Mastodon is bringing quote posts to the fediverse (www.theverge.com)
from throws_lemy@lemmy.nz to fediverse@lemmy.world on 12 Sep 14:34
https://lemmy.nz/post/28070609

Mastodon is officially rolling out quote posts. Starting next week, you’ll see an option to quote another user by selecting the repost — or “boost” — button, allowing you to add your thoughts to someone else’s post.

The decentralized platform initially planned not to launch quote posts over concerns that they could be used for harassment or to take someone out of context. Mastodon reversed this decision in February, saying a lack of quote posts might discourage people from joining the fediverse.

#fediverse

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somerandomperson@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 12 Sep 14:49 next collapse

rolling out to Mastodon*

You have to standardize it to roll that to the fediverse.

Zachariah@lemmy.world on 12 Sep 14:50 next collapse

Mastodon is a subset of the fediverse.
If something is in Mastodon, it’s in the fediverse.

Infrapink@thebrainbin.org on 12 Sep 14:53 next collapse

Sharkey already has quote posts.

caos@feddit.org on 12 Sep 14:58 collapse

(Almost) all services (except Mastodon) have had quote posts for years/decades.

(Sharkey, Misskey, Friendica, Hubzilla, Pleroma, Akkoma, etc.)

somerandomperson@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 12 Sep 14:53 next collapse

It’s ALREADY in the fediverse with Misskey, Lemmy, and other APub software i don’t know.

NatoBoram@lemmy.wtf on 13 Sep 20:16 collapse

Lemmy still doesn’t have crossposts as far as I know

somerandomperson@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 13 Sep 20:19 collapse

It does

Kinda…

irelephant@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 12 Sep 18:44 collapse

Sharkey, misskeys, pleroma, akkoma, wafrn and friendica already have quotes.

jqubed@lemmy.world on 12 Sep 14:53 next collapse

I thought Misskey and its forks already supported quote posts?

somerandomperson@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 12 Sep 15:08 next collapse

They already have quotes.

F4rtEmp3r0r@lemmy.ca on 12 Sep 22:50 collapse

Akkoma, Misskey and alike have had quote posts for ages now

Zak@lemmy.world on 12 Sep 15:53 collapse

It is likely most other software will be able to consume them.

This highlights what I believe to be a poor choice in the design of BlueSky’s AT Protocol; ActivityPub software is usually liberal in what it accepts and displays, while ATProto enforces schemas (“lexicon”).

irelephant@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 12 Sep 18:43 collapse

It usually comes down to a difference in vision, the fediverses schtick is that you can follow Reddit from Twitter or whatever, whereas on atproto you use a different appview for different formats, like frontpage.fyi for links, and whtwnd.net for blogging.

Zak@lemmy.world on 12 Sep 20:19 collapse

It’s a difference in vision, but I don’t like BlueSky’s vision here.

Combining the Reddit-like and Twitter-like experiences in one place is a little awkward, but following a blog or a Youtube-like from a Twitter-like isn’t. Having the option to switch to a more optimal appview is great, but realistically a lot more people would follow a blog from BlueSky than would use their BlueSky identity to sign into WhiteWind.

irelephant@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 12 Sep 20:38 collapse

Well, it’s a bit more than just using their identity to sign in, data is also stored on their PDS.

It’s entirely possible to make a server that accepts several different lexicons, wafrn plans on doing this for articles.

Zak@lemmy.world on 12 Sep 20:50 collapse

When a substantial fraction of users are actually using an appview with that trait, that will be great.

irelephant@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 12 Sep 21:08 collapse

Sure, but its not a fault of the protocol itself. You could easily choose to discard article or note objects on ActivityPub.

Zak@lemmy.world on 13 Sep 14:52 collapse

You can write software to filter on arbitrary criteria with ActivityPub, or email, or IRC, or virtually any other protocol. My point is that ATProto is designed to actively encourage it, and the flagship implementation does so. Subtle hints in interfaces have a big impact on how people, including developers use software.

mintiefresh@piefed.ca on 12 Sep 15:02 next collapse

This took way too long. But nice that it's finally here.

m33@lemmy.zip on 12 Sep 15:53 collapse

It’s not called mastodon for nothing 🤷‍♂️

trinsec@piefed.social on 12 Sep 15:51 next collapse

I hope it's all compatible with the other platforms' quote post feature.

solrize@lemmy.ml on 12 Sep 15:52 next collapse

I thought it was already there and had been there for a while?

ilinamorato@lemmy.world on 12 Sep 15:57 next collapse

Not on Mastodon. Some of the other fedi microblog platforms have had it, though.

solrize@lemmy.ml on 12 Sep 17:17 collapse

mathstodon.xyz has it. I had thought that was a mastodon instance but maybe it’s something different.

tomenzgg@midwest.social on 12 Sep 18:49 collapse

Maybe GlitchSock (Mastodon fork)?

Blaze@lemmy.zip on 13 Sep 21:18 collapse

GlitchSock

That’s definitely a Fediverse software name

Die4Ever@retrolemmy.com on 12 Sep 18:20 collapse

They added support to view quote posts before they added the ability to create quote posts

solrize@lemmy.ml on 12 Sep 21:00 collapse

There’s been a “boost” button for a while. I don’t know how long though. I haven’t tried using it. But I’ve seen some posts boosted by other users of that instance.

Die4Ever@retrolemmy.com on 12 Sep 22:24 collapse

Boost is not the same thing as quote posting. Boost is like retweet. A quote post is like when you make a post that references someone else’s post, it looks similar to including a screenshot of their post in your own post, except it’s a real link.

<img alt="" src="https://retrolemmy.com/pictrs/image/ea0c1f53-eaac-48e2-bf7f-50ca125e8033.png">

blog.joinmastodon.org/…/introducing-quote-posts/

solrize@lemmy.ml on 13 Sep 21:01 collapse

Aha, thanks, I didn’t realize boosting and quoting weren’t the same. I’m not very familiar with this stuff.

fastfinge@rblind.com on 12 Sep 16:26 next collapse

How do those of us who loathe the horrific and proven bad idea of quote posts, and also refuse to use Mastodon, opt out of this terrible misfeature? Will blocking anyone who quote posts me and defederating from their instance remove the quote?

tomenzgg@midwest.social on 12 Sep 18:48 collapse

So part of the approach they’re using is this idea of permissions (at a technical level, it’s using the permission system that GoToSocial has been innovating on).

So, theoretically, they should not be able to quote-post you until given the green light from you.

I’ve noticed that quote-posts which come across my Mastodon timeline from implementations which don’t use this permissions system have now been displaying the quoted post as just the message, “This post is pending approval from the original author,” (I expect since most previously-existing implementations of the feature didn’t use said permission system, any).

fastfinge@rblind.com on 12 Sep 18:51 collapse

Perfect! Thanks for the info!

gedaliyah@lemmy.world on 12 Sep 16:29 next collapse

FWIW this was always an ideological choice, not a technical one. Masto users saw how quote-posts were used on other platforms to generate harassment, doxxing, dogpiling, etc. and chose not to include the feature. It’s hard to say whether it has had a cooling effect on those, but it seems like most people on Masto consider the benefits to outweigh the costs.

irelephant@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 12 Sep 18:41 next collapse

Quotes have been on the fediverse for ages. Mastodon is just catching up.

Fedizen@lemmy.world on 12 Sep 20:50 collapse

Heck yeah