Dave Copeland 
#Meta note on #Mastodon - why can I not "quote post" something unless I'm following the account but can just copy/paste the link to it in a new post? I don't understand why the difference is meaningful
Mar 13 at 3:00pmWeb
Show threadFinchHaven sfbaMar 13

@davetron5000

Exactly, and link-pasting is exactly what I've done ever since I got on #Mastodon

#QuotePosting was an enormous #MoralPanic about four years ago because #Twitter had it and #Mastodon didn't and all the big techy-bro rags convinced #Gargron that he was discouraging new migrants from Twitter because Mastodon didn't have #QuotePosts

Took 'em about three years to do it, and everyone pretty much ignored quote posts when they were finally implemented, a lot because people could opt-out if they wanted and no one took them seriously

IMO, YMMV...

Show threadDave Copeland Mar 13
@FinchHaven Yeah, I vaguely followed that but didn't understand it, really, because you can just post a link to a toot in a toot. Ivory detected that and make it look like a quote post, so that seemed to solve the "problem", though not sure why mastodon had to do anything to implement it?
Show threadJames BlandingMar 13
@davetron5000 I think that's something the original author can set...like a post is quotable by anyone by default, but quoting can be limited to followers or disabled entirely. I think this has to do with empowering people to control how their posts are used by others.
Show threadDave Copeland Mar 13
@ilikepi Conceptually, that makes sense, but I can still just paste a link to the toot in a new toot, so seems like a distinction without a difference
Show threadJames BlandingMar 13
@davetron5000 I dunno, I think the ability to quote post increases the possibility for someone malicious to portray their target's words out of context. If their only option is to include a link to a post, it's probably more likely a reader will follow the link and be exposed to the original context, as opposed to just the quoted portion of a single post.
Show threadDave Copeland Mar 13
@ilikepi yeah, I can see that argument. I guess Ivory (eg) unrolling posts are sorta deciding for themselves rather than letting the platform and servers decide.