MastodonSep 11, 2025

Today, we’re ready to show you the upcoming quote posts feature in more detail. We’ve put together a blog post with examples of how quote posts will work on Mastodon, ahead of early access on our own servers next week 💬 Full launch to come, in Mastodon v4.5

https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2025/09/introducing-quote-posts/

Introducing quote posts

Over the years, we’ve learned just how essential quoting is to many of you. Here's a deep dive on how quote posts will work on Mastodon.

Mastodon Blog
Show threadMastodonSep 11, 2025

We’ve thought carefully about building this feature, and we hope it broadens your use of Mastodon!

However, you're in control: if you don’t want your content to be quoted, you can find the setting to prevent future quotes of your content under Settings -> Preferences -> Other (in Mastodon 4.4).

Show threadMastodonSep 11, 2025

There’s documentation available today, along with an FAQ. If you’re a developer, draft documentation is available as well.

Quote posting will be available on mastodon.online and mastodon.social next week! We will be listening to your feedback on our new feature.

https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/quote-posts/

Quoting other posts - Mastodon documentation

All about quoting content (your own posts, or those made by other people).

Show threadDevSep 11, 2025
@Mastodon is there a plan to have similar control over replies ? The quote post controls seem pretty handy. It would be very useful to limit replies to followers or no one
Show threadkolyaSep 11, 2025
@dev @Mastodon you can already do that by limiting visibility to followers.
Show threadDevSep 12, 2025
@kolya @Mastodon sure, but it is a different use case to express something publicly that you don’t want strangers (or anyone) replying to
Show threadkolyaSep 12, 2025
@dev @Mastodon if you want unidirectional communication, you have a lot of options. but that's not what a social network is for. it's not social.
Show threadDevSep 12, 2025
@kolya @Mastodon I’m not sure if you’ve used other social networks like twitter or bluesky, both of them have the feature and it is widely used.
Show threadBùi Minh ĐứcSep 12, 2025
@dev @kolya @Mastodon Genuinely curious as to what other use cases are there besides "expressing something publicly", and whether or not they're acknowledged on Twitter/X or Bluesky. Because it's also very much well known for promoting scandalous content without getting into trouble.
Show threadDevSep 12, 2025

@duc @kolya @Mastodon I would simply like anything that I post which gets some traction filled with replies “well actually” or explaining my post to me. Or filling the replies with more unrelated misery about something bad that happened to me. Or having arguments.

The issue is never regular posts. It is important sometimes to indicate to people outside my circle that they don’t need to weigh in on something or I’m not asking for advice.

Show threadel Celio 🇪🇺 🇺🇦

@dev @duc @kolya @Mastodon

Why do you want people outside your circle to read your posts, but to do not be able to say what they think about them?

What's the meaning?🤔

Sep 12, 2025 at 5:26amWeb
Show threadBùi Minh ĐứcSep 12, 2025
@elCelio @dev @kolya @Mastodon Most people position Mastodon (and even they position themselves) as a social networking platform, but some others may associate it with the likes of Twitter/X, Threads, Bluesky, Tumblr etc. as a microblogging platform, aka a quicker alternative to maintaining a dedicated blogging website. Mastodon happens to be the most popular out of the platforms built on the ActivityPub protocol. For those people, they see they should have interaction control over the content.
Show threadBùi Minh ĐứcSep 12, 2025

@elCelio @dev @kolya @Mastodon I also believe abuse/harassment reply issue mentioned is valid, regardless of whether you see Mastodon as a social platform or not. Disabling or limiting responses to a post is a good way to address that, though it won’t totally get rid of every opportunity. If you agree to a post, like it. If you don’t, move on. If you find the post disturbing, mute or block the person posting. You don’t need to be able to reply.

https://neilzone.co.uk/2024/12/i-think-fedizens-should-be-able-to-disable-replies-to-some-or-all-of-their-posts/
https://localghost.dev/blog/twitter-reply-guys-were-bad-but-mastodon-is-no-better/

I think fedizens should be able to disable replies to some or all of their posts

Every so often, there is a bit of a debate in the fediverse about whether a person should be able to make a post to which other users cannot reply.

Show threadkolyaSep 12, 2025
@duc @elCelio @dev @Mastodon if this ever gets implemented, don't forget to add the filter for no-reply posts as well. because I'm not interested in people who aren't interested in social feedback.
Show threadBùi Minh ĐứcSep 12, 2025

@kolya @elCelio @dev @Mastodon Many problems with this mostly stem from the ability for post authors to abuse reply restrictions (this is true on those other platforms!) But Mastodon primarily constructs feeds from what you follow, so I imagine in most cases it’s someone you know sharing grieving personal news. You already have the options to mute, block or unfollow keywords/authors should you see someone abusing this feature.

I agree granular controls might be helpful if this happens a lot. :)

Show threadkolyaSep 12, 2025
@duc @elCelio @dev @Mastodon I'm not talking about the problems this feature also entails. I'm just generally not interested in one-way rants. if I want that I'll read a newspaper opinion piece or a blog or go watch TV. But I'm on Mastodon to interact with people. Not to be objected to their opinions.
Show threadUndead ZeratulSep 12, 2025

@duc @elCelio @dev @kolya @Mastodon

I feel like people forget that the Fediverse isn't simply a birdsite replacement, but an entire social protocol with different apps and ways to engage in the concept of online social interaction. If this is done at the protocol level, it's an enhancement for everything, not just "the app/client people want to engage with as if it were birdsite". More controls over how you want your content to be engaged with is never a bad thing.

If you stand up your own Mastodon instance to be used as a blogging site, a photo portfolio, even a short form vertical video platform, you should be able to only allow your followers to engage with your own posts.

WHY you choose that is your own prerogative, and we shouldn't blindly dismiss it because we ourselves don't wish to utilize it.