequently edited, you still have the original content you were commenting on in your screenshot. That seems better in some ways. In any case quote posting should be coming soon.

David - Forking Mad Jul 25, 2023

@mastodonmigration Mostly from a visual aspect, and also an accessibility perspective. No way that everyone will copy and paste the actual text into #AltText.

I know we have to find creative solutions to problems, but copying the link to the post you are quoting seem far better.

Anyway, each to their own

@mastodonmigration or you can have proper quote posts like with Firefish?

not meaning to be rude there I’m just confused

Mastodon Migration Jul 25, 2023

@Ewan Right. Suspect that will be here soon. The point of this post is to let people know that there is a perhaps imperfect way to accomplish it now. One of the things that is actually maybe "better" about screenshot quote posts is that it is a snapshot at a moment in time. If the author subsequently edits the post, you still have the content you were commenting on. This is one of the potential problems with normal quote posting.

@mastodonmigration true, I guess.

And yeah it’s planned for Mastodon to get it with MAS-48.

Mastodon Migration Jul 25, 2023

@Ewan One more comment. It is often overlooked how difficult it is to deploy new features in a production application like Mastodon. Every small tweek can have huge implications. Quote Posting is not a small tweek, and implementing it, testing it, making sure it does not break something else, and insuring it is can not be exploited is very complex. It is much better that it is done right than it is done fast.

@mastodonmigration oh of course, otherwise you risk ruining your product.

Mastodon Migration Jul 25, 2023

@Ewan It's their worst nightmare. Users will do things that you never imagine they would do.

@mastodonmigration Twitter flashbacks

@mastodonmigration Honestly, this is such a clumsy workaround to a missing feature that other ActivityPub implementations like #Akkoma & #Firefish have had for a while.

I know it's an upcoming feature for #Mastodon but honestly this shouldn't have required a workaround to do the same thing from the get go...

Good to see that at least the workaround works better now that it doesn't force 16:9 on images.

Mastodon Migration Jul 25, 2023

@deltatux See above comment. Not to take anything away from those wonderful apps, but it is one thing to develop and deploy features for apps that have a several thousand users, and another entirely when you have millions of users. The requirement to test test test and to imagine worst case scenarios for exploitation and malicious use cases is mind bending. Big props to the developers and testers of mainstream apps. Very difficult to get these things right.

Ehler Jul 25, 2023

@mastodonmigration And a great way of streamlining that process (including populating the alt-text!) is @simonbs ‘s re:toot app! https://apps.apple.com/us/app/re-toot/id1661697436

‎Re: Toot

‎Re: Toot turns Mastodon posts into images that are suitable for quote posts. Images are accompanied by attribution to the original author and an alternative text. Images created by Re: Toot can also be shared to other social networks and messaging services. To create an image from a Mastodon post,…

App Store

Flávia Feijó Jul 25, 2023

@mastodonmigration

Forgive my lack of understanding: what is wrong in giving the original link of a good post made by another person, without changing anything inside it?

Stephen Coles Jul 26, 2023

@mastodonmigration I share your enthusiasm for the new cropping behavior, but I believe screenshooting alone is poor etiquette, especially when accounts with lots of followers do it, as it pulls attention away from the original post (and account). If you gotta screenshoot, at least link to the original post.

Steven Bodzin Jul 29, 2023

@mastodonmigration actual lol

Alt text: screenshot of Mastodon app cropping the image attached to a post saying images are no longer cropped

Steven Bodzin Jul 30, 2023

@mastodonmigration PS I updated the app to be sure and it's still cropping

Tiny Frightening Woman Jul 29, 2023

@mastodonmigration it’s interesting people are afraid of quote posting because of its potential to be used abusively, but posting screenshots is way worse, the original poster has no idea it’s being done